Without an integration of talented minds from different backgrounds, universities remain in crisis and will continue to cling to traditions that fail the young. George H. Douglas said it best in Education without Impact:
"The American university as we know it today is not an ideal community …. The young may enjoy themselves on campus… they may even learn a lot, but … they don’t .. interact with the academic world. Most rapidly conclude that they are sojourners at university, not key players, that the university seems to be made by others for others-researchers, espousers of trendy political causes, grant seekers, elusive pedagogues, distracted graduate students working on Ph.D.’s, tunnel-vision specialists, administrators clinging to their tiny patch of ground like a drowning person clinging to flotsam. .., the young come to college looking for interesting and inspiring adults who will help them to make a spirited transition to adulthood, but for the most part they must abide the kind of process-teaching they have been accustomed to throughout their lives…."
One significant shift underway - brain based approaches - moves university learning from; delivery to engagement, from isolation to collaboration, from hierarchy to mutual accountability, from bureaucracy to flexibility, from tenure to risk-taking and from delivering facts to inspiring curiosity. Time has come to appeal to the university community’s collective genius to return authenticity to the college campus in ways that reconnect learners and leaders to more current frontiers. The challenge presents both problems and possibility to a modern campus.
What do you think of teaching across differences to engage counterpoints skillfully - and resolve real problems with those who differ? Ellen
Ellen,
First, I agree with your assessment of the university... it is a self imposed withering of relevance that plagues academia across the project. When I think of teaching across differences, I think of creating opportunities, as Barnett (2011) articulated, to co-construct knowledge across boundaries. As an administrator, the entrenched differences of diverse student audiences often causes intersectional conflict, if only as a result of non intentional misunderstandings. One understanding Barnett came too that I appreciate very much is that of being "teacher-centric, even ego-centric" (p. 670), rather than student- focused, even I believe, while trying to be student centered. At many levels, Barnett hits on salient issues. The tendency for most of the teachers with which I engage professionally, is to exercise their right over curriculum, and their right over interpretation. I think it is difficult to unpack the understandings of students -- and teachers -- who represent otherness, but it is important, I believe, to speak about those nuances of worldview with an eye towards building bridges of recognition, if not acceptance and tolerance, although those goals exist. Perhaps they come later... I also have found that it is often difficult to name those differences in a classroom setting, perhaps because of existing assumptions which drive how one person understands another. Because of that, actualizing words like inclusion, equity, justice, fairness, and trust, as predicates to engagement, is made more difficult. I would love further discussion on this part of your post.
There is also the question of what role the university should undertake on a more macro scale, and which is inherent in your posting. I am concerned that we have become more commoditized in what we do, and thus more beholden to the politico-economic shifts underway. There is an intrinsic danger in that... much of which results from funding streams, and so forth.
Thank you for your thought provoking question.
jb
Reference
Barnett, P.E. (2011). Discussions across difference: Addressing the affective dimensions of teaching diverse students about diversity. Teaching in Higher Education, (16)6, p 669-679.
Hi Ellen,
thank you for your post. The 'Brain Based Approaches' you mention are all I would love to see being put into practice. The difficulty lies in that it requires a complete shift in the basic purpose of Education. Engaging in it and changing the purpose of Education - while Education is not defined by Education professionals alone - is a lengthy process and requires determination and perseverance. But I know by experience that many Education professionals see that perspective open.
It is interesting, that two-centuries ago, many Education theorists and experimentalists were developing such methods requiring self-education by research monitored ONLY by a teacher acting as a helpful supervisor (I would not even call it a teacher). Interaction between students, hands-on activities were at the core of the active learning - even at the highest level of Education. I love the example of Jean Joseph Jacotot (1770 - 1840) who manage to effectively teach subjects he did not even master himself - his main and only aim was to turn the student into an actively learning human person - and not a machine as the student was making its own way into the subject.
This of course was in the continuation of the Enlightment movement and ideas that professed the need for people to think by themselves in order to reach their full human potential. But the fires of revolt soon led to the development of an Education aiming primarily to crowd control through mind formatting to common social norms.
Today we may need a new elan. I see a possibility through the new brain sciences that provide 'concrete' evidence of our human diversity. The more we look into the brain, the more we realize that brains function differently from one person to the other. The danger now is what will science do with those new techniques. We are at a fork in the road: either we follow the path of diversity or we follow the path of normalization.
A shift in Education in the way you mention is what I would hope for - but it has deep societal implications and is bound to meet adversity - from within the Education world but even more forcefully from outside. Such a shift should be put in practice first, without waiting for a green light from above, and argued after hoping for a decision to be made.
A university is a microcosm of society. What happened in the academe is a reflection of the true image of the world. As such, teaching must be in a way which caters to the needs of not just one sector but as much as possible, the whole gamut of social dynamics. A common mistake of educators is to think that students are just like cups that only needs to be filled-up with the requisite skills and knowledge as provided in the curriculum.
Education must be viewed as a system which is a way to expose the students to the realities of life. This means that cultural diversity should be put into context in all academic undertakings. Students, whatever their socio-cultural, economic and political leanings, must be guided to a proper perspective, specifically, nurturing their desired career and profession, considering that human potential is limitless.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Physiology
- Physiological Processes
- Stress