Spring 2003 Issue
Spring 2003 Reviews of Current Books (Full-Text)
Order
the Spring 2003 issue
Click here
to browse back issues of Harvard Educational Review
Back to top
Harvard Educational Review
Spring 2003 Article Abstracts:
Correcting the SAT's Ethnic and Social-Class Bias: A Method for Reestimating
SAT Scores
Roy O. Freedle
The SAT has been shown to be both culturally and statistically biased
against African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. In
this article, Roy Freedle argues for a corrective scoring method, the
Revised-SAT (R-SAT), to address the nonrandom ethnic test bias patterns
found in the SAT. The R-SAT, which scores only the "hard" items on the
test, is shown to reduce the mean-score difference between African American
and White SAT test-takers by one-third. Further, the R-SAT shows an increase
in SAT verbal scores by as much as 200 to 300 points for individual minority
test-takers. Freedle also argues that low-income White examinees benefit
from the revised score as well. He develops several cognitive and cultural
hypotheses to explain the ethnic regularities in responses to various
test items. Freedle concludes by offering some predictions as to how ethnic
populations are likely to be affected by the new designs currently being
proposed for the SAT, and describes the implications of the R-SAT for
increasing minority admission to select colleges. (pp. 1-43)
Constructing Women's Status: Policy Discourses of University Women's
Commission Reports
Elizabeth J. Allan
In this article, Elizabeth J. Allan explores how discourses embedded
in university women's commission reports position women as victims, outsiders
to the structure and culture of the institution, and as being in need
of professional development. Using policy discourse analysis, Allan examines
discourses generated by university women's commissions, which are policy-focused
groups advocating for gender equity in higher education. Allan analyzes
the text of twenty-one commission reports issued at four research universities
from 1971 to 1996, and illustrates how dominant discourses of femininity,
access, and professionalism contribute to constructing women's status
in complex ways and may have the unintended consequence of undermining
the achievement of gender equity. She also explores how a caregiving discourse
is drawn on and challenges institutional norms of the academic workplace.
Allan provides four suggestions for improving university women's commissions,
including promoting awareness of policy as discourse; analyzing frameworks
and assumptions of policy reports; examining implications of policy recommendations;
and looking at how policy discourses construct images of women. (pp. 44-72)
The Use of Argumentation in Haitian Creole Science Classrooms
Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes
In this article, Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes critiques the claim that Haitian
children cannot actively engage in science classrooms. Drawing from her
own work as a bilingual science teacher and educational researcher, Hudicourt-Barnes
highlights the Haitian cultural practice of bay odyans, a form of discourse
similiar to scientific argumentation, as a potential building block for
engaging Haitian children in scientific inquiry. She offers specific examples
of Haitian students recreating bay odyans in science classrooms,
and suggests that these students have a cultural experience that predisposes
them to scientific inquiry. In making links between culture, scientific
inquiry, and pedagogy, Hudicourt-Barnes seeks to broaden the research
perspective on Haitian students and discourage the use of research paradigms
that ignore the impact of culture in the classroom. (pp. 73-93)
Back to top
Harvard Educational Review
Spring 2003 Reviews of Current Books
(Full Text)
A Mind at a Time
by Mel Levine.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. 352 pp. $26.00, $14.00 (paper).
In A Mind at a Time, Mel Levine makes his significant body of
work about how children learn accessible to a larger audience. Throughout
his lengthy career as a professor of pediatrics, chief of ambulatory pediatrics
at Children's Hospital in Boston, director of North Carolina University's
Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, and founder
of an organization called All Kinds of Minds, Levine has been instrumental
in guiding teachers, parents, and children to assess and work with learning
differences in school-aged children. A Mind at a Time is based
on "objective observation . . . in which children and their families
tell most of the story"; however, the book also is situated within
the research in the field of child development and learning. Through vignettes,
descriptions of how the brain functions, and suggestions for parents and
teachers on how to observe strengths and weaknesses in children's learning,
Levine accomplishes his stated goal: "To provide a road map for parents
and teachers, enabling them to observe as children develop and mature
through their school years the unfolding of important mind functions that
play a leading role in school performance (and in career success)"
(p. 15).
