Culture Shock and Disillusionment
In the wake of Friday’s Learning and Teaching Forum I’ve been experiencing a growing sensation that I’ve been unable to shake. The best way that I can articulate it is to say that certain elements of the forum for me yielded a rude awakening to the realities of the traditionalist educational culture. They also highlighted just how incredibly out of sync I am with elements of the wider academic community and in many regards have left me wondering where I go from here.
This is not to say that this moment of clarity has shaken the resolve I hold in my beliefs about what education and learning should be, nor where educational technology, social media, open education, personal learning environments, networked learning, and the right of each individual to explore their own learning paths sit in the scheme of things. Quite the contrary, if anything it’s strengthened them. No, instead for the first time in perhaps my entire career I’m having trouble recognising where I sit in the landscape of formal education, and what my future is here.
To use our Solar System as an analogy for the range of view points on education in the room on Friday. If the Sun were used to represent traditional views on education, learning and teaching – I’m Pluto. This analogy is all the more eerie given Pluto is officially no longer considered a planet, and is now relegated to the status of “dwarf planet.”
How on Earth can I make a difference and affect change in a culture that is almost diametrically opposed to my way of thinking? How can I reconcile the growing notion that so much of the culture I am currently situated in, I completely disagree with, and likewise disagrees with me? Quite literally I’m grasping at straws for an answer right now.
I need to feel I’m making a difference to people, and contributing to their lives in a positive way in order to realise value in the work that I do. This is the source of my passion, my enthusiasm, my drive to persevere in the face of adversity, and indeed represents the beacon that I focus on when all other certainties have disappeared. If I can’t see any relevance for my opinions and values, nor any positive impact for my efforts – then there is no place for me.
I want to believe there is a place for me, and I have not given up yet. But the fact remains that Friday’s forum inadvertently made me realise I have been living in a bubble about the way institutions work, and it has shaken me to the core. I always knew that the culture existed; but never has it been so starkly revealed to me.
Yet despite that that there were also brightly burning beacons at the Forum that were cause for hope. Quite a few come to mind in that respect, but Richard Buckland eclipses them all. If I could bottle the passion and altruistic dedication to learning and his students that he exemplified during his 1 minute poster introduction, I firmly believe that the face of education could be changed forever.
One quote in particular he said completely resonated with me. While I can’t say that I’m repeating his comments verbatim – because I’m almost certainly not – the gist of it goes something like this:
“When we view our students as the enemy, teaching becomes an excruciating process. However when we begin to view them as friends, collaborators, co-learners, and peers, and given them as much flexibility and opportunity to explore and grow as we possibly can, then teaching suddenly becomes the easiest job in the world.”
I may be gushing a bit here, but truly his speech gave me hope and inspired me to dig down and reconnect with my own sources of enthusiasm and passion. And in times like this, when disillusionment, doubt and uncertainty cloud our vision and judgment, and lead us to question all that we know or think we know, hope is the most powerful thing there is.
In re-reading what I’ve written above, it’s quite clear that the tone and mood of this post is that of despondency – and in that sense is extremely out of character for this blog. However I’ve come to believe that openness means sharing and discussing times of uncertainty and doubt as much as confidence and vigor, because people benefit from – and indeed need – examples of both.
I have a couple of quick responses to choose from:
- welcome to my world
- don't knock disillusionment; it leads to growth
and the one I'll use
- that's why I live in San Diego County
You wrote:
“How on Earth can I make a difference and affect change in a culture that is almost diametrically opposed to my way of thinking?”
That is the only place you *can* affect change. What, you want to live in a place where everyone thinks like you? what kind of help could you provide there? [Note: I grew up in Bakersfield, conservative armpit of California, but I've been a radical all my life. Went to school in Santa Barbara, which was relaxing, but now in north San Diego County, I'm again surrounded by conservative thinking. Where else would I want to have an influence?]
I responded in Facebook about workshops themselves; let me add here that I think it's time to co-opt your “brightly burning beacons” into giving workshops.
