Moses went up a mountain and sat still.
Gautama went into the forest and sat still.
Jesus went out into the desert and sat still.
And their minds were opened up.
-- pudgala 2 in the e-sangha Buddhist Forum
Time In, Time Out
In class last night a young doctoral student observed how the teachers she observes are always running around attending to hundreds of details and never have time to reflect on themselves or their practice.
Hargreaves (1994) notes that teacher time is most often administratively driven, monochronic, objective, technical-rational and founded on the notion of efficiency.
This conception of time tends to run counter to actual teaching practice which is polychronic, emphasizing relationships over things, where flexibility is required to manage the simultaneous demands in a densely packed world of the classroom.
Managing learning among a group of individuals is vastly different than managing bureaucratic processes. Hargreaves suggests that “[t]he solution to this impasse” involves giving “more responsibility and flexibility to teachers in the management and allocation of their time, and to offer them more control over what is to be developed within that time…. In doing this, we would be recognizing that teacher development is ultimately incompatible with confining teachers to the role of merely implementing curriculum guidelines. We would be recognizing that teacher development and curriculum development are closely intertwined” (p. 114).
Hargreaves is implying how important time is to teachers. By giving it back, time can become a supportive companion as opposed to an enemy of freedom.
Extraordinary Vision
This connects to another important point regarding managing teachers. It is critical for administrators to recognize the role of supervision in teaching and learning environments. Supervision is often confused with evaluation. Supervision often involves forms of evaluation, but at its core supervision is about supporting the development of the individual. Sergiovanni and Starratt (2002) argue that “the purpose of supervision is to help increase the opportunity and the capacity of schools to contribute more effectively to students’ academic success” (authors' emphasis p. 6). In other words, supervision involves extraordinary vision; it’s more than about organizing teacher work schedules -- it’s about designing opportunities for teachers to continuously expand their capacity to learn, to care, to help each other, and to teach more effectively.
I feel the deeper issue here is the how and when – how and when does this supervision take place given the bureaucratic structures that continuously strip teachers of their ability to collaborate, cooperate, critically reflect, or simply sit still?
Sitting still
I discovered meditation, specifically sitting meditation (also known as zazen), about 15 years ago. I found that sitting still allowed me to be open to the many thoughts and feelings swirling around in my head. I began to realize that thoughts and feelings come and go and that the longer I sat, the stiller my mind would become. This stillness allowed me to see what was really important in my life; it left me feeling freer, more conscious of my thoughts, feelings, and actions. With time and effort, I was able to carry this consciousness into my non-sitting world.
I have often wondered how to incorporate stillness into the daily life of teachers. I find blogging requires a certain level of stillness as well; time to sit with my thoughts and reflect without distraction. Perhaps the act of reflective blogging could be a step that teachers can take to begin to still their mind and distill their thoughts and feelings. If blogging is introduced to teachers as yet one more thing to add to their list of duties, I believe it will fall flat. How might blogging be framed for teachers so that it is seen as meaningful? If we framed blogging as a professional development activity (a la Jeff Utecht’s 25% PD), would it then seem more sensible?
So how is it with you?
I am curious to know if blogging serves as a time-out for you, a chance to reflect on your thoughts or even the thoughts of others? Or is blogging a challenge, a chore, something that has to be done.
Perhaps I’m framing the issue too narrowly or missing the point. You tell me. I’d be curious to know.
References:
Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers’ work and culture in the postmodern age. New York: Teachers College Press.
Sergiovanni, T.J. & Starratt, R.J. (2002). Supervision: A redefinition. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Comments
Hi just wanted to thank you for the links which were very helpful. I can adapt these two articles and apply them to my undergraduates. The evaluation was useful too, I think it is rather difficult to evaluate something which is really very personal, the evaluation gives me rather more objective criteria to work with, when a personal reflection is so subjective.
One thing I discovered on the ballet blog was the comic book on copyright, which I will put on our WebCT PDP site - it is easy to read and entertaining!
I definitely use blogging as a time to reflect. I have not been able to reach the same level of meditative focus as you. My reading time is like what you describe, time to sit still, read, and reflect. My writing time is less so. For one reason or another, I develop my blog posts in my head as I go about my daily work, and then quickly put it down in writing when i have the chance.
I have seen some independent schools recognize the usefulness of free time to teachers and students and build 20-minute or so breaks into their daily schedule. A 20-minute block of time is too short to schedule, so it forces everyone to take a deep breath and relax, socially or introspectively. I have a lot more time to exercise the reflective part of my practice now that I am a tech director and no longer a classroom teacher.