Levine's work is based on his belief that not all minds are equal, nor
should they be, and that adults unrealistically pressure children to be
proficient in all areas of school. He writes, "It's taken for granted
in adult society that we cannot all be generalists skilled in every area
of learning and mastery. Nevertheless, we apply tremendous pressure on
our children to be good at everything" (p. 23). Levine focuses
on the challenges that students who have difficulty in school face, yet
does not call these challenges disabilities. This makes Levine what he
calls a "splitter" rather than a "lumper": a splitter
is unwilling to reduce, or lump, students' individual differences into
any one category, and believes that students have more differences than
similarities. To this end, Levine suggests using comprehensive observation
and detailed description of a child, rather than using a categorical label,
such as "learning disabled." Whether or not educators and parents
agree or disagree with the labeling of disabilities, all adults working
with children can benefit from Levine's understanding of the differences
in children's learning styles.
The bulk of A Mind at a Time focuses on what Levine calls the
"neurodevelopmental systems." These systems are composed of
eight smaller systems: attention control, memory, language, spatial ordering,
sequential ordering, motor, higher thinking, and social thinking systems,
which are "dependent on one another. . . . At any point, the strength
of functions within each system directly influences performance in and
out of school" (p. 30).
Chapters three through nine address these eight systems. All chapters
have a similar structure that makes the vast amount of information in
this book accessible to both teachers and parents. In each chapter, Levine
begins by breaking the system into specific, workable chunks. For example,
the memory system is divided into short-term memory, active working memory,
and long-term memory; the motor system is broken into gross motor, fine
motor, graphomotor, and musical motor subsystems. Levine then describes
each system in detail using his formidable knowledge of learning, student
vignettes, and teaching tools he has developed over the years. One such
tool is the "Concentration Cockpit," which is used to help children
understand the nature of their attention and how to control it. The illustration
resembles a jet plane's cockpit, with each meter labeled low, on/off,
good, and super. A child draws the needle where she or he thinks it should
be. This task gives children a better understanding of their strengths
and weaknesses as they relate to attention, and helps them develop strategies
to both support their weaknesses and capitalize on their strengths.
Two sections follow at the end of each chapter on systems: Minds Over
Time: Keeping a Watchful Eye On [the specific system] and Practical Considerations.
Both provide a wealth of information to help teachers and parents understand
and find positive ways to address all learning needs. Keeping a Watchful
Eye offers parents and teachers benchmark information to use when observing
children. For example, for the attention control system, Levine writes,
"During the earliest grades in school, you should expect to see fairly
intact control over mental energy; your kids should have achieved a nice
balance between sleep and wakefulness" (p. 83). In the Practical
Considerations section for the chapter about attention, Levine explains
that by following his suggestions, a child can learn to recognize when
he or she is losing control and identify which particular aspect of control
needs to be worked on. "In many respects," Levine writes, "the
opposite of impulsivity is good problem-solving skills. Therefore a systematic
approach to dealing with challenges and setbacks should be taught and
actively practiced" (p. 87).
The remaining sections of the book focus on how to use the information
Levine has presented. Chapters ten and eleven develop the Management by
Profile system, what Levine calls a "logical and systemic approach
to the educational care of kids" (p. 277). This profile system contains
the problems students have, strengthens their weak areas, and helps them
"get the most from the way [they are]" (p. 277). Levine identifies
six points where learning problems occur and evaluation should focus:
trouble mastering skills, acquiring facts of knowledge, accomplishing
output, understanding, approaching tasks systematically, and handling
the rate and number of demands. He then urges readers to "manage
profiles rather than isolated weak spots" (p. 278), stating that
"the educational needs of a child with mental energy control problems
and superb language skills are going to be different from those of one
who has similar attention problems but additionally carries the burden
of receptive language dysfunctions" (p. 278).
In chapter twelve, "Raisin' Brain," Levine focuses on how parents
can help their children at home. He encourages parents to know their children
well, respond to their weaknesses, and capitalize on their strengths.
He also asks parents to collaborate with schools to help develop the best
possible education for their children. In chapter thirteen, Levine discusses
how to develop schools that "tolerate, educate, and celebrate all
kinds of minds" (p. 307). He believes that a school that educates
all students would consider teachers as lead observers and informed advisers.