Remember what Stephen Downes said about modeling? It's awfully important. You all modeled with Etherpad.
So here's the wrapup. Teachers forever do not know what influence they have. The “positive impacts” of your efforts as a teacher (which is what you were) don't get revealed to you during the session. Some, maybe just a few, of your session participants got exposed to something, and it will become significant to them later, probably while they're doing something else. It could end up having great meaning in their lives. You won't know this. That's how the game goes.
And yeah, anytime you want to come down off that ed tech high and get real, we're here for you, babe.
It was actually encouraging and comforting to me to know that someone else feels the same disillusionment and frustration that I do. But I do think there's hope for change — it's just going to take a long time. People are very unwilling to change, or even admit there's a possibility they could be doing things better. I'm converting one at a time. Hang in there!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by lbott. lbott said: Reading excellent blog post by @mbogle: Culture Shock and Disillusionment – http://techticker.net/AF [...]
Thanks Lauren
Your first sentence was one of the main reasons for sharing my train of thought. I find personally that witnessing or observing how people approach failure or adversity are as valuable an experience or example as how they handle successes – sometimes even more so.
And of course too, by discussing the areas where we're having trouble or confusion, we put ourselves in a position where others can begin to share their experiences or thoughts on the matter and add an additional layer of perspective that would have been absence otherwise.
The half-dozen @replies I saw on Twitter when I logged in this morning are testimony to that. The social power of social media is an amazing thing.
Some really valuable thoughts here, Lisa. Thanks very much for this! Quite literally in several places I thought “ooooooh that's deep.”
For example, the thought had never occurred to me that this “…is the only place you *can* affect change.” I was so caught up in melancholy navel-gazing about the fact “nobody agrees with me” (which isn't necessarily true anyway) that I overlooked the fact that if everyone did agree with me there would be no need for change – it would have already taken place. Great point
Secondly, and more importantly, your point about the positive impacts of our efforts not being immediately revealed. Quite true again. It's all too easy to take see the voices of criticism (or indeed those who agree with you) as being representative of an entire group – and yet that's not necessarily the case.
More than likely there is a range of opinion on the matter, with only a select few feeling compelled or confident enough to make their opinions known. Blogging is a lot like that too come to think of it.
The recurring theme I've seen in response to this is the notion that change takes time. People need space and opportunity to internalise new concepts and ideas, synthesize and make sense of them and determine how it might relate or assist in their local context.
You also can't expect to please everyone anyway, or expect that everyone will agree with you. That's just not realistic either.
Finally, me, a “teacher?” That is a truly frightening thought – for the world mind you, not so much me
Thanks for the comment – seeing things from your perspective has helped tremendously.
Another view point to consider:
This lobby for change has been going on for a while now, converting people along its way. Now only the silly ones remain – the last mile will be the hardest.
Hi Mike,
You mentioned “hope is the most powerful thing there is.” and immediately I thought back to a post by Barbara Ganley who wrote eloquently about hope and beyond hope– it so resonated with me that luckily I quoted from her blog since it is now gone. She quotes Derrick Jensen: “All these false hopes bind us to unlivable situations, and blind us to real possibilities When we realize the degree of agency we actually do have, we no longer have to hope at all. We simply do the work.”
I go back to the post in which I quoted Barbara Ganley often since her blog at Middlebury is gone and wonder if her thoughts might have any value to you: http://possibilitiesabound.blogspot.com/2006/06...
Best,
Lani
[...] made a nice network of folks from that class as well. One of them, Mike Bogle, wrote a post a couple of days ago that describes part of how I feel. In the post he said this: How on Earth can I make a difference [...]
RE: @lbott Thanks Lauren
Your first sentence was one of the main reasons for sharing my train of thought. I find p… http://disq.us/d0pl
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RE: @LisaMLane Some really valuable thoughts here, Lisa. Thanks very much for this! Quite literally in several places… http://disq.us/d0q0
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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