Thoughts on Pedagogical Research: Scholar-teacher or Teacher-Scholar?

Ronald Barnett, Institute of Education, London

University of Westminster HERC seminar, 11 October 2013Centre for Higher Education Studies

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A student’s story

‘ … I had no … awareness of my own ability, so when you get an inspiring teacher that has faith in you, or helps you understand a topic then you know, it’s amazing.

… You get excited … it makes you want to know, say, if it’s about a particular topic, then you want to go and know more about it, you want to find more … and that way you end up learning more

… if a teacher inspires you in a subject then you are going to pay a lot more attention, feel that drive to get involved in a way.’

(4th yr student, UK post-92 university)

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Faith, hope, mystery

• ideas of faith, hope, mystery – in the student’s own words• the student undergoes experiences that can’t be fully explained• the formation of excitement • of a will to learn (‘you want to find more’)• of a will to engage (‘feel that drive to get involved’)• but perhaps we can work towards an explanation

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The scholarship of teaching and learning – first thoughts on scholarship itself• Ernest Boyer’s book, ‘Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate’• Scholarships of Discovery; Integration; Application; Teaching• The idea of scholarship• As care/ concern, reflection, public mission, contribution to community/ service, taking matters forward.

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Boyer’s scholarship of teaching and learningNB: the addition of ‘and learning’ is subsequent to Boyer but was implicated in B’s conception of the SofT• ‘T is … a dynamic endeavour involving all the analogies, metaphors, and images that build bridges between the teacher’s understanding and the student’s learning’. (p23)• ‘Good T means that faculty, as scholars, are also learners. Thro (good T), professors themselves will be pushed in creative new directions.’

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Being a scholar of teaching and learning

• Levels of scholarship

1 of reflection-in-action

2 of reflection-on-action (Schon)• Perhaps B was mainly focused on level 1• And that’s necessary – but it isn’t sufficient• We need level 2 as well

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On ‘the student experience’

• What does it mean – ‘the student experience’• What is the experience of being a student?• Do we have a sense of what it would be like to change places with our students?• Is the experience of being a student out there – or is it with us, in our teaching, in our approach to teaching, in our conceptions of learning?• What is it, what are its possibilities?• What responsibilities does it imply? And for whom?• (NB: talk of students as consumers – responsibilities are shared.)

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Expressing a voice; losing a voice; finding a new voice‘ I’ve always had a huge passion for languages. But coming to (x university), I found the French and Italian departments very different, and I did start to feel a bit bitter towards French. And I wasn’t enjoying that any more. I loved it at school more than Italian. I found the French department very rigid … I did feel I was back in school, but not in the sixth form … I felt I was going back to GCSE … I didn’t feel very free to express myself in the lessons, whereas (in) the Italian … department, you go to know all the individuals. With the Italian classes, we all sit round a big table, or chairs without tables in front. There would be a lot more interaction … It was more friendly, just a liberating atmosphere.’

(student just having graduated with a 2.1 at a post-92 university)

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Enhancing the student experience

• Can’t be a matter of a pedagogical/ technological fix• It’s problematic – not at all straightforward• A matter of values/ priorities• Is ‘student voice’ important?• Is student ‘excitement’ important?• The will to engage?• So reflection on/in teaching (as part of SofTL) takes two forms:• How are my/ our students faring? What is their experience? (empirical

enquiries)• How might they go forward? (conceptual and values-led enquiries)

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On anxiety

‘Being pulled in a large number of different directions … [is] not easy to cope with … [beginning the student journey] is [an entry into] a scary, exciting and fascinating world … We need … self-belief to survive and prosper … I remember thinking … this is amazing, exciting, exhilarating and downright terrifying … Working with a complex world is also about attitude … not giving up when you feel overwhelmed … You can never be totally prepared.

(Natasha Thomas, a recent graduate, talk at Univ of Surrey, June, 2006)

… What’s fascinating about Alison’s courses is the amount of panic, you know, that surrounds the essays and I felt it personally … It was a very, very scary thing to do because … there were no right answers.

