A refection of experience on attributes (critical thinking) of teachers and challenges as a teacher’s educator.

Education is a normative pursuit. Its understanding needs serious philosophical examination and discourse. Aims of education; meaning and concept of education; being educated; educating; relationship between teacher and pupil; teaching-learning relationship; attributes of teacher etc., all need clear philosophical analyses. Thinkers like RS Peters define education as the achievement of something worthwhile and desirable (valuable). Various documents like the National Curriculum Framework, 2005 state that education should aim to bring about commitment to democracy and its values of equality, justice, freedom, concern for others’ well-being, secularism, respect for human dignity and rights. It is said that education should aim to build a commitment to these values, which are based on reason and understanding. However, the notorious regime of the Nazis shook humanity when their education, in the words of Wiesel, ‘…emphasized theories instead of values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather than conscience’. The above two views indicate the possibilities of education becoming a means to either virtuous or vicious ends, despite the claim that education is a normative pursuit. Determining factors in stopping education used as instrument for creating a chauvinist and undemocratic society is to promote all qualities antagonistic to irrationalism, bigotry, injustice, ignorance and atrocities. How is this possible? The deciding factors of this possibilities heavily shoulder on many attributes of teacher in general and in particular the attribute of being a critical individual. However this attribute does not thrive in isolation but depend on many other factors. How is it possible to realize aims of education without these attributes imbedded in teacher and then cultivated by student? How is it possible to bring about critical and autonomous individuals through education when the teacher is himself not a critical individual? Can we teach or train someone to be critical?
A visionary document like the National Curriculum Framework for Teachers Education (NCFTE), 2010 regards teachers as individuals who critically examine curriculum and textbooks, do not treat knowledge as a ‘given’, are embedded in the curriculum and accept it without questioning, a reflective practitioner who questions one’s own practice and thoughts, who view learning as a search for meaning out of personal experiences and knowledge generation as a continuously evolving process of reflective learning. According to this document, all these attributes can be realized if both students and teachers get the opportunity to inculcate understanding the self and others, one’s beliefs, assumptions, emotions and aspirations. Develop habits and the capacity for self-directed learning, have time to think, reflect, assimilate and articulate new ideas. But, this vision is far from being realized. The realities in the school are steeply different from the vision. It is a matter of grave concern. Various researches and publications regarding the learning level of students and the quality of B.Ed. institutes confirms these concerns.
The characteristics that aggravate these concerns are played out in rhetoric manner as well as in subtle ways. Both rhetoric and subtle spectacle are shared and understand as a majority views in teacher’s community. Many of the teachers’ views about students, education, learning, and teachers are very much
the same. The similarity is not just limited to conceptual understanding but the exactness of language used by the teacher community as well. For example –
Regarding students – Bacche teen prakar ke hote hain – hoshiyar , saamanya aur bhondu; Sab bacche alag-alag hote hain/paachon ungliyan barabar nahin hoti hain; Humare paas jo bacche aate hain, unka base kharab hai…
Regarding education – Pehle toh sab kuch bahut accha tha/hum toh aise hi padhe hain; Acchi shiksha ka matlab hai – pratiyogi-pariksha pass karna aur naukri lagna; Sarkari school mein wo bacche aate hain jinme shiksha ki bhuk nahin hoti/MDM ke liye aate hain…
Regarding learning – Bacche tabhi seekhenge jab hum unhe sikhaenge; Jab tak maa-baap padhe-likhe nahin hote, bacche nahin seekh sakte; Jab tak bacchon par pareeksha/fail/dandit hone ka darr nahin hoga, tab tak wo nahin seekhenge; Seekhna hamesha anushaasan ke maahaul mein hota hai; Baar-baar dohraane se aatmsaad ho jaata hai…
Regarding teacher – Humko toh madari/bawarchi bana diya hai, Shikshak ke haath bandhe hue hote hain, Non-academic work hata dijiye toh gunvatta apne aap aa jayegi, Bacche tabhi seekhenge jab hum unhe sikhaenge.
The claim that most of the teachers share the same view might be an exaggeration but, the weightage lays in the fact that these are the views shared clearly and loudly in any teachers’ platform, be it teachers training, voluntary forums or one-to-one interaction. Counter-views hardly find space for deliberation. The manner in which the above views are shared is also quite inert. Teachers with years of experience and even newly appointed share the same views and same language.
Lack of coherence in the argument of the views is another intriguing character. For example, the same group of teachers which shares the view that ‘Bacche tabhi seekhenge jab hum unhe sikhaaenge’ also share the view that ‘Jab tak maa-baap padhe-likhe nahin hote, bacche nahin seekh sakte’. The former statement is spoken to convey the message that children cannot learn themselves and they would only learn when teachers taught them. There are two more underlying assumptions in this statement – that is child is not a natural learner and the teacher is the giver of knowledge, while the student the receiver. On the other hand, the latter statement stands by the opinion that the efforts by the teacher to make students learn do not matter unless the parents are not educated. Both the statements directly defeat one other. Why are so many teachers asking the wrong questions? Why are they not asking the necessary questions? For example, teachers who say ‘Abhi sab kharaab hai aur pehle toh sab kuch bahut accha tha’ would never care to ask and inquire which time period they mean as ‘the past’ and what is their definition of ‘accha’. If these notions are probed even a little, their vagueness is revealed. The ‘past’ and ‘accha’ traces back to mythology or a time period when education was not available for all it was merely an imperial objective.
