Praxis

I've been thinking a lot about the practice of ideas. What is higher education about if not ideas - they are the most powerful thing in the world. Ideas are more powerful in the form of praxis, however, which can be thought of as practicing and embodying ideas. How many times have we heard the term ivory tower and can't help but conjur up the image of crusties (thanks for that word, Chris)! Those are professors who have become resistant to change and are unable to reflect on their own assumptions. They may well teach radical ideas in their classes or subscribe to progressive political ideologies, yet they remain conservative in their approach to policy and governance. They do not practice nor do they embody or model the ideas they have spent their lives teaching. Administrators can also be crusties.

According to John Tagg's golden rule, we have to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For me this means treating students with an unconditional, positive regard. If we want to produce socially integrated beings capable of empathy for fellow learners (rather than automatons who advance by accumulating knowledge such as how to test well in standardized tests) then we have to embody empathy, at least. Would we not want other people to be empathetic towards us? Learning on a deep level can often mean challenging ones assumptions and thus being vulnerable. Learners need to feel tremendously supported. I would like to think that my praxis is the targeted distribution of empathy in the classroom.

How do crusties become crusties? Is it a fact of the aging process? I don't think so (although some do get crusty on the outside!). Does an institution naturally turn everyone into a crusty? In some cases, probably 'yes.' Some institutions embody deep emotional and workplace violences that get passed on from employee to employee or employee to student. Oftentimes we can encounter rules and procedures constructed to defend against an attack of the worst case scenario, but they make our working lives a bit more hellish. Then people forget why that rule was there, so we dare not touch it in case someone goes to jail or the earth's crust cracks. Then people forget that they forgot and violences become normalized. Clearly, by this logic, we can also practice and embody bad ideas.

How do we break the chains of such negative forces in an institution so large and complex as a university? How do we change a place deeply alienated and maligned by its own culture?

We might begin by engaging stakeholders in re-describing the mission of an institution so that they feel some ownership or we could hire and fire and re-describe/re-title positions. All of that could be nothing more than window dressing, however, unless we can learn to embody the targeted distribution of empathy. At the very least we should try to practice what we preach.

Whither Learning?

John Tagg's The Learning Paradigm College hits the nail on the head when he presents key elements of an education system that is groaning under its own weight. Tagg clearly articulates the difference between learning and instruction as praxis* and as guiding principle in the everyday college experience. One need only look at the resources mobilized in the service of instructional support (rather than learning  support) - administrative staff whose sole purpose is to enable admission, process tuition and manage enrollment, among other clerical tasks. Clearly, there is a need for such mechanics in the running of colleges but according to Tagg it has gone too far. In many ways the structures of college administration has come to stand in for and supplant the focus on learning. Tagg also addresses the assumption that if content is delivered properly and efficiently and students can earn credits, that learning must have occurred in between. We assume and expect learning happens in the classroom but we don't always know that it does. We know that content delivery occurs because that is what is promised in a syllabus.

Tagg implores us to put learning back at the heart of what colleges do. I can't wait for this to happen, but as Tagg also suggests the change won't happen by waiting for someone else to do it. One has to model the change one wants to see in student learning. No more blaming someone else.

*Praxis - the embodiment or practice of theory.