I aim for a
transformative pedagogy that is relatively free of my own ego. I understand a
transformative approach being one which seeks not only to develop the
intellectual and creative – the thinking and expressing – skills of students,
but also to encourage and teach the students to use these skills to make
positive change in or take some measure of control over their life worlds. It
is a teaching which does not take the power structures of society for granted
and which finds ways of teaching which bring these powers as they flow up for
discussion.
Because in
my mind the classroom, like the rest of society, should be as democratic and as
social as possible, the remainder of my teaching philosophy is best conveyed
through the following verses from The Tao
Te Ching:
“When the
Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. Next best is the
leader who is loved. Next, one who is feared. The worst is one who is despised.
If you don’t trust the people, you make them untrustworthy. The Master doesn’t
talk, he acts. When his work is done, the people say, ‘Amazing: we did it, all
by ourselves!’” – Lao Tzu
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