Today I am going to post about something at ULearn14. It was very interesting and in some ways threatening as it hit at my core beliefs around teaching. But challenge is good and I hope you enjoy it.
At ULearn14 Professor Yoram Harpaz was one of the keynote speakers and honestly his message kind of terrified me. In some ways it made education seem so simple but the kind of transition our schools would need to undertake from mainstream to what he proposed potentially could be huge.
He explained that educational “theories” are ideologies - ideologies pretending to be scientific theories and that there were three of them. There are three meta ideologies and each has something very important, to me they all made sense. And then came the terrifying bit…
You have to choose.
No cherry picking the best bits. Just all in. In his opinion this was the only way to go.
The Three META IDEOLOGIES where:
- Socialization - Which was about equipping the child with skills and knowledge for their society.
- Acculturation - Where teachers shape the child’s values and characters to society.
- Individuation - In which we foster the autonomy and authenticity of the child. The child will fulfil themselves.
All of these made sense. We try and do many of these at different times in our classrooms. But I only get to pick one??
To me Socialization makes sense because it responds to the fact that we live in a society that has a culture, it has rules and expectations. We need to teach certain things too, reading, writing, the ability to follow instructions, so students can participate in our world. Yea, we see people who don’t fit the mold but don’t most of us follow those basic rules? Or are we being too conformist? Hmmm ok well maybe, but when we have to teach so many students we need some social conventions to keep order… right?
Ok, well Acculturation then… Sounds good. Teaching students through our values system. Teachers become model citizens for students to look up to. Letting them be themselves in ways that will contribute to our world. We guide from the side, help the students work through their learning while developing kindness and empathy. The skills aren't as important here as the values of being a lifelong learner, creative and collaborative, I’m sure we can find ways to teach and assess these values to show how well our students are going. This sounded good to me. Values help students become a positive force in the world. But it is still us picking what is important…
So the last theory; Individuation. This is where the student makes choices about their learning. Taking it to the point where they choose what, where and how they learn. This sounds crazy to me! Yes in a perfect world we would do this but we have a whole class! How does it work?
And so apparently now you have to choose. I know which one I would like to get to. Individuation sounds perfect. It would allow us to be culturally and academically responsive. Imagine our Maori and Pasifika students from the start of their education learning in their preferred style.
But how do you train for this? How do you prepare? If you are expecting answers then I apologise, I simply do not know. But Professor Yoram Harpaz said something that gave me hope that one day this kind of responsive practice is possible. It was his break down of what an idealogy was.
He broke it down into the structure of an ideology.
- First there was the Utopia: An imagined picture of an idea society. It helps to to make sense of our world and forms our system of beliefs
- Then the Diagnosis: What does the current world or situation look like?
- Next came the Strategy: This is how we change the actual world into the utopian world. What do we to reduce the gap? This is where the exciting part happens, where we use a blend of research, best practice and next practice to work out what we want and need to do to develop our vision.
- Finally there is the Collective: A social group who will carry out the change. This means us… Educators.
So we have a choice. We must pick one sysytem. Good schools stick to one ideology - one ethos. All parents, teachers and students ‘talk in one language’. The result is an well-educated adult.
Yoram Harpaz said “Education is sick because we are wanting to be Individuation, we mostly do Acculturation and really our system is based on Socialisation.” Maybe he is right. Maybe that's why we feel we sometimes go around in circles with what we do.
Thank you for reading this post. It was a controversial topic when I heard it and I am interested to see what other people think. The main message was there was no right answer, just so long as you pick ONE answer.
This post relates the the following Registered Teacher Criteria
5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning
9. respond effectively to the diverse language and cultural experiences, and the varied strengths, interests and needs of individuals and groups of ākonga
12. use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice
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