“There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks and perceive differently than one sees is necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all” M Foucault.
In my line of work (my day job), I am involved with education and its relationship with technology. This work sees me in schools, universities, and other places of institutionalized learning operating as a consultant, assisting them to come to grips with the challenges technology poses to existing structures and its potential to change the way we teach and learn. The core of my work is centered on epistemology – the study of knowledge – and its relationship with the internet. When I present, I often speak of what knowledge is, where it resides, and what the implications are for teacher practice. I often get some very strong reactions from teachers. My opening statement generally goes along the lines of, “knowledge never resides in the individual; it resides in the network.”
By this, I mean that knowledge is not a tangible thing that can be transferred from one individual to another knowledge resides in the relationships. It is built up within the discourse (language or practice). While objects might physically exist outside of these discourses, any attempt to make sense of them is through discourse that is socially developed. Yet our education system with its practices related to curriculum and assessment of the individual, amongst other things, so often reflects a lack of understanding of this thinking. Many of you are familiar with the phrase ‘teacher as a facilitator rather than a teacher as expert’. When we talk of ‘teachers as facilitators’ (or even co-learners), not as experts, we are talking in this area; we are demonstrating an understanding and belief of learning that is framed within a participatory culture. By enabling that, we acknowledge that any connection with knowledge can happen only through participation in the networks. While the term and concept of “teacher as a facilitator rather than expert” is a concept that is familiar to many of us, it is still something challenging to do, and I see very little evidence of it being enacted within many classrooms. I often think that it is too hard to make this change because of the predetermined sense of identity built up by the discourse of the institutions that govern the concept of a “teacher/student” Below is a very typical argument a teacher will throw at me at conferences, or online, or during PD sessions when I start to talk about such matters. I am making no judgment of the argument because it took me a long time to understand this fairly abstract concept, and an argument is a form of active participation in the discourse. This discussion took place on a friend of mines Google + account, and I have added the screenshots.
A teachers response to a blog post I had written
My reply
His reply to my reply, unfortunately, he never responded. Although, as educators, I think It is paramount that we talk about these ideas, isn’t the concept of knowledge development central to our role? Furthermore, the conclusions we collectively reach will have enormous implications for how we do this thing called “teaching.”
What do you think?