Such a school would involve parents in meaningful ways. Levine says he
would support schools that help students to understand their own learning
and that offer more options for student success, such as finding areas
in which a student can be an expert and assuring them that they have a
broad knowledge base.
In A Mind at a Time, Levine accomplishes his goal of providing
parents and teachers with a road map to help them understand and help
all students to be successful. It is an important book for professionals
and those interested in how learning takes place for all kinds of minds.
L.K.
A Woman's Education
by Jill Ker Conway.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001. 143 pp. $22.00.
Jill Ker Conway's A Women's Education begins with a description
of her annual summer journey from Toronto to a farm in Conway, New Hampshire,
over winding roads along the "twists and turns of the Mill River,
a fast-running stream interrupted by the stillness of deep-brown trout
pools" (p. 5). The description is an appropriate metaphor for the
book, the third in her three-part memoir of her experiences as the first
woman president of Smith College. Conway's book is a rare and intimate
portrait of her presidency during a time of transition and challenge for
women's colleges. The book is also a narrative of her personal life outside
the president's office as she supports her husband John through his manic
depression and also seeks to maintain her own interests and passions.
The book is captivating as it offers an inside view of the life of a
college president. Conway describes the president's role in balancing
constituents' demands between practical considerations and one's own vision.
She also reflects on the tribulations and exaltations of one woman doing
one difficult job, setting a new course for both the institution and herself.
I was inspired by Conway's actions as a president and wholeheartedly enjoyed
her refreshing candor as she described her journey.
The first chapter begins when Conway is invited to meet with the Smith
College Presidential Search Committee. It is obvious that the committee
was interested in Conway, and the rest of the chapter, entitled "Choice,"
describes her internal struggle over whether or not to become president.
She explains, "If invited [to be president], I'd be facing a decision
that would change my life course and John's. . . . The question was one
of service. Where did I belong?" (p. 15). In arriving at this decision,
Conway reviewed her personal history (previously explained in her first
two books, The Road from Coorain and True North) of her
childhood on an Australian sheep farm, her graduate school education at
Harvard as a historian, her marriage to John, and her work as a University
of Toronto administrator. Conway reveals her fears that she enjoyed the
scholar's detached role and opportunity to preserve and protect her own
identity, and that caring for John during his episodes of mania or depression
would be nearly impossible with the demands of a president's schedule.
She also conveys her excitement about the prospect of preserving a women's
college and expanding existing research on women's issues. When the search
committee offered Conway the job, she "decided to throw the dice"
(p. 23) and to accept.
Conway left Toronto in July 1975 to become Smith's president. She describes
some of her early actions as president, such as approving the budget,
launching an admissions program for older women, and confronting a shrinking
endowment. As she does throughout much of the book, Conway links the spirit
of the institution to the physical place. She provides a rich description
of the Connecticut River Valley, where Smith is situated, as a "source
of energy" and a place with a history she calls "sustaining"
(p. 27).
Conway next recounts the college's origins and describes the tensions
she encountered in the faculty's understanding of the purposes of Smith
College. She presents the college's two "founding utopian ideals,"
concepts held by two contingents of faculty members, which came to influence
her decisions about Smith's future. One contingent saw the education of
women as the "saving remnant in a capitalistic society" (p.
33), while the other saw it as an effort to equip women to enter politics
and professions. The differences in faculty values were reflected in the
larger debate in the 1970s about the future of women's colleges as self-sustaining
entities. As Conway encountered these realities at Smith, she was struck
by the "feistiness" of the college's governing board in selecting
her as president, since her scholarship on the history of women, and her
position on radically redefining the past challenged traditional academic
views of history and could suggest that she would lead Smith College in
a new direction. She recalls that she was excited about looking out on
the "terrain for my new endeavors," but as she contemplated
this "paradise" she realized that she had "no idea just
how hard this particular Eve was going to have to work" (p. 37).