(Postgraduate student, Univ of Glasgow)

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Scholarly texts - 1

• Scholarship is a love of texts• But what are the texts in question here?• Two kinds of texts:1 Books and papers on T and L

- and these are of three kindsi Empirical researchii Scholarly reflection – eg Rowland, Nixon, Macfarlane, McLean, Walker iii Philosophical/ theoretical work as such – eg Heidegger, Bourdieu, Zizek (who are our favourites to be?!)‘Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn’ (H: What is Called Thinking, 1968)

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Scholarly texts - 2

2 Concrete practices subjected to reflection and interrogation:

i those that illuminate what it is to be a student todayii tutor’s/ tutors’/ own practices

- So lots to hand in becoming a scholar of T&L – but requires close, self-critical and creative attention.

- It includes reflection on one’s own values and assumptions (‘assumptive world’)

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Are lecturers even necessary?

• A story from nursing studies:

‘After five weeks, one day we turned up about half an hour later than them and they were doing exactly what they would have been doing with us …’

• A medical student’s story

- ‘there were a couple of occasions when I was the only person in the resuscitation room …’

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Being a university teacher

‘To me, teaching is engaging with young people who are visionaries and dreamers in vibrant spaces that resonate with the collective energies of intellectuals … Teaching is a passion and a commitment that is a constant joy on my life … The simple and yet complex concepts of honesty, integrity and respect are fundamental in my professional and personal interactions with students. The value I place on my teaching and research contributes to the passion I bring to teaching and ultimately to the successful learning by students.’

(Winner of both a national and a university teaching prizes.)

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Forms of pedagogical research

• The student experience – interviews etc with students (disciplines/ groupings)• Academics’ conceptions/ practices – interviews/ observations with academics• Examination of particular approaches (PBL/ e-learning/ dialogue/ self-learning) • Curricula/ disciplines/ T&R/ ped rel/ student & ac identity• Conceptual/ theoretical (social theory/ philosophical analysis – eg ‘space’, ‘time’, ‘openness’)

• Overviews of literature• Managers and their conceptions of students• Institutional environment• History/ histories• Policy analysis – how has the new fee regime affected the student exp/ the ped rel?• Comparative essaysNB: small-scale empirical enquiries can go a long way, even conducted from one’s own

computer/ laptop. (But do involve more than one institution.)

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Scholar-teacher or teacher-scholar?

• Does the scholarship derive from the teaching OR• Does the pedagogy emerge from the scholarship?• (A particular example of the T-R relationship debate)• Likely to be oriented according to the individual dispositions• BUT there should be SOME degree of inter-relationship• And these reflections bring into view the matter of academic identity

– Eg Joelle Fanghanel/ Mary Henkel/ RB& RdeN– Just what is it to be an academic these days? Do we even use the term

‘academic’ as a form of self-identity?

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Conclusion

•Being a scholar of T&L is precisely a matter of continuing

critical reflection on one’s own T•What are our possibilities – for ourselves & for our students?• We gain insight into these possibilities by close

attention to the many texts around us• Conventional academic texts are helpful but let’s recognize that

there is much to hand, in our students, and in ourselves.• Being such a scholar is to live a life with many parts

– and so it’s challenging• But, seen in this way, such a never-ending journey is

all the more worthwhile.

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Selected bibliography

Barnett, R (2007) A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press.Cowden, S and Singh, G (eds) (2013) Acts of Knowing: Critical Pedagogy In, Against and Beyond the University. London and New York: Bloomsbury.Fanghanel, J (2012) Being an Academic. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Ngaard, C, Branch, J and Holtham, C (eds) (2013) Learning in Higher Education: Contemporary Standpoints. Faringdon: Libri.MacFarlane, B (2004) Teaching with Integrity: the ethics of higher education practice. London & New York: Routledge.McLean, M (2008) Pedagogy and the University: Critical Theory and Practice. Continuum: London and New York.Preece, S (2009) Posh Talk: Language and Identity in Higher Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Rowland, S (2000) The Enquiring University Teacher. Buckingham: Open University Press.Savin-Baden, M (2008) Learning Spaces: Creating opportunities for Knowledge Creation in Academic Life. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press.Sotto, E (2007/1994) When Teaching Becomes Learning: A Theory and Practice of Teaching. London and New York: Continuum.Tynjala, P, Stenstrom M-L and Saarnivaara, M (eds) (2012) Transitions and Transformations in Learning and Education. Dordrecht: Springer.