However, disquieting the situation reveals that there are teachers who have unique and personalized, well-articulated views about children, education, learning and teachers. The vocabulary used by them reflects their emphatic view about children and a critical view about themselves. Their inquiries have a logical flow and are not arbitrary in nature. A dialectic conversation could be done with
them. The differences between these two groups of teachers can be identified from the way they frame their questions even though they work in the same system and face the same challenges and limitations. To be emphatic, their existential challenges are huge and so possibilities of clouding the concern of what ought to be, a perspective and abstract thought. The former group often ignores the right questions. A second order of questions is never asked. There is no difference seen in doing the right things right and doing the right things wrong. No difference is seen between education and indoctrination, schooling and educating, teaching and learning, instrumental and intrinsic value of education etc. The difficulty with encouraging critical thinking among teachers is succinctly pointed out by John Passmore. First, teachers have many beliefs which he is not prepared to submit to criticism. Second, even if the teacher is herself critical, there may be social pressure upon him not to admit that certain beliefs, practices and authorities can probably be examine in a critical spirit. The third arises from the problem that teacher training is very often not the kind which encourages in him the willingness to participate in critical discussion. But, to think critically is not possible unless we have sufficient knowledge and understanding about the content of the issue. Thus, these add another point to what Passmore has pointed out. The teacher’s lack of criticality could be due to lack of understanding about the aims of education, meaning and concept of education, children, teaching, learning and nature of knowledge.
Cognitivists understand critical thinking as a subset of three types of thinking: reasoning, making judgments and decisions, and problem solving. The faculty of reasoning, making judgments and problem solving are inherent human potentials that most teachers can nourish profoundly. These faculties are at odds with the factors that make it difficult for teachers to think critically (as mentioned above). These conflicts have however shaped some teachers’ perceptions in very precarious ways. Their opinions or arguments are far from being logical and their reasoning often falls prey to fallacies. There are cases where the relationship between premises and conclusions are hard to even draw up. Personal experiences are often generalized and further premises are built on this generalization. For example, teachers who are of the opinion that punishment is necessary say that they were punished in their school days and that is the reason they are where they are today. To this statement I would simple implore what A.S. Neil mentions in his book ‘Summerhill’ to respond to one of his audience – “My father used his slipper on me, and I don’t regret it, sir! I would not have been what I am today if I had not been beaten.” I never have the temerity to ask, “By the way, what exactly are you today.”
To qualify as a teacher is to possess respectable knowledge and understanding about subject content and pedagogy. Does having good understanding in pedagogy and subject content guarantee an individual to be a rational or logical thinker? The design and intervention of teacher education needs a new outlook. Significant understanding about andragogy is another area teacher educators should well-versed with. Logic, research and experience which are often considered as the tools for critical thinking should be an integral part of teacher professional development intervention plan. Also important are develop certain core understandings – Understanding if critical thinking can actually be taught; if critical thinking is a set of skills, imparting of facts, or cultivation of habits; how every domain be it Science, Language, History or Mathematic by nature is strongly imbedded and thrives in the landscape of argument and reason. Teacher educators should also know the importance of critical-thinking in improving the pedagogy of teachers – Understanding the vital role of being critical as a persona of an educated person; how aims of education is not attainable until this faculty is not an intrinsic quality of teacher; student and at large a means of discourse in the society. Need analysis or research to find the reasons why teachers are incapable of critical thinking is the right string to begin with. One has to break-down and understand the meaning of critical thinking because critical is often misrepresented as merely questioning everything.
Pre-service institutes have to take a transitional shift in educating student-teachers. Progress on teacher development in critical-thinking could be built as conscientization among teachers regarding the odds between the obstacle and the importance of critical thinking is done. Creating an environment where one is heard and transition from non-dialectic to dialectic conversation. The stakes are high and the teaching community cannot effort to dwell in this dilemma but have to implement an effective professional development plan for teachers to overcome the sorry state that we see today in our public education.