The third chapter, "Energy Field," is Conway's tribute to the
women of Smith College and an examination of the political pressures that
she says "constantly flowed around and within any program to advance
women's knowledge base" (p. 40). The political pressures manifested
themselves in the various Smith College constituencies and debates over
Smith's mission in the twentieth century. Conway explains her strategy
for navigating among her constituents and their competing interests, and
her stance on scholarship, the curriculum, and the academic and feminist
politics of the mid-1970s. The chapter concludes with various memories
of celebrations and individual student triumphs. As the book nears the
mid-point, readers can sense Conway's personal identity shift. She remembers,
"When I came to Smith, I was used to hiding behind academic robes
. . . physically present but not fully there. . . . I'd never been fully
present before. I'd participated, but never with the visceral sense of
leading my own kind" (pp. 57-58).
For those who are interested in the specific responsibilities of a college
president, the fourth chapter, "Job Description," captures many
of Conway's duties and roles. What becomes clear is the comprehensiveness
of the role, as well as Conway's frequent "hat-switching." It
is obvious that Conway loved many aspects of the job, yet did not enjoy
others. She is less specific about those elements, although she does outline
some of her challenges of that first decade: faculty opposition to her
leadership and ideas, attempts to change curricular content through new
incentive structures, procedural debates with faculty, fundraising and
alumni relations, financial management, introduction of new programs,
and scholarships that changed the college's demographics. However, she
prefers to highlight the "40 percent of the job [that] was so emotionally
and intellectually fulfilling that the other 60 percent didn't matter"
(p. 61). Through it all, Conway recalls her vision for the college and
reveals her strategies for implementing this vision as well as hurdles
she had to overcome.
The fifth chapter, "Scholars with Pines," is perhaps one of
the strongest, allowing the reader a chance to know Jill Ker Conway the
person as well as the president, particularly her activities, passions,
and pursuits outside of her presidential duties. Her descriptions of her
multiyear project designing and planting the garden and landscape of her
home with John, and her stories about sharing poetry with him in the evenings
when they were both home, were sweetly intimate reminders of the importance
of living a life that balances the work of the institution with one's
other pleasures and commitments.
In the sixth and seventh chapters, Conway describes her work in the 1980s
and the politics of women's education that influenced this work. This
was a period of increasing competition for students and a time during
which she attempted to mobilize the campus around her vision for Smith's
future - the introduction of new disciplines, such as computer science,
the expansion of the curriculum, attention to women's athletic programs
- all aspects of a ten-year strategic plan she developed during this time.
She reflects on what she learned by working at this "female-controlled"
organization, and contemplates such issues as how to change core institutions,
how to use her voice and position to catalyze change, the inclusion of
the study of women and non-Western fields, and the importance of the "rationale
and institutional framework for women's intellectual life" (p. 133).
The seventh chapter provides a broader historical perspective on the issues
in women's education, as well as other issues of inclusion in academia
and shifts in the direction of feminist scholarship.
The book concludes with Conway's description of her "sostenuto,"
the closing days of her years at Smith, as she reflected upon her decade
as president and looked forward to consider the next part of her life's
"symphony." She affirms that the "objective that brought
me to Smith had been realized" (p. 138) - that is, she left Smith
as an institution that was thriving both academically and financially.
As Conway contemplates her next professional endeavor, she explains what
she seeks: time to learn, to write, and to create a "counter record
to the feminist ideals I thought so mistaken" (p. 141); to learn
to analyze environmental issues; and to help manage institutions such
as corporations, foundations, and colleges as a board member or advisor.
This book is applicable to readers interested in the college presidency,
in women's colleges, in scholarship and feminism, and for those who are
looking to learn about a tough woman doing a tough job while confronting
real challenges, enjoying a multitude of successes, and trying to live
a life that is balanced between work, family, and obligations to self.
H.G.P.
Towards the Essence of Adult Experiential Learning
by Anita Malinen.
Jyväskylä, Finland: SoPHI Academic Press, 2000. 174 pp. $24.95.
In Towards the Essence of Adult Experiential Learning, Anita Malinen
argues that the broad field of adult education is "suffering from
paradigmatic plurality" (p. 12). With its fragmented contributions
from pedagogy to cognition, there is no common theory of adult learning.
