Teachers need to see themselves as change agents!

The human society keeps evolving. So does, as an effect, the collection of learners that we meet in the classroom. Every year it is different. The needs of the classroom also hence keep evolving. A teacher needs to respond to these needs on a continual basis. The only way is to take it as a challenge and follow the cycle: 

(a) Examine the situation

(b) Examine one’s ways of teaching

(c) Declutter the tool box of strategies and learn more

(d) Reflect and … back to step (a). 

But one needs a frame of reference as a base in order to avoid being tossed around by any thought process.

“I assume that amid all uncertainties there is one permanent frame of reference: namely, the organic connection between education and personal experience”, (Dewey).  For me, this frame of reference has been a multi-dimensional set of relationships for “We start our concern with the relation and not the individual”, (Randomactsofkindness). I have always believed that an interplay of individual and context is what leads to growth. In that way I am constructivist and “A core premise of constructivism is that cognitive processes (including thinking and learning) are situated (located) in physical and social contexts”, (Schunk, 2012). I am exploring multiple dimensions of relationships below.

  

Relationship with Oneself

To build a relationship with oneself would mean to keep growing more and more aware of oneself and integrate the new knowledge into existing schema. This would require a life where one is constantly facing new challenges for “…an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schema (assimilation)” (McLeod). In order to achieve again the sense of equilibrium, we make an effort and learn new tools for the same. For example, after teaching only Indians for years, when I stepped into an IB school, suddenly I faced learners from Korea who had varied levels of expertise of English. I was uncomfortable and had to increase my tools to be able to integrate methods to teach them.

We need to develop a deeply reflective approach to education. “Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom and giving it a meaning by attaching the why question to what you go through”, (Gatumu). Being able to reflect is a life skill and a need for me.

Relationship with Subject

For some maths is god! For some it is mandatory to learn. For some it is a subject to teach. A teacher must explore his or her relationship with the subject. It is the teacher’s passion that flows through to the students.

What is maths for me? It is poetry, it is frozen patterns, it is something that gives me a sense of ‘wow’ that I cannot explain. When I share with the students something like, ‘motion under the force of gravity is always one of the 4 conic sections’, I feel the sense of ‘wow, this is so amazing’ and that is transferred to the students.

Relationship with the Student

‘So you can teach maths. What else can you do for the students?’ Our IB school director would ask again and again. As I explored this question, the process led me to see the students differently.

I learnt the core value of relationship with students is to learn to connect beyond the subject, as human beings. I see now that “… connection is why we're here. It's what gives purpose and meaning to our lives”, (Brown). This has been the most beautiful journey for me and so well encapsulated by Brene!

Relationship with the Curriculum

I have a passion for maths. But I have a bigger passion for every student to maximize his or her potential in maths and in life. Hence for me, maths classes are a space where there is a positive learning environment that evokes all students to learn with joy. As maths brings in a lot of anxiety, I have “…an arsenal of strategies that would inoculate learners against the negative attitude by providing enough positive experiences”, (Gang).  I bring in a number of teaching methods to differentiate the curriculum and make it appealing to all kind of learners.

The new addition to my curricular expertise now is the realization that “A curriculum that makes intercultural competency an asset, rather than a deficit, can powerfully motivate…”, (Reimers). This is something I’d like to explore more as opportunities arise. I might, for example, check the cultural background of participants for a workshop and bring in streaks from the source.

Relationship with The Larger Community

Let us think “…about schools as systems of interdependent actors and processes, in which the most important outcomes, as in a symphony, are in the synergies that result from their interaction and collaboration”, (Reimers). We have colleagues, staff, leaders, management and parents as an extension. Technology has made it easy to collaborate with anyone across the world. I have, over the years, learnt the value of collaborating with the larger community and enjoy the synergy.

Relationship with The World

What is my place in the world and how do I create a better one? This is the new that I have learnt from this course. I see now the power of the IB schools to help build a relationship with the world that is based on a sense of open mind. This is the part that has made me feel a twinge of remorse at leaving the IB teaching. To be a travelling teacher, to give the space to be a part of an international eco system, to choose for oneself what one calls a ‘home’ in the world, this is so much more possible for an IB teacher.

The capacity to “…step outside one’s base culture and to understand there is no universally correct way to do things”, (Ranker) would be the ultimate freedom of being that one could hope to learn!

Conclusion

Relationship is the main frame of reference for me as explored above. What I have learnt from this course is how all the dimensions of relationships are multiple aspects of becoming and building global citizens through a global mind-set. That is the pivot that gives meaning to all that we do by integrating it around a core vision. To learn to live in harmony within any community anywhere in the world would be the point of omega that we are moving towards. The courage to develop “…the willingness to do something where there are no guarantees…”, (Brown).

I am grateful for coming to the vastness of the vision and looking forward to sharing it with my milieu. “An organized, bottom-up, teacher-led movement can advance global education in ways that advocates have been unable to do so far” (Reimers).