ecologize relational pedagogy

ECOLOGIZE EDUCATION

PART I RELATIONAL TEACHING APPROACH

Rudy VandammePh.D student Tilburg University (EU)rudy@ecologize.netwww.ecologize.net

For teachers

• Ecology

• Liberating pedagogy

• Application in Training Teachers

• Knowledge creation in higher professional education

Content

How can we translate an ecological worldview into a teaching approach?

By learning to think, act and communicate relationally.

All trained competencies are about ‘how do I/how do you relate to...?’

is not about adding a green topic into a curriculum.

It is about understanding that everything is connected with everything. You are interdependent with your environment. Your subject-matter is intertwined with the world by its worldview.

Ecology

So...

Not teacher centered

Not knowledge centered

Not student centered

But relationship framed

So...

ECOLOGIZE education

Education is a context in which relationships are intentionally interacting upon each other in order to stimulate learning and development for all participants.

FIVE LEVELS ECOLOGIZE TEACHING

I present a 5-level model of relational teaching approach

Each level represents competencies in how you, teacher, can be part of a relational network.

Communicate about all relationships in which you and your students are nested!

Level 1: triangulate your communications

Teacher communicate his relationship with the subject-matter

Teacher collaborate with students

Teacher coaches the relationship between students and subject-matter

Collaboration

Students

Teacher

Inspiration

Lear

nin

g

Subject-matter/knowledge

Knowledge

Teacher is transmitter

By contrast: oppositional (instead of triangular)

Students are receivers

Knowledge

Students

Teacher is coach

By contrast: teaching without voice

11

Subject

Selfdirectedlearning

Teacher as facilitator

Subgroup

Subgroup

Subject

Subject

Subje

ct

Subject

By contrast: teacher without voice

Colloborative learningamongst students

Relational questions, level 1

Do you express your personal passion and negotiations with your subject-matter to students?

What common project do you have with your students?

Is how students feel and think about the subject-matter brought into communication? Are students been coached in how the subject-matter affects their personal development?

How do you communicate that you are learning as well?

How is the subject-matter present? What is your unique voice?What do students bring in?

Level 2: integrating multiplicity(Hubert Hermans: dialogical self)

Each participant is a multiple self !

The multiplicity of each participant makes the learning community more alive.

Student roleI as curiousI as naiveI as criticalI as I am

Teacher roleI as expertI as facilitator I as coachI as researcherI as I am

I as factual/ I as perspectiveI as incarnated ideaI as historical rooted I as related to someones biographyI as developmentalLearning

communitycircle

Knowledge

Relational questions, level 2

• Are you showing monolithic ‘teacher’ behaviour or a repertoire of different positions?

• Are distinct I-positions recognised by the students?

• Is ‘knowledge’ differentiated or put into the circle as truth?

• Are students accepted in their multiplicity?

• Is the multiplicity of the teacher fit for its purpose?

e.g. If you like to co-create, you need to activate a not knowing position.

Training Teachers with I-positions, level 1 & 2

I as program designer

I as classroom manager

I as cocreator

12

8

I as FacilitatorI as coach

4

5

7

I as expert

I as researcher

Students

3

I as I am

I as student6

Relational thinking, level 3: integrating extended self(Hubert Hermans: dialogical self)

The dialogicality of all participants creates a complex field of interactions that enhance the possibility of development and creativity.

Student roleMy friendsMy teacherMy life world

Teacher roleMy studentsMy husbandMy childMy university

My costumersMy contextMy studentsMy media

Learning communitycircle

Knowledge

Relational questions, level 3

• How is the other (student/teacher/knowledge) represented as an external position in my dialogical self?

• What is the constellation of the different positions in the extended self related to each other?

• How is learning, researching and the unknown represented in the state of the teacher?

Relational thinking, level 4: integrating external relationships

The external relationships helps the learning to be embedded in context.

Student

Teacher

Learning communitycircle

KnowledgeAcademic community

Partner

Hobby

Childen

Friends

Parents

School

Colleagues

Student job

Parents

Siblings

Hobby

Lover

Friends

Placement

Manuals

Universities

Internet community

(Ken Gergen)

Relational questions, level 4

How are all relationships brought into the circle?

Home life of students

Peer relationship, classroom relationships

Home life of teacher

Relationship of teacher with the school

Relationship of teacher with his professional community

Relational thinking, level 5: contextual, holarchy

Teacher, students, knowledge and their relationships are ‘nested’ in the development of the larger whole, e.g. the society (e.g.powerrelations, cultural patterns, educational reform, professional identity), development of human civilization, global issues (e.g. Peak oil, financial crisis, migrations, ecology, climate change).

Student

Teacher

Learning communitycircle

KnowledgeAcademic community

Partner

Hobby

Childen

Friends

Parents

School

Colleages

Student job

Parents

Siblings

Hobby

Loved one

Friends

Internship

Manuals

Researchers

Internet community

(Ken Wilber)

Relational questions, level 5

•In what bigger context is the education embedded?

•What role does education play in that context?

•How is the way education is constructed a contribution to the development of societal, ecological and global challenges?

Ecologize : model of nested education

Professional community

Society/Culture/Global

Local community

Students

Teacher

By contrast

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

In those days in pedagogy the child/student was put in the centre.

Not completely isolated, but still isolated in the centre.

Ecologize education

= teacher + student in the centre of a nested system

Reactions, recommendations?

Email: rudy@ecologize.net

website: www.ecologize.net