The blank face

Everyone has one, in fact everyone had to had one

When two parallel thoughts run or no thought run by

Some can hide and some had to quite hiding

It may not be an obvious face but a sure face

Nothings written yet still a messenger

It is a question or a warning

Asking why or against why

To express sarcasm and perplex

Of innocence and pertinence 

Of opportunities or pessimist

A face of agreement in disagreement

Unpredictable is when two blank face encounter

Surely everyone owns one, some just deny and some harness it

Epitome of 'I'

‘I am’ a Proclamation

‘I shall’ an Assurance

‘I will’ an Obligation

‘I want’ a Desire

‘I do’ a Subjugation

‘I had’ a Memory

‘I knew’ a Knowledge

‘I can’ a Declaration

‘I’ an Attitude

‘I’ an Ego

‘I’ a Definition

‘I’ an Identity

‘I’ a Question

‘I’ an Answer

‘I’ a Notion
'I' a Concept 

‘I’ a Destiny

The juncture

If I begin from the last breath

If I could steal the last moment

Still it will be insignificant, insignificant

All that has begun shall end

And the end shall be a new beginning

At the snap of second, all gone by

The virtuous nature still continue

But the one who like to thinks owns the nature will be soon gone.

Nature treat’s nothing fair unfairly

Randomity is uniformity for nature

In snap of time wonder architect vanish in vanity

The intertwine juncture between the new and the old

The gay days break down at the exact juncture and continues to fade faint

It matter the most but seemingly mean the least

After all what we have is what we have already destroyed

Make a choice but we still parish at a juncture

The point is, that’s the point.

To be asked

What is that magnify our memoirs?

Whose memocide one should wait?

Which imagination we continue to endure?

Whose horizon expands and contract?

Whose narrative flows forged?

Who’s picturesque is feed in witty design?

Whose felony is the felonious of all?

Whose massager and agency are worth hearing ears?

The walk to the pathless venture of valor.

Valor lost and sacrifice for the wretched cause?

Whose prose brings back my freedom and liberty, Is a rare found?

The considerate and the virtuous shall stand numb?

Let us pen down the answer. But how is that possible?

Because we are still due to catch the right source, the right path and the right calling.

Are you educated?

I just want to ask a very simple question that we as a student community cannot just skip and turn away. Now Education is our birth right with the implementation of RtE (Right to Education) ACT 2009.  All parents strive for their child’s education and want them to become educated individuals. Irony is that the term ‘Education’ and ‘Educated’ has been so rampantly used with the presupposition we know so much about it or it does not need much consideration. The truth is, ‘education’ or ‘educated’ words are not valued neutral but it comes with a baggage of its own normative meanings. So, it compels me to say that we are indulging education like a drug addict indulges in his/her kicks. Let me try a jargon free writing as far as possible to score the point clear and loud.

Are you educated? What it means to be educated? Are student/learners by default educated? These question could be logically answered as we answer questions such as what is education and what are the aims of education which make us educated persons. To decode the term ‘education’ let me echo R.S. Peter’s definition of education- ‘Education means achievement of something worthwhile and desirable (valuable)’. By this count, if you are educated you ought to be a reformed person. Valuable achievement in education is intrinsically valuable, meaning valued in itself and for its own sake. The knowledge and understanding obtained becomes the features of oneself and shapes the outlook of the person. But, treating education as a mere instrument of obtaining a job or attaining certain skills demeans the true aim of education. The critic of highly educated German society during Nazis tyranny could sum up in Wiesel's words on education: ‘It emphasized theories instead of values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather than conscience.’ Introspecting into our present society, I think the barbarity is increasing and will only escalate in days to come. So we hinge in a very crucial position as we would not like our society to go rampage in barbarity. The ferocity of the problems looks like uncontrollable but the solution is yet simple. Has our education empowered us to uphold the fabric of Equality, Liberty and Justice which are at the core of our democratic society? Identifying ourselves as educated person, are we liberated from the dogmas of bigotry? Through education are we becoming a more peaceful and self-actualized individual or more distressed, ever ambitious, self-righteous, self-centered people? Has the education system that aims at making us more Rational, Autonomous and Conscious rather made us capable of manipulating, violent, corrupted, and siphoning public welfare for personal gain? Has our guilt feelings and consciences stopped pricking us for any wrong deed? Not to mention of blind submission to a status or an ideology without any critical analysis. There is nothing such as ‘one day’ or ‘someday’ where we will manifest the quality of being educated but there is ‘today’: we as learners/students should uphold the values in all sphere of our life. 