In the interest of refining both her own theory and advancing the credibility
of an otherwise autonomous academic field, Malinen searches for an "all-embracing,
universally generalizable theory upon which to base the study and practice
of adult education" (p. 12). In this book, Malinen - an adult educator,
researcher, and philosopher from the University of Jyväskylä
in Finland - bravely enters into this challenge, analyzing the complexities
of and connections among five specific adult learning theories.
Malinen focuses her attention on the concept of adult experiential education,
which is sometimes viewed as a conceptual framework and sometimes as a
technique for engaging adults in their personal experiences of learning.
Since the topic of adult experiential learning includes a broad
range of authors, Malinen specified her research to five theorists who
are widely published, represent a diverse cross-section of the field,
and are considered "major figures" in adult education.
These five theorists include Malcolm Knowles, David Kolb, Jack Mezirow,
Reginald Revans, and Donald Schön. Malcolm Knowles' 40-year-old approach
to adult learning, called "andragogy," challenges what he defines
as a traditional approach to pedagogy. In his view, adult learning should
be self-directed and involve a process of active inquiry, which is initiated
by the learner. His framework, which Malinen carefully examines, is based
on the theories of John Dewey, Eduard Lindeman, Abraham Maslow, and Carl
Rogers. David Kolb considers learning to be an "emergent, continuous,
cyclical, holistic and adaptive process" (p. 69). The epistemological
grounding for his work comes from Jean Piaget, Kurt Lewin, and John Dewey.
Jack Mezirow focuses on "transformational learning" in which
an adult acquires "more developmentally advanced meaning perspectives"
(p. 91). Mezirow's ideas of transformation, grounded in critical theory,
also include a new awareness of social and cultural power. Reginald Revan's
theory of action learning, developed more than forty years ago as an approach
for employees to actively engage with resolving management problems, "emphasizes
'real-life' on-the-job learning" (p. 57). The fifth theorist, Donald
Schön, bases his reflection-in-action theory on constructivist education,
which posits that a learner makes meaning of an experience based on his
or her own understanding of reality. In forming a more cohesive theory
for adult education, Malinen weaves together these five authors' concepts
of teaching and learning to work toward a universal theory of experiential
education.
Malinen builds her interpretation of the five theories around three categories.
The first category, which she explores in chapter three, concerns research
problems about knowledge and knowing, including questions such as, "How
is knowledge and knowing defined? What is the content of knowledge? What
are the subjective conditions of knowing?" (p. 22). By comparing
the five theories, Malinen concludes that "knowledge of reality does
not lie in the individual subject, nor in the known object, but in the
dynamic flow between these two" (p. 54).
In chapter four, Malinen considers the second category, which includes
research problems about the conception of individual dimensions of adult
experiential learning that she presented in earlier chapters. She addresses
questions such as, "What is meant by experience? What is the position
and meaning of the learner's experience in the learning process? What
is meant by 'reflection' in the learning-process?" (p. 22). Exploring
the relationship between culture and individual, Malinen asserts that
the individual is never free from his or her social context. The individual,
in other words, experiences learning through the transaction between his
self and his environment at any given moment in time. "For these
reasons," Malinen writes, "it is impossible to think of experiential
learning at all except . . . from a social point of view" (p. 100).
The final category, chapter five, builds on the relationship between
the individual and his or her environment by considering the social dimensions
of adult experiential learning. Malinen asks, "In what kind of context
does learning occur? What kind of role does interaction play in the learning
process? What does educating an adult mean? What qualities are required
for an adult educator?" (p. 22). Through the exploration of these
questions, Malinen concludes that the relationship between the adult educator
and the adult learner "is a process between existential and epistemological
perspectives" (p. 132). Practically, this means that since teaching
practice and the learning process are based on the balance of the educator's
and the student's epistemological foundations, one cannot say that there
is only one way to learn or to teach a particular subject. However, Malinen
argues, this does not mean that the relationship between the teacher and
the learner is obsolete. In fact, it is "essential in establishing
the quality of . . . learning" (p. 133).
