pedagogy lecture 1 reading 2

8/20/2019 Pedagogy Lecture 1 Reading 2

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[PEDAGOGY – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?]

Pedagogy - what does it mean? (Jo McShane)

‘Jo McShane used to think that pedagogy was just a stuffy academic way of saying‘teaching’, but after attending a conference on the subject she finds that it means a great dealmore…’

Everyone knows what pedagogy means, don’t they? It’s that word no one quite knowshow to pronounce (hard or soft second ‘g’?) used by fsted inspectors, !"#E tutorsand other suited educationa$ists to describe what most morta$s know as ‘teaching’%&ou might occasiona$$y whee$ it out yourse$f for occasions when one wou$d wish toappear scho$ar$y% &es, pedagogy is what you ca$$ teaching when you are beinginterviewed for a who$e'schoo$ teaching and $earning post, or fi$$ing in your !*

app$ication% End of story?I thought so, unti$ I attended an internationa$ seminar organised by the +choo$ ofEducation at the niversity of -anchester on the issue% +ponsored by the .ourna$!edagogy, #u$ture / +ociety, the seminar sought to e0p$ore pedagogy as an ob.ect ofresearch via a variety of presentations% 1he theme for the day rested on an importantpremise2 that there can be ‘no assumption that a true definition of pedagogy e0ists 3on$y defensib$e definitions’%

The slave and the scholar4e kicked off with 5avid *ami$ton (me6 niversity, +weden), who proposed someimportant considerations about the $ink between pedagogy and demagogy, both ofwhich I had to ‘4iki’% 1he resu$ts of this were provoking% 7ccording to 4ikipedia,pedagogy is ‘the art or science of being a teacher’ and it ‘genera$$y refers tostrategies of instruction, or a sty$e of instruction’% 1he word comes from the ancient"reek paidagogeo, $itera$$y ‘to $ead the chi$d’% In ancient "reece, the paidagogos wasa s$ave who supervised the education of his master’s son and $ed him to schoo$% +opedagogy is about wa$king the wa$k, or $eading your $earners%

7nd what of demagogy? 7ccording to 4ikipedia, it is a ‘po$itica$ strategy for obtainingand gaining po$itica$ power by appea$ing to the popu$ar pre.udices, fears ande0pectations of the pub$ic%’ 4as *ami$ton imp$ying that we teachers are quite$itera$$y engaged with wa$king the wa$k beside our $earners whi$e coa0ing them tofo$$ow us deeper into the educationa$ wi$derness with our motivationa$ andaspirationa$ rhetoric, goa$s and gi$ded hoops? #ertain$y, to say that the educationa$process is about supporting, wa$king beside and $eading is true% 7$so true is the factthat the educationa$ wor$d is infused with a potent combination of theoretica$ andpo$itica$ rhetoric, which makes *ami$ton’s musings feasib$e on a number of $eve$s%

I smi$ed as I imagined a cast of be$eaguered teachers wa$king beside their c$asses and

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$ugging behind them their immacu$ate$y bo0ed sets of strategy materia$s%

8ust as this image was beginning to sett$e in my mind, the seminar progressed toreceive 9ynn &ates of the niversity of -e$bourne’s ideas about curricu$um andpedagogy, and we were invited to consider that pedagogy may be u$timate$y fa$$ib$e%

‘1ry te$$ing that to a strategy consu$tant’, I heard myse$f mutter% +ure$y a$$ of thisstuff about there being a so$id and right way to proceed with such matters can’t bewrong? 7fter a$$, it is written down% 7nd backed up by *1s and f$owcharts% 7ndhoused in every schoo$ in the rea$m% 7n uneasy fee$ing spread through my being as Iconsidered that one day, we might be $ooking at ‘-ysteries’ and ‘-etacognitive!$enaries’ with the same mocking retrospect with which we view the educativeprocesses of the :ictorian age% I sudden$y rea$ised that I had some awfu$ news tobreak to my fe$$ow pedagogues as I wa$ked beside them, g$um$y carrying my oncebe$oved copy of the 1eacher’s 1oo$kit%

;urther shocking reve$ations were .ust seconds away as 1amara ardous .ourney% *ow many$yres and $utes can a modern teacher .ugg$e?

Reclaiming passion1he fina$ $eg of our .ourney was a stirring one, $ed by 5avid *a$pin (Institute ofEducation, 9ondon niversity), who urged us to rec$aim passion in our educativepractices by considering the re$ationship between $ove in its many forms and

pedagogy% ‘&es’ I cried (interna$$y)% 7t $ast, I have worked out what this is a$$ about%!edagogy is about service, an educative .ourney, interre$ationships and to a certaine0tent rhetoric and persuasion%


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;urther information on the .ourna$ !edagogy, #u$ture / +ociety is avai$ab$e at www%tandf%co%uk=.ourna$s=tit$es=@ABC@DBB%asp

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pedagogy lecture 1 reading 2

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