The buzzwords we use don’t always meet the values to which we aspire
Those immersed in the educational milieu of our time are well acquainted with the buzzwords that surround our practice. We hear these words in professional development seminars and workshops, at conferences, and in educational publications. Words like ‘agency’, ‘self-directed’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘risk-taking’ are part and parcel of most graduate profiles. However, I believe we need to be careful what we wish for, because a quick glance at the daily news reveals certain spray-tanned world leaders having exactly these qualities!
The results of this are plain to see — ego run amok, ‘othering’ on a grand scale, division and disharmony, exclusion and exponential ignorance. The problem, of course, occurs when those competencies we so often champion, become radically divorced from the values that underlie our humanity. Empathy, compassion, manaakitanga, kotahitanga, and whanaungatanga. In a word, LOVE. THIS is where digital technology can REALLY be harnessed — not for dehumanising the Other, but for RE-humanising. Yet, how often do we use the word ‘love’ in our practice, and see it in our graduate profiles?
We are lucky here in Aotearoa New Zealand, as our own curriculum gives us license to develop these essential values:
- diversity, as found in our different cultures, languages, and heritages
- equity, through fairness and social justice
- community and participation for the common good.
Inspiration from a past student
A ‘Wow’ moment for me occurred in 2016. In the local paper I saw a profile of an ex-student of mine. She had been year 8 when I taught her in 2009. In the article, she described how she experienced a fundamental pivot in life direction, which she attributed to learning about child labour in our class that year. This sparked her interest in global issues and development, and she was about to set off to Vietnam to participate in a water project. Hearing about this kind of thing is what teachers live for!
Inspired by this, I revisited the issue of child labour with my class at the time. We learned that through World Vision we could repay a family’s debt and set a child labourer free for only $150! So, we came up with a plan. Our syndicate (about 100 children) divided into teams, each armed with a bucket, a 150-link metal chain, and some bolt-cutters. Each team headed off to a different part of Tauranga Moana — some in Papamoa, some at the Mount, some in Red Square, and elsewhere. Using graphic design posters made in class, we took this issue to the streets, inviting members of the public to contribute a gold coin, and to break one link of the metal chain. That morning we raised over $2000 — enough to set free 14 child labourers!
This was the inspiration for my 2017 eFellowship project, which looked at how global connection can increase children’s sense of agency around making a positive difference. I had seen it happen before. Could we do this again and identify what it was about the experience that really changed children’s hearts and minds. The context this time was around water justice.
eFellowship project around preparing students for a
meaningful future
Having spent time at school learning about the issues, I watched as the children articulated their learning passionately with members of the public all around Tauranga Moana, and we raised over $1300. And we knew exactly who would benefit — a small rural community in Kimilili, Kenya, and the school at the heart of it, the HIP Academy. This was a school I had connected with two years prior during another global project. This is how our learning was expressed in an authentic context of genuine need. The money went towards providing Bucket Filters, providing drinkable water for a community that previously relied on a single tap from a pretty muddy puddle.
For our learners, the very next day, to get back pictures from the HIP Academy, addressed to our school, thanking our learners for their help, really brought home to all of us that our actions can have a real and lasting effect on the lives of others.
The concepts of ‘Droplets’ became important to us. Yes, we may feel small, if we imagine ourselves as a single drop. In the face of the world and its problems, children really can feel quite small and powerless. But, who of us really doubts the power of those droplets when combined together, to create a tsunami of action and compassion?
What I hoped to highlight in my eFellowship project was that by making connections beyond ourselves, we make connections within ourselves and to our place in our world. These connections, combined with the values in our own curriculum, can be an incredible driver of change.
Agency and future-focused learning built on solid values
Agency is definitely one of the buzzwords we hear a lot, and I agree this one is super important. But, what does it really mean? Is it just a matter of a learner choosing when they would like to do maths, and where to sit? If it is, we are selling ourselves short, because student agency, when built on a rock-solid base in values, can have far reaching effects.
