Teaching: What's it Really All About?

So... what is teaching really all about? What are the highlights? What are the challenges teachers face? How is one to cope? These questions and many more are answered in Stephen Brookfield's book entitled: The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. In the first chapter of the book, he explains how the college classrooms of today are more diverse than ever before. This is in part due to the explosion of social media and online learning. Not to mention the wide array of cultural diversity of our learners in our schools and online. With globalization and internationalization in the mainstream of higher education these days - there is bound to be a rich blend of diversity throughout the fabric in which education lives . Mix this together and you get teaching that is a "gloriously messy pursuit in which shock, contradiction, and risk are endemic." (2015, p. 1). Now.. having said this... who wouldn't want to take on this challenge of teaching? Every day will most certainly be interesting. And,we know there are the intrinsic rewards of sharing one's knowledge and seeing another person grow. However, as Brookfield notes, he describes it as one who muddles through situations when no clear guidelines exist. This becomes one's learning curve. He talks about an incident on his second day of teaching where a fistfight broke out in his classroom. No course he took provided him with this type of scenario in which to practice. He had to rely on his own learning toolkit to utilize his reasoning skills and solve the situation - which he did, to his surprise. As you read onward, you quickly realize that Stephen is coming from a skeptical opinionated perspective. And, this is ok... he fully discloses this and provides supporting research to back his claim. He talks about how teaching is "riddled with irresolvable dilemmas and complex uncertainties" (p. 2) and how one must strike the right balance in becoming supportive of students and their learning, as well as challenging them with tasks to enhance their learning to allow them to grow.

Brookfield uses the metaphor of white water rafting to describe teaching. He explains that there will be ups and downs, times of turbulence when you have an unruly class -and times of tranquility when the lesson is done, and students have learned the material. You can see that he is writing from honesty and not sugar-coating the profession. And this is good. This is the reality that new instructors, like myself, need to know. He continues on and explains that in his 20 years teaching he has also failed. This statement in itself is comforting to hear from a newbie as myself. It means that it is ok to fail.. and one probably will.. but what is most important here is... one needs to reflect on the failure, learn from it, reassess, and change what you can. He continues on to talk about the growing into the truth of teaching - whereby one develops "a trust, a sense of intuitive confidence, in the accuracy and validity of our judgments and insights" (p. 9). He goes on to list some of those truths such as "I will never be able to initiate activities that keep all students engaged all the time." "The regular use of examples, anecdotes, and autobiographical illustrations in explaining difficult concepts is strongly appreciated by students." And, my favourite - "I always have power in the classroom and I can never be a fly on the wall withering away to the point that students don't notice I'm in the room" (p. 9). Upon reading the chapter has left me with some valuable insights about teaching which I really appreciate. Being a positive person, who always sees the glass half-full, it is sometimes good to see things through a different lens. This lens is one of reality. As much as I want to believe that all my students are going to grow and learn - the actual truth is, I may not be able to successfully reach them all. And, I need to know and be prepared for this. I also need to know that I can only do my best... listen to my intuition and stay open-minded with my positive outlook and know full-well that I can and will make a difference in someone's learning. That's all I can ask. The rapids will settle, the waters will calm, and the thrill of the educational journey will be something to happily reflect upon.

Reference: Brookfield, Stephen D. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, CA.