There is lapse in what we see in our society and what ought to be, where education prevails. Where is the problem? Is something wrong in the way we are educated? Have our school, institution and educators successfully educated us? Has the increment in individual education increased the education of our society? These questions brings us to another criteria of education, the criteria of procedure. Again let me echo R.S. Peter, ‘Education should be brought about in a morally acceptable manner and should not infringe the willingness and voluntariness of the learner’. Let’s introspect and see if we are conditioned, indoctrinated and brainwashed more than being educated? Rote learning of rhymes, national anthem, definitions and theories (without a clue about the concept of the subject) by screaming at the top of the voice has taken the hell out of our childhood. The institutions and teachers which were supposed to bring us up as responsible, peace loving, non-violent individuals were just the opposite for many. For average students it was not less than a slaughter house where our ingenuity and childhood had died every day and fear had ingrained in us since then and our emotional being hijacked. Please don’t acknowledge the beating we received in our school time. Many may credit saying that it is because of those smacking they are here today. Don’t fool yourself and don’t give me that dame naïve explanation because without that you could be a total transcendental person. The truth is, this practice is the mother of all violence in our society. Just look around and see how many of our class-mates have pursued higher education. Consciously or unconsciously we have detested school and teachers somehow.  

When our physic and psychic are forming at best, when an average child smiles more than 100 times (some studies claim 300 times) in a day, when curiosity and wonders struck us every second we suddenly find ourselves cramped into a small room called ‘class room’. Your knees are folded, backbone curved and finger on the lips; we become all time successful passive listener and a ‘blank slate’ to all-knowing figure (teacher). Each one is pushed into ugly competition with the help of examination system. The joy of learning something worthwhile will always be poisoned by the fear of passing the exam. Children are categorized into ‘caste system’ where some are destined to success while others are doomed to remain untouchable forever. How on earth does this education system promise equality in our society?

Call me an alarmist or an extremist but I least care your emotion because even today, thousands of children are dying every day, they are injected with dead facts and information’s in the name of knowledge, and they are cramped in small rooms supervised by fear of teachers with cane stick. Schools have to stop this atrocities, they have to open up a physical and emotional space for children to learn and grow. Learning with joy is possible. Furious teacher and her Cane stick (symbol of oppression) should be replaced by humane facilitator and reasoning and dialogue should be her tool. Teachers and schools should stop behaving like a law giver. Dirty competition should be replaced by healthy co-operation. We should turns towards comprehensive development of children. Consuming indigestible facts and information should be replaced by meaning making and understanding. Activity based learning should replace passive receiving and children should be allowed to construct knowledge. Radical transformation is calling out. We have to pay head to it for heaven sake, our future is at stake. I could only scratch the tip of the revolution required in our education. But, I hope it draws the attention of those who have a heart of conscience and mind of reasoning because for the rest George Gordon Byron  says “Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.”  

Narrative on an old adage

Miracle they quote but miracle they have hardly seen.

Folks gather to hear it out. Beer sold off as they hear.
The messenger’s reputation among the folks are high.
Words spread put like wild fire.
The cold winter fade unknown and unnoticed as folks cramp close to each other mumbling miraculous story keeping both body and mind warm. Warm coffee are there part as they sip in momentum sync with the high and low of the story. They whisper softly as the night falls deep.
They are the secret society bonded by the soft words of miracle.
The better days, better life and deeper thoughts follows from their deep night whisper.
With glad heart they lay back to sleep someday.
Someday wondering mind won't let them sleep.
Someday distorted and broken heart pulls up so much tears.
The fabric of each miracle stands out.
So, another day it’s another miraculous story and another new beginning.
Call them the far off ignorant country man. But they will thrive in their own pond for, so far they are left alone by the so called civilization. The destitute and more pitied concept of the day.