Education and training

While studying for a Masters degree at a prestigious UK University my tutors were social scientists. After several chats my understanding of their approach to academic writing was:

1. write your story using a number of your ideas
2. review the literature to find what has already been written on the topic
3. gather quotes that can replace your original text 
4. drop any ideas that are not in the department’s recommended reading list

This links to the idea that every clause and sentence needs objective referencing. Emotional and subjective rants were not really appropriate despite the innovative course outline suggesting that a main objective was to have the students express themselves freely. But there was to be no rocking of the establishment boat. Their slogan might well have been “Be reasonable, do it our way”.

This was education as one way bucket filling. The role of the student is not to think originally or to emote but rather to calmly and rationally absorb the conventional wisdom of the dominant group (COWDUNG) and to regurgitate it throughout their post-student life.

Lesser academics repeat their lectures year after year. They resist change. So do most other people. The common desire is for the ends to be tied together so as to reduce uncertainty and doubt.

• “Good ideas close lazy minds.”
• “Keep the peasants in ignorance.”
• “Revere your elders and betters who are the good and great.”
• “That man thinks too much, such men are dangerous.”
• “Neurotic nihilists living in existential vacuums”

I have several degrees and have written many essays and theses; I have also supervised and edited the writing of many other people in six countries.

During my early work years I was an enthusiastic purveyor of the hegemonic discourse that builds on Western humanity’s cumulative tradition. My ‘self’ was put on the back burner while I herded the intellectual cows of the global elite.

Many years ago I participated in a conference in the S Sudan where the concept of “education for all” was being promoted to representatives of various pastoralist cultures in which primary school attendance was very low. The conversation went something like this:

A – You have to send your children to primary school.
B – Why?
A – Because the Universal Declaration of human rights says so.
B – So who made this universal declaration?
A – A group of wise elders representing many nations
B – Were there any pastoralists in the group?
A – No.
B – Were there any Africans in the group?
A – No
B – Were there any women in the group?
A – No
B – So is it acceptable to call it a Universal Declaration?
A – In terms of modern development, universal primary education represents a well nigh universal aspiration
B – It is not an aspiration among pastoralists in the S Sudan
A – Hmm.

I was awe-struck by the pastoralists. They knew that they were God’s chosen people and they laughed themselves silly at the sight of sweat encrusted white men travelling around in noisy metal boxes on pot holed roads.

Real people walk naked through the swamps with their cattle. Primary school could only poison the minds of sons and daughters. Respect.

But time is not standing still for the pastoralists. They are being swamped by modernity (becoming like America).

But, theoretically at least, there are educational options. There is a continuum with subject-centred vocational skills training at one end and student-centred enlightenment at the other. In many places there is a move away from traditional towards experiential learning (see box)

To see six of my one-page articles summarizing recent trends in education follow the link
http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/nutshell/trends1.htm

I am not writing these blog posts in fastidious, academic style. But I am now over 60 and I have a long track record in education and writing. There is thus the possibility of credibility when I say that “I think” without quoting other people or using footnotes and references. If a reader wants to follow through on particular points they can comment on the blog, email me, or consult Google and Wikipedia.

The agency for most of the more recent writing has been the unconscious. It is seemingly well organized. These days I do not rationally plan what I write. I sit at the computer, ideas arrive sentence and paragraph at a time, and I write them down. Then more arrive. Thus the story grows – but I try to keep it to under 700 words.

It is not so much ‘teacher teach yourself’ as ‘teacher facilitate your own learning’.

There is peace, pleasure and arguably wisdom to be had when slow and in ‘flow’ and being outwith self, time and space.

There is experiential learning from a different paradigm. It sits well with my gray hair!