Re: Boundary object
sveggetti who-is-at axrma.uniroma1.it
Fri, 31 Oct 1997 20:07:44 +0100
At 18.00 28/10/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Teacher's mantra: "once you close the door to that classroom, you
>can do whatever you want." I cannot begin to tell you how many times
>I have heard this. There is a control-management paradox at play, between
>the school, the curriculum, the teacher, and the kids - no teacher wants
>to be "watched"...while she/he juggles the impossible task of teaching.
>That's why teachers work alone. When the physical space prohibits that
>privacy, the privacy is either created artifically, or by setting up
>borders to delineate teacher's spaces. Teaching is impossible: doing the
>impossible in any public forum, or with another teacher, is, in a word:
>terrifying.
>
>diane ("Just wait 'til you're a teacher: once that door is closed, you can do
>whatever you want..." ah. It echoes still.)
>
>
>At 10:51 AM 10/28/97, Stephen Eric Van Hoose wrote:
>>Peter, you wrote:
>>
>>The first high school I taught in
>>had an open classroom design which was justified in terms of how it would
>>end restrictions on how we think about learning, disenclose our minds,
>>promote open dialogue, etc. Yet teachers did their best to construct as
>>many barriers as possible between their class and others. Administrators
>>used the structure to keep tabs on teachers with "bad attitudes."
>>
>>
>>With the new development of the open classroom school, why is it that all
the
>>teachers tried to construct as many barriers as possible to create for
>>themselves "new rooms" ? My fiancee, an El. Ed. major at the College of
>>Saint Rose, also mentioned something to me about how teachers created rooms
>>of their own by putting up barriers and such. She shared with me a little
>>fact that these schools were built around the ideas of team teaching, but
>>yet, teachers did not want to be part of this method of teaching. Is this
>>true? What are some of the underlying problems to this spatial
arrangement of
>>the open classroom? What are some of the current philosophies on education
>>these days and where it might be heading in the future?
>>
>>--STephen Van Hoose
>
>"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right."
>Ani Difranco
>*********************************
>diane celia hodges
> faculty of education
> university of british columbia
> vancouver, bc canada
>tel: (604)-253-4807
>email: dchodges who-is-at interchange.ubc.ca
>
>
Dear Diane I know the story about the fact that a teacher once in the
classroom can close the door and do whatever. In my country may be this the
true problem. I had the opportunity of teaching at many different age
levels along my life, from the middle high school to the high school.Now
I'm teaching at the university and again at different age levels coming
to the doctoral courses. What I can say is following: the only moment in
which I felt well supported in my teaching was when we had both in the
schools and at the university the experience of a joint teaching with some
colleague.For exemple teaching Italian literature and physics in the high
school or psychology and physics in the first years of the medical faculty.
I began to think that perhaps this can be explained by the core of
teaching/learning actiity, which is, according to the AT approach
(Leont'ev,Davydov,a.s.o.) a form of social production. Anyway let me
communicate to you that I'm following your debating with a real concern and
interest! Serena Veggetti>