Who am I?
I am currently a student of three different educational institutions in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Recently, I have found another branch in my journey through life; I have found the path of an educator. Whilst I have been studying my undergraduate degree, I have been dallying with demonstrating first-year biology courses and tutoring some first-year English papers. Most recently, I have begun to solidify my teaching skills with a Diploma in Adult Education and Training (from Southern Institute of Technology, Invercargill, Aotearoa) and a Certificate in Designing and Facilitating eLearning (from Open Polytechnic, Aotearoa).
What is this Blog about?
I have been using one of my other blogs - Information is Not Knowledge - to marshal my thoughts about teaching. Yet it is becoming increasingly obvious that the focus of this previous blog, being information literacy, does not fit very well with thoughts on teaching and learning. Whilst there is obvious overlap between the two topics, they are actually in different domains.
The purpose, then, of this blog is to marshal my thoughts specific to teaching and learning. This project includes not only my reflections on the practice of teaching but also on the theory which informs that practice. I hope that my responses are able to help out others in the field.
What is The Role of Educator?
It seems prudent to briefly outline my views on what an educator should do. More broadly, this is predicated on what social role education plays. Often, people view education as a means to a financial end - that is to improve the economy of a country. Whilst I do not deny that part of education is to improve the job-prospects of the populace, I feel that too much emphasis is placed on this aspect. Instead, I feel the purpose of education is to improve the educated and provide them with the skills they need to be better citizens.
To this end, the educator's role is rather simple: it is to help our students develop. This means that we must have a strong sense of our personal philosophy - What does it mean to be a 'good' person? What is our moral code? How do we value individuals? etc - as well as a critical knowledge of the purpose of education. This does not mean that all educators need to view the world in the same way (for this is impossible) but that they must hold some views. If we blindly teach our students without critically evaluating what we are teaching them and why then we are sure to fail.
