A story of interruption.
Highlighting the ideological tensions of teaching.
Listen to the podcast segment of Ideology in Education (at 15:27) based on this blog post for the Teacher’s Education Review below 👇.
The story.
It was during a Year 12 Psychology class, exploring some of the interventions used in the treatment of specific phobias.
I began to talk through the various kinds of benzodiazepines used to manage anxiety, when I figured it would be of benefit to share some of my experience in relation to anxiety and benzodiazepines. I do not suffer from an anxiety disorder, however in the past I have used benzodiazepines as a means of managing anxiety I have had in relation to plane travel. I began to share about my experience, but then something unexpected happened…
I heard some giggling.
A few comments about “Mr Mahoney being scared of planes” and more giggles.
Aware that my vulnerability was not being taken seriously I quickly moved on to the next slide, without finishing my story.
But it was during a 15-minute video on the spiritual aspects of breathing I was having my students watch that I began an inner dialogue with myself about my role as a teacher in this moment.
“It’s not your job to share your experience, you’re giving them what they need to know. Just move on from this.”
“Really? But we literally just explored the impact of stigma upon those with anxiety disorders and here is an opportunity to point to the way stigma can be so easily ingrained in culture.”
Back and forth it went.
“What is my role as a teacher?”
“Can I even let this go if I wanted to?”
“What is my responsibility here?”
I was torn between the ideological tensions in my profession. On the one side, a faithful technician of learning, whose role is to embed learning outcomes in their students in the most effective way possible. Even go so far to say as a guide on the side if you will. On the other, a desire to educate, to interrupt students’ perspectives and bring them something that cannot be pre-determined in a curriculum document.
My heart was pounding. It was a good sign.
Following the video I took a minute to express my feelings of disappointment and hurt that I felt in not being able to share my story openly. I pointed to the word stigma on the board and highlighted the reality of this in our world, in the everyday. It was an opportunity to interrupt the social norms and bring to life the reality of the knowledge they had been consuming.
There was an apology by one and a general silence in the room. Maybe it made a difference, maybe it didn’t, but I think it was worth it.
Education as interruption.
When it comes to education, Biesta (2006, p. 148) argues that teachers must not ‘simply stand aside and let things happen’ but take responsibility to address the individuals that come before us in our classrooms. Teachers, educating through interruption, seek to confront students with the reality of theirs and other’s subjectivity (Biesta, 2017).
My story here highlights how my desire to enact interruption in my practice is more than just engaging in educational philosophy, it is becoming a reality that I am traversing through.
Hence my naming this outlet, The Interruption. It is my hope that my humble writings might contribute to the dialogue surrounding education and its purpose and to interrupt mine, as well as others’ assumptions of what it means to teach.
Till next time.
References
Biesta, G. (2006). Beyond Learning : Democratic Education for a Human Future. Taylor & Francis Group.
Biesta, G. (2017), The Rediscovery of Teaching, Taylor & Francis Group.
gr8 insight Tom, i think it was worth it too.
I love it. I love the meaning that it provided to the students, not just a discrete piece of knowledge for the test, exam, assignment, etc. It connected the knowledge to thought, feelings, fear, reality... a person. In my opinion I think, for the most part, students appreciate that reality and vulnerability too.