I often feel cynical during presentations about ‘21st century learning’, or ‘future focused education’. Who are we trying to create? Yes, the world is changing! The old model of education did seem to be on a trajectory towards university professorship, as though that were the ultimate outcome in the future of our learners. But nowadays, I wonder if the goal has become the creation of Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneurs. Are we really in the business of turning our learners into the next Tim Ferriss or Elon Musk? Is this any better than the old model?
Future-focused learning, if we must use the term, primarily needs to be based on values!
The future of the world we live in depends fundamentally not on whether our learners can code, app smash, and launch companies, but on being able to look at the world and imagine it better, and have not only the skills, but the values to make it happen: manaakitanga, kotahitanga, empathy, compassion and, yes, let’s say it — love.
The power we have as educators
How easily we underestimate the power we have as teachers. Our classrooms are the seedpods of the future, like dandelion seeds on a stalk. To plant a seed is an act of hope. It is a truly future-focused act. I believe that in teaching we do the same — we don’t know where the seeds will land, but we must carry this hope into our everyday practice.
We must remember that amongst the buzzwords, bells and whistles, our mission is so much greater than this. I’ve long thought the ‘E’ in ‘e-learning’ should stand for empathy — the recognition that there is no “Other”, just sister and brother. As teachers we have the power to redefine, reconnect, and rehumanise the future. It is a noble calling, and we should rise to it!
Craig McDonald-Brown discusses his eFellowship scholarship project
eFellow research – student awareness of global issues from EDtalks.
[showhide more_text=”Show transcript of video” less_text=”Hide transcript”]eFellow research – student awareness of global issues
There are a number of things that provided the context for what we did. One of the main things was seeing an article in the newspaper last year and it was a profile of an ex-student of mine that I taught back in 2009, in a year eight class. And in the article, she describes that learning, which was about child labour, is a kind of a fundamental pivot in her life and actually the… what happened in her life following on from that was quite incredible. She went on to go to Vietnam and to Africa and to be constantly engaged in these projects, and she said that way of looking at the world really kicked off while we were learning about child labour. And so I invited her back to speak to our learners last year — year five and sixes — and that reignited that interest in learning about child labour. And, one of the things we found out was that for about $150 we could set a child labourer free by repaying the family’s debt. And so, we got 150 link-metal chains, and we took them out into the streets in Papamoa, and Tauranga, and Mount Maunganui, and we invited members of the public to break the chains with our bolt cutters for a gold coin donation. That morning alone we raised over $2000, which was enough to set free 15 child labourers, and seeing the impact that that had on the children — knowing that they’d made such a real-world difference — that prompted my eFellowship inquiry.
And so, the inquiry is looking into, how does that sense of global connection activate children’s sense of being able to make a difference, so, ‘student agency’ on a grand scale, I suppose, or ‘student agency’ that’s personally meaningful in their lives. My students were year five and six, but I’m hoping that the things that we’ve uncovered and the patterns that we’ve found would apply to children across a number of different ages. And one thing I’ve found is that children are very motivated by issues of fairness. And, what I’ve found during the study this year was that towards the start of the study, when I was collecting student voice before we’d even started learning about the issues, their explanations about poverty, and the causes behind it, and what they could do were quite simplistic.
As we started to unravel the issues and learn more about it, they started to ask questions about why, why are there countries like this and our country is like this, and it’s not fair, this concept of fairness came up a lot. And by the time we collected the final data towards the end of the inquiry, the students were really taking it on board and personalising, and their level of questioning got to a much deeper level, actually, and wondering what the implications were for their own lives. This year, we weren’t looking at child labour, we were looking at the issue of water justice. And we learned that over 600 million people live without access to clean water, and if they had clean water we could eliminate 80% of disease in the world.
