Keynote address by Yoram Harpaz

Keynote — Yoram Harpez

1756 conference delegates

http://connectededucator.org.nz — invitation to join the connected educator month, run in the US over the past two years and now in NZ in conjunction with a group from Victoria, Aus.

Harpez — Topic = ‘The big picture: What should we be doing with students in this modern era?’

collaborative Google doc http://bit.do/YoramHarpez

The ideologies of education in search of a pedagogical focus/sentiment.

3 arguments:

1. educational theories are ideologies

2. There are three meta-ideologies in education

3. You must choose one of them (i.e. can’t implement all of them simultaneously, a tragic situation)

Argument 1. Educational theories are ideologies

an ideology is a system of beliefs used to understand and structure reality

Any ideologial text has four parts — Utopia, Diagnosis, Strategy, Collective

Utopia is the ideal and functions as a motivational construct, the ideal for which we strive

Diagnosis is the description and analysis of the actual situation (society etc)

Strategy identifies the means/methods to change the actual world into the utopian one

Collective identifies the social group that will carry out the strategy

In education this maps out to:

an image of the educated person	an image of the Good Thinker
a description of the actual student	a description of the actual student
the pattern of teaching, the method of assessing etc, and	the pattern of teaching, the method of assessing etc, and
the educational community	the educational community

Education serves three masters:

1. Socialisation: Adapting the child to society, imparting useful behaviours

2. Acculturation: Shaping the child’s character in light of the values of the preferred culture. (YH describes this as a much higher goal than that of simply socialising the child)

3. Individuation: Fostering the autonomy and authenticity of the child. To allow and enable each child to fulfill itself, to find its own personal inner truth and to create itself.

The Formula of Teaching

t + i + c + s = p

teacher, instruction, content, student, purpose

Socialisation

T = classroom manager, imparts facts and skills (attitudes?)

I = autocratic, exemplifying and exercising

C = practical and useful

S = all students  are the same and learn by imitation

P =

Acculturation

T = a living model of the demanded values

I = authoratitive, modelling

C = inner value

S = different (should be the same), learning by internalisation

P = the educated person is one whose character reflects cultural values and truths

Individuation

T = a facilitator

I = a guidance sensitive to individual means

C = supports individual development

S = each student is unique, self-regulated learning

P = The educated person is one who fulfills himself/herself

Frontal teaching created as a means of supervision, not teaching per se. This is different from the individuated teaching method in which students regulate their own learning and behaviour.

In Israel, this is called Democratic Schools/Education.

YH argues that the sad truth is that there is a contradiction between the educational means of the three meta-ideologies, and that therefore we must stick to one. Each ideology undermines the other, therefore they can’t all coexist.

Good schools stick to one ideology. The teachers talk the same language (share the same assumptions and understandings.) If this isn’t the case, stuents become cynical and disconnected. They don’t believe you because you aren’t consistent.

Choosing one relies on a pedagogical sentiment

S: Practical sentiment > aims to produce a worker?

A: Intellectual, ethical and aesthetic sentiment

I: Humane sentiment > views education as brainwashing and therefore we must create new educational environments in which each child is nurtured for themselves.

The purpose = the desired graduate

The desired graduate = knowledge, skills, traits, worldview

English artist who painted factories. Difficult to distinguish factories and schools in the picture shown . . .