The Language Teacher
06 - 2001
Choosing to Understand
Andy Barfield, Neil Cowie, Julian Edge, Chris Gallagher
This article, like the preconference workshop that we shall be facilitating together at JALT2001 in Kokura, Kitakyushu, is not about particular methods of teaching. It is about a particular way of being a teacher, and of being a colleague among teachers. We believe that by taking the time, and making the effort, to begin with ourselves, we can bring about changes that will enable us to develop into the best teacher that each one of us can become, for our own students, each in our own way.
Our education systems, when working well, teach us to learn and to question. There may be a great deal of difference between what two cultures regard as being appropriate for us to learn, and what to question. Different systems will also have their own distinct ways in which they go about that shared endeavour. In the final analysis, however, we must assume that education everywhere is intended to help us become the sort of people who find a healthy balance between believing and doubting. Too much believing, and you become credulous, unable to distinguish truth from lies, and liable to be taken in by all kinds of deception. Too much doubting, and you become cynical, equally unable to distinguish between sincerity and duplicity, and liable to miss out on opportunities for growth and development. (1) As ever, we seek the middle path.
But there is another possibility: not an alternative to that middle way, but an augmentation of it. Sometimes, instead of believing or doubting the other person, we can choose to understand them. We can choose to close down our critical, evaluative faculties and say to the other person, "This is what I have understood you to have said. Have I got it right?" In that moment of nonjudgmental discourse, we set aside most of what our education systems have taught us, and we open up a new territory of discovery and action. That sounds like a large claim. It is. It sounds simple. It is not.
In our different ways, we four writers have all come to find significance in non-judgmental discourse as we have worked on our own development as teachers, and as we have worked to facilitate the development of others. In our workshop, we shall each try to give you a glimpse of those experiences from our own perspectives and yours. For the time being, let us look at one such brief moment that we have on record. (2 )
| 01 | . |
| 02 | . |
| 03 Teacher | I face a problem lately with giving instructions in class. For some reason, the children just don't seem to take any notice. When it comes to the, let's say, homework, comes to the point of telling them what to do for homework . . . |
| 04 Colleague | . . . you've got a problem because they don't get the instructions . . . |
| 05 | . |
| 06 Teacher | Yes, it seems that they don't understand what is said, or they don't listen to what is said -- I can't decide what is what. |
| 07 Colleague | You mean there is a problem here with the class . . . |
| 08 Teacher | Yes, they just don't . . . however clearly I say it. Even in L1 |
| 09 Colleague | You mean in L1? |
| 10 | . |
| 11 | . |
| 12 Teacher | Yes, even in L1 they don't, they don't
follow. There's something I'm not doing right here, I think.
I find this such a waste of time and I end up shouting, 'Can't you understand? Listen!' |
| 13 Colleague | So, you think it is you who is to blame? |
In line 7, the colleague checks the implication she is picking up that the fault lies with the way the children are behaving. The teacher confirms this (8), but then goes on to say (10-11) that he is doing something wrong. He also feels comfortable enough with his colleague to confess a lack of control in his professional behaviour (11-12). He commented later that it was because he could make this admission that he was also able to make progress with the issue.
The colleague, in a move paralleling line 7, now (13) asks if the implication is that the teacher himself is at fault. Although the realisation does not follow immediately, the teacher later commented that it was here that he started to see that it was exactly this swinging backwards and forwards, looking for where to lay the blame, that had been getting in the way of his addressing the problem.
If this snippet of data communicates to you any of the excitement that we find in this work, we hope that you will join us in Kokura to see if you can experience that excitement yourself. Bring along issues from your own situation, and try working on them in the collaborative ways we want to show you.
1. The contrast between believing and doubting is taken from Elbow, P. (1986). Embracing contraries: Explorations in learning and teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.
2. The data here are extracted from Edge, J. (in press). Continuing cooperative development: A discourse framework for individuals as colleagues. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Our thanks to Steve Mann for comments on an earlier draft of this article. Also, we express our thanks to John Bartrick and Despina Jagaraki-Vraka.
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