Why Teach?

Abstract

at BoulderRecently, Stanley Fish came to the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was the guest speaker at the annual "The Best Should Teach" lecture series with a talk titled "Save the World on Your Own Time." It was a provocative, intellectual, and theatrical event-classic Fish.In the talk, Fish maintained, among many other claims, that we should rid ourselves of the view of education as transformative. For Stanley Fish, the classroom and its teachers should not aspire to something so grand and ill-informed. Teaching is a job. University education ought to be aimed at understanding disciplinary frameworks. It isn't transformativesocially or politically. As we listened, we found ourselves agreeing and disagreeing with Professor Fish. Here, we want to propose that a teacher education can and should be guided by a goal of transformation. But the goal we have in mind differs from its current use in teacher education, where future teachers are purportedly prepared for social and political transformation. Frequently, social justice is the clarion call and schools of education, along with our K-12 public schools, are the proposed terrain for the battle. We would like to offer a distinctly different understanding of the transformative power of teacher educationone that could go against the grain of the established teacher education orthodoxy but one that is neither apolitical nor doctrinaire. Our proposal might be, we admit, a long shot for our profession.First, though, we offer an aside about educational traditions. Educational goals and purposes vary and yet most educational thinkers propose that education should change students in purposeful ways. Many claim that schooling and the education contained within should transform students. In oversimplified terms, we have inherited distinct educational traditions.Conservatives (e.g., Hirsch, 1999;Hirst, 1965;Oakeshott, 1989) maintain that a proper education needs to convey to students the knowledge and cognitive frameworks that have guided and engaged others in the past. Knowledge, as either information or disciplinary ways of knowing and understanding, provides maps of the world and past human understandings. Students are changed (transformed?) when they engage these understandings and this information. Students become more fully human when they reflectively participate in the human (i.e., humanist) Authors' Note: We wish to think the Fetzer Institute for their financial support of the grant titled "Conceptualizing, Mapping, and Empirically Investigating Transformative Professional Development." This editorial drew on work from that project.

Assessing Emotional Intelligence and Its Impact in Caring Professions: The Value of a Mixed-Methods Approach in Emotional Intelligence Work with Teachers

“…Critics of the current system recognise the need to better prepare student teachers to meet the challenges associated with the profession and have highlighted the gaps in teacher education programs in addressing some of the current research on teachers' emotions (Brookhart & Freeman, 1992;Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991;Goodlad, 1990;Kagan, 1992;Meyer, 2009a;Stuart & Thurlow, 2000). Some of the work that has been done on emotion in teacher education has proposed models that would require considerable change to and investment from programs, such as coaching/counselling models (Hoekstra & Korthagen, 2011) or teacher retreat models (Whitcomb, Borko, & Liston, 2008). This research shows that emotional competences and skills can be readily developed in preservice teacher education by providing students with a framework with which to make sense of and process the emotional experiences of being a student teacher.…”

How emotionally intelligent are pre-service teachers?

“…Engaging in and debriefing each other when involved in role-playing activities in which they seek to act out non-verbally a particular emotional response to a scenario may also be valuable activities to help develop this skill area. The role of meditation in aiding an awareness of emotions has been highlighted (Whitcomb et al, 2008), while Hoekstra and Korthagen (2011) have highlighted that feedback to teachers on the emotions they appear to be displaying in a coaching context can aid the awareness of emotions.…”

“…Furthermore, the emotional skills of teachers' influences student conduct, engagement, attachment to school, and academic performance (Baker, 1999;Duckworth, Kirby, Gollwitzer, & Oettingen, in press;Hawkins, 1999;Schaps, Battistich, & Solomon, 1996;Wentzel, 2002). The ability to perceive emotion in self and others has repeatedly been identified as important for teachers (Roseik, 2003;Intrator, 2006;Helsing, 2007;Whitcomb et al, 2008). Recognising that different emotional states can facilitate or hinder different cognitive processes (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987;Palfai & Salovey, 1993) also means that the ability to regulate emotions in the self and others is likely to have importance for teachers (Corcoran & Tormey, in press).…”

“…As a result, there is a growing body of literature looking at the emotional context of teaching, learning and learning to teach (Boyle, Borg, Falzon, & Baglioni, 1995;Bullough, Knowles, & Crow, 1991;Emmer, 1994;Erb, 2002;Evelein, Korthagen, & Brekelmans, 2008;Hargreaves, 1998Hargreaves, , 2000Helsing, 2007;Hoekstra & Korthagen, 2011;Intrator, 2006;Kyriacou, 1987Kyriacou, , 1998Lortie, 1975;Meyer, 2009;Rosiek, 2003;van Dick & Wagner, 2001). There has also been some focus on the sort of teacher education needed to support the development of teachers who can utilise emotions effectively (Intrator, 2006;Rosiek, 2003;Whitcomb, Borko, & Liston, 2008).…”

An analysis of teachers perceptions through metaphors: Prospective Turkish teachers of science, math and social science in secondary education

“…Describing teachers as "tour guides" who take students to new places are also included in this class (Whitcomb et al, 2008).…”