To help readers see how these five theories intersect, Malinen often
uses columns, putting the five authors' words side by side to distinguish
varying epistemologies and methodologies. Although this strategy can be
useful when comparing specific phrases involved with similar concepts,
such as a "Mezirowian disorienting dilemma, a Schönian
element of surprise, a Revansian recognition of a common ignorance,
a Knowlesian real or simulated experience, and a Kolbian surprising,
unanticipated experience" (pp. 62-63), the complexity of these ideas
still feels tangled. Out of their published context, the large portions
of quoted text are difficult for the reader to absorb, and Malinen's analysis
of these texts is complicated by her use of vocabulary that is defined
differently by each of the theorists. Though Malinen's effort to uncover
the subtle differences in the five theories is impressive, the book would
have been strengthened had she included less of their published texts
and more summation of her comprehensive findings.
The intricate questions that Malinen explores in these pages can at times
be overwhelming. However, readers who are already familiar with the theories
of Knowles, Kolb, Mezirow, Revans, and Schön will find this book
useful for exploring the epistemological nuances of five central theories
of adult experiential education.
A.H.
Exploring the Moral Heart of Teaching: Toward a Teacher's Creed
by David Hansen.
New York: Teachers College Press, 2001. 240 pp. $46.00, $21.95 (paper).
In his preface to Exploring the Moral Heart of Teaching: Toward a
Teacher's Creed, David Hansen states his central premise in compelling
terms:
Good teaching involves enriching, not impoverishing, students'
understandings of self, others, and the world. It means expanding, not
contracting, students' knowledge, insights, and interests. It means deepening,
not rendering more shallow, students' ways of thinking and feeling. And
it entails paying intellectual and moral attention as a teacher. (p. ix)
In the eight chapters that follow, this educational philosopher explores
and illustrates his conception of teaching as "a moral and intellectual
practice with a rich tradition." The text is loosely divided into
three sections. The first focuses on the person in the role of the teacher,
the qualities that teachers should cultivate in the growing student, and
their interaction with students in the learning environment. The second
offers a concrete example of Rousseau's concept of teaching indirectly.
The third addresses the place of both tradition and ideals in teaching.
This carefully reasoned and clearly written text raises fundamental questions
about who should teach, how, and why. Hansen's insights should resonate
not only with scholars of Rousseau and Dewey, but also with aspiring teachers
seeking a theoretical framework and moral foundation for their art and
craft.
Before introducing his own conception of teaching, Hansen reviews current
activity-based and outcome-centered conceptions of teaching. The activity-based
conception, he argues, focuses on the means of teaching, viewing teaching
in one of three ways: as a "job whose tasks are clear cut and obvious"
(p. 2); as an occupation with "an established and valued set of activities
carried out by a group of people trained and perhaps licensed to perform
it" (p. 3); or as a profession in which teachers presumably
have "greater autonomy and voice in setting the terms of the work"
(p. 3). In contrast, the outcome-centered conceptions focus on ends, such
as "academic learning, socialization and acculturation, readiness
for work, political agency and understanding, cultural identity and awareness,
[or] religious faith and practice" (p. 4).
However, Hansen claims that neither conception is sufficient:
Activity-based conceptions can presume too rigid a view . .
. and reduce the practice to a set of procedures. . . . Outcome-based
views, on the other hand, can focus so heavily on results or ends that
the means of their realization are treated in an instrumental manner .
. . teachers are treated in an instrumental manner. (p. 5)
Thus, both conceptions "can ignore, or even dismiss, the dynamic
human element at the heart of teaching and learning" (p. 12). As
an alternative, Hansen proposes his conception of teaching as a moral
and intellectual practice "that pivots around the ideas of practice
and tradition" (p. 2), terms that he explores in great
depth later. In the opening chapter, Hansen introduces the idea of "practice"
by emphasizing the importance of the individual person who takes on the
role of teacher, in particular that person's "initiative and imagination,"
to shape the role by giving it "distinctive intellectual and moral
substance" (p. 9). He describes tradition as "a dialogue across
human generations" (p. 9), and argues that educators must develop
a sense of tradition about the values of teaching in order to develop
a richer perspective, giving teachers both the "critical distance"
and the ability to "engage in self-scrutiny" (p. 7), which in
turn will allow them to respond, rather than just react, to the challenging
conditions of the work. Hansen shows his deep investment in a vision of
teaching that honors both the current practice in classrooms and the "enduring
terms" of teaching.