And so, so it was a different issue, but it raised the same kinds of questions. And, we’d previously made contact with a little community in rural Kenya in a village called Kimilili. And, so all the while we were learning about this water issue, when we finally went to take action in the streets again, this time around the water issue, the students knew exactly who they were helping and who they were raising the money for. And this time we raised $1,300, and that went towards providing bucket filters for the people in this village who, before that, didn’t really have a source of drinkable water. And, I think that really showed the children that their learning carried into action can have quite an effect, and a long-lasting effect.
I guess what I’ve discovered is that children are thirsty for learning about global connection, and they’re thirsty for that connection itself, and it seems to be an inherent motivation and engagement within that. I’ve found that children are naturally motivated by the concept of justice and fairness, and I think, as teachers, if we provide the context for learning about that, and it’s an authentic context — motivated by a genuine need — then the rest seems to fall into place.
And that’s when a story starts to come through of a student who, perhaps had learnt about this years ago, but the penny had dropped somewhere along the way, and they’ve made real concrete decisions in their own life that prioritise some of these issues around the needs of others. I had another boy who was in that group studying child labour last year, and then, this year, once all that was behind us, and just of his own volition, he decided to donate $150 of his birthday and Christmas money to set free a child labourer because he knew that he could, and he knew that’s what it took, and he was happy to sacrifice his own money that he’d got from his grandparents and so forth to do that. And that, to me, is an example of the learning sticking, from one context, and not just forgotten and moved on to the next topic of inquiry, but it really seems to stay with them.
As a next step, I’d really like to inquire into the ability of these kinds of projects to develop empathy amongst children for whom empathy is a real struggle. I recognise that the children in my group were… were self-selected; they opted into the global connection group, and then my smaller subset within that, they put up their hands and said, “Yeah, I’d like to be involved”, and so I did have children on my hands, I think, who were naturally outwardly focused, and who had a bit of that sense of empathy already. I’d really like to look at how we can create the context where children who … who are lacking some of the empathic mindset can start to show signs of developing that by connecting with people — other people — in the world, and especially those whose situations are less fortunate than their own.
I would definitely encourage my peers to apply for the eFellowship, and, in fact, I’ve done that in the school that I’ve just started working at. I think it’s an incredible opportunity to connect with other teachers who think deeply about similar kinds of issues — to be exposed to different educational contexts around New Zealand. And, also have the opportunity to contribute and give back to the wider educational community through EDtalks, through uLearn, through the conferences, and just the relationships that we build.
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Image Credits:
Street collection: by the author
Nigerian children: by Livingstone Kegode
Blowing dandelion: by Pero 1 on Wikimedia under CC 3.0
Craig McDonald-Brown
Latest posts by Craig McDonald-Brown (see all)
- The ‘E’ in E-Learning is for Empathy - April 24, 2018
Ohh such a touching and poignant read Craig thank you. This speaks to me great because you’re talking my people in our town and about being human in a very digital age. That’s even more important now, where data can be harvested from social media channels to sway a judgement and create a vacuum of misinformation. There’s a real need for our kids to be aware of the covert manipulation as well as realising the potential for good – where social media and digital tools can become a catalyst for change, solving local problems and righting some human wrongs. Giving our students opportunities to engage with real world issues as well as the guidance to be better ‘morally situated’ (access, equity, diversity, agency) in a global community, is something that sits well in a future-focused Curriculum. I see how this would also need to fit into implementing the new Digital Technologies curricula.
Thanks Tessa, really appreciate your feedback and encouragement. I feel the tension within myself too – sometimes I can’t decide if we’d (I’d) be better off without the technology or not! But ultimately it’s what we do with it, and as teachers we have a powerful role in setting the example to our learners. Electricity needs to be grounded eh?!
Thank you Craig – this is such an inspirational example of young people being confident, connected and citizens of today through the guidance you provided by focusing on the values that are important to us all – empathy and love for fellow humans and the world we all live in. I’ll be sharing your story with many others.
Thanks Carolyn, really appreciate you sharing this. There is so much potential for our learners to be world-changers – we just need to show them how easy it can be. Meaningful learning always sinks (syncs?) in the deepest.