This chapter also offers a clear overview of the organization of the
book, with an excellent synopsis for scholars seeking an efficient way
to preview this text. Readers can sense that Hansen takes seriously his
responsibility as an author to define his terms and guide his readers
clearly and carefully through his thinking. Particularly for a book about
educational philosophy, the text is smooth, concise, and reader friendly.
In chapter two, Hansen delves more deeply into the question of "who
should teach and how they should teach" (p. 20) by discussing three
central concepts: person, conduct, and sensibility. After a somewhat unwieldy
analysis of what it means to be a person, Hansen focuses on the fact that
"the teacher has a sense of agency, can fashion intentions, can act
on them, can think about what he or she does, can feel things . . . can
use imagination . . . can remember things pertinent of the work [and]
is a social being" (p. 24). Many, Hansen notes, take these qualities
for granted, since all teachers are people. Yet this personhood, he says,
is what allows teachers to fulfill their central task, to "recognize
and cultivate the emergence of personhood in the young" (p. 24),
in ways machines or functionaries never could. In his discussion of conduct,
Hansen emphasizes the teacher's aims and intentions as distinguished from
thoughtless behavior. In discussing Dewey's description of our "permanent
tendencies to act," Hansen embraces a view of teaching in which teachers
recognize their agency not only over their own lives but also over their
students' lives. He views teachers as people with great influence who
must have a certain "moral sensibility to bring reason and
emotion together" (p. 32). Offering anecdotes of teacher-student
relationships to illustrate the moral dimensions of the teacher's role,
he concludes, "To teach well implies, at one and the same time, cultivating
a moral sensibility, enlarging one's person, and enriching one's conduct"
(p. 40). This inspiring, albeit somewhat idealistic, vision of the teacher's
role supports Hansen's view that teaching is "an opportunity rather
than an intimidating burden" (p. 40). Aspiring teachers may feel
that this clearly expressed vision is a helpful guide, and veterans may
feel that Hansen's concepts serve as a valuable touchstone to help remind
them why they became teachers. It is refreshing to find a scholar who
emphasizes the social and humane dimensions of teaching, which are so
often either assumed or overlooked.
In chapter three, Hansen shifts his focus to explore the "image
of the growing, educated person [that] might guide a teacher's work with
students" (p. 17). Building on Dewey's work, Hansen defines and illustrates
various qualities that he feels teachers should envision in their students:
straightforwardness, simplicity, spontaneity, naiveté, open-mindedness
and open-heartedness, integrity of purpose, responsibility, and seriousness.
Although these descriptors feel reminiscent of the character values that
many schools promote, Hansen goes beyond listing the terms to explore
their philosophical roots in the works of Rousseau and Dewey. For example,
when discussing responsibility, Hansen writes,
In Dewey's terms, responsibility is the propensity "to
see something through." It is the predilection "to consider
in advance the probable consequences of any projected step and deliberately
to accept them: to accept them in the sense of taking them into account,
acknowledging them in action, not yielding to a mere verbal assent."
(Dewey, quoted on p. 52)
Hansen emphasizes both the moral and the intellectual dimensions of these
qualities: "Such a person is becoming someone who can act in the
world rather than merely being acted upon, . . . who not only can think
and judge but who also connects or embeds thought and judgment into actual
conduct" (p. 60). While acknowledging that this image of a growing
person is neither complete nor inclusive, the author points out that the
image still can serve as a starting point for teachers who truly seek
to "broaden and deepen the persons [the students] are" (p. 57).
In chapter four, Hansen continues to expand on the work of Rousseau and
Dewey, addressing a common belief that "teachers educate through
the intermediary of the environment" (p. 63), which they design,
control, and regulate. Hansen outlines some of Rousseau's concrete recommendations
- such as paying close attention to the physical setting and using time
wisely - that any experienced teacher will recognize as being central
to classroom management. He then examines how Dewey reconstructed Rousseau's
concept of indirect teaching, explaining that the educational environment
should be simplified (respecting students' capacities), purified (calling
forth students' best thinking), balanced (promoting individual development
and a social and moral consciousness), and steadying (helping students
integrate their experiences at school, home, work, and play). Yet Hansen
also clarifies that "the environment depends on the agency, intentions,
and actions of individual persons" (p. 75). In ways reminiscent of
David Hawkins' "three-term relationship" among teacher, student,
and subject matter, Hansen explores the intricate connections between
the person in the role of the teacher, the image of the growing person
he or she is trying to cultivate, and the environment that will support
this growth.
Having laid the philosophical foundations, Hansen next includes a one-chapter
section that offers readers a concrete example of indirect teaching: his
own course for teacher candidates that he has taught at Columbia University.
Although chapter five may seem oddly placed between the two more philosophical
sections of the book, the specificity with which he describes his course,
including study of Dewey's Democracy and Education, should hold
great appeal for teacher educators, and for laymen seeking to ground Hansen's
abstract concepts in real-world interactions between teachers and students.
Hansen views his own class as a "model, or projection, of the spirit
in which they [the teacher candidates] might teach in the future"
(p. 109). He details his pedagogical approach, called focused discussion,
built on Socratic dialogue. Although the basics - arranging chairs before
class, designing small-group activities that encourage participation,
promoting student leadership - may sound familiar, Hansen simultaneously
discusses the moral foundations of these decisions and their effect on
students. The course is not just an academic endeavor, but also one in
which Hansen strives to promote "purposeful, trustworthy human relations"
(p. 113).
In the final three chapters, the author elaborates on the role of tradition
in teaching as well as the place of ideals, in particular the ideal of
tenacious humility - a stance with which teachers might strive to approach
their work. He examines the living tradition of teaching, rather than
the politicized sense of tradition, as either a conservative's dream or
a progressive's nightmare, arguing that this vision of tradition "encourages
a teacher to see her or himself as a being in time, as a person responsible
for ensuring that things of value - knowledge, understandings, outlooks
- endure in a dynamic way for future generations" (p. 115). Drawing
on the work of Harold Bloom, Hansen discusses how a sense of tradition,
as distinguished from just a knowledge of history, can both connect and
distance one from those who came before, thus "animating a teacher's
consciousness" (p. 124). He further asserts that a sense of tradition
provides teachers with critical distance from contemporary conceptions
of teaching and promotes healthy self-criticism, including of one's own
traditions. In chapter seven he offers an in-depth exploration of Rebecca
Bushnell's study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century educational practices
in England in order to illustrate both her "respect for historical
origins and precedents" (p. 146) and her willingness to "heed
the past as well as to read it" (p. 147). He writes,
The sense of tradition yields insight into . . . the opportunity,
the privilege, the adventure and the moral and intellectual responsibility
that accompany taking on the mantle of teacher. This standpoint enables
teachers to talk productively across what may be perceived as different
pedagogical traditions, or as differences about means and ends within
the practice. . . . It opens the way to valuable criticism that keeps
in view the long-term health of the practice. (p. 136)
Readers will not be surprised, based on Hansen's emphasis on the moral
dimensions of teaching, that his final chapter addresses the "promise
and perils" (p. 158) of ideals in teaching. He states that ideals
can "provide a source of guidance and courage" yet may also
"override reason" or "have problematic results" (p.
160). In closing, Hansen revisits how tenacious humility - an active quality
of staying the course while respecting reality - is an ideal to which
teachers should aspire. He writes, "For teachers, the ideal aspect
of tenacious humility gives an orientation to their thought and imagination,
while the regulative aspect helps guide their concrete approach in the
classroom" (p. 170). Making oneself a better person and teacher and
promoting the same in one's students, Hansen says, is an ongoing journey:
"It is an image of determination allied with openness, of a commitment
to think and to question wedded to action . . . an increased attunement
to other people and their individuality. . . . Tenacious humility creates
conditions for teacher learning, for a 'deeper knowledge' of the 'necessities'
entailed in 'good practice'" (p. 172).
Hansen concludes that, "in the very best educational practice, the
real and the ideal mutually 'inform' one another" (p. 164). In many
respects, The Moral Heart of Teaching does exactly that: it strikes
a balance between Hansen's philosophical vision of teaching and learning
and the very specific explanations and concrete illustrations of how he
and others have and might continue to realize those visions through thoughtful,
deliberate, artful, and humane teaching.
S.P.
Harvard Education Publishing Group
|
