The Pedagogy of the Impossible: The Role of Social Foundations in Initial Teacher Education in Australia

Edith Cowan University, South West Campus (Bunbury)

Keywords: Teacher education, preservice teacher, teaching, social foundations, racism, social sciences, sociology, postmodernism, feminist pedagogy, poetics, social justice.

Article style and source: Peer Reviewed. Original ultiBASE Publication. Paper presented at the Showcasing Excellence in Initial Teacher Education Forum at RMIT University, Melbourne, 17-19 February, 1999.

Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Devastating Critique
  • Pedagogy of the Impossible?
  • Towards a Pedagogy of the Possible
• Poetics and Dramatic Monologues
• A Different Approach to Foundational Teaching?
• Conclusion
• References

Abstract

In this paper, it is argued that the social foundations have an unquestionable place in initial teacher education (ITE) in Australia. However, it is suggested that given the limited impact of social foundational work as it is currently taught, teacher educators need to search for new, and more effective ways of presenting and teaching social foundations. Thus, the failure of social foundations to impact on preservice teachers’ racism, sexism, classism etc. is conceived as problem of content and pedagogy. This position is oppositional to the view that racism, sexism and the like are essential characteristics of preservice teachers. The latter view often used to justify the failure of social foundational subjects to impact significantly on preservice teachers.

Embodied sociology, with its challenging of mind/body dualisms and the postmodern willingness to present social scientific knowledge differently conjoined with feminist pedagogy is suggested as a possible route to a pedagogy of the possible. This potential is illustrated through poeticised ethnographic texts which, it is suggested, provide a way out of ‘the numbing, deadening, disaffective, disembodied, schizoid sensibilities characteristic of phallocentric social science’ (Richardson, 1993, p. 695). Poetics, it is suggested, have potential as a pedagogical starting point given its capacity to evoke a response in the body even when the mind is resistant (Richardson, 1994). Combined with feminist pedagogy which also challenges the disembodied approaches typical of teaching based on rationalist discourse, it is suggested that there is a possibly more productive content and pedagogy to commit teachers to the social justice concerns which should be at the core of their teaching. top

Introduction

Social foundations, which includes history, sociology, philosophy and the like, have traditionally been a part of teacher education programs in Australia whether presented in discipline discreet subjects or in integrated ones in which a number of social scientific perspectives are brought together to enhance preservice teachers’ understandings education and orient their understandings of teaching (see Hatton, 1998 for an example in which social foundations are brought together with curriculum understandings to provide complex, holistic understandings of teachers’ work.

The issue of whether or not social foundations have a role to play in initial teacher education is answered differently in different contexts. For example, a conservative British government some years ago returned teacher education (which it called training) to something which resembled the old pupil apprenticeship scheme of a former century and left no place for social foundations, particularly sociology. Sociology was understood as ideologically dangerous and taking time away from the actual practice of teaching. The idea being that the more time beginners spend in schools, the better teachers they are liable to be.

Unlike the conservative British Government in this paper it is argued that there is an unquestionable place for social foundations in ITE.in Australia although there is a substantial qualification to be made presently concerning the content and pedagogy appropriate to this endeavour. I will make this qualification presently. First, it is necessary to justify this view. The justification for this position is simple. It is that social foundations have considerable potential to develop in preservice teachers' orientations to the work of teaching which accept its complexity and the need for critical reflection on teaching to enhance it. Consider the following.

Some take the view that teaching should be simplistically presented for beginning teachers, and that its complexities, dilemmas and contradictions should remain unaddressed or even hidden until beginning teachers are ‘ready’ to address them (that is, when teachers have a few years teaching experience and have put their survival concerns to rest). This view is readily challenged on the grounds that it is both demeaning and fundamentally wrong. For one thing, it undersells teaching as a form of work, which, if done well, is intellectually challenging and much more than mere mastery of technique. Moreover, the development of the subtle technique required to improve the quality of education is a far cry from what often passes for good teaching, and cannot be developed without a broad theoretical understanding of teaching. It is indeed this understanding that the British Government has not grasped in their obsessive concern with practice as an end in itself.

Significantly, beginning teachers often perceive teacher educators as irrelevant and lacking in credibility, with little grasp of the realities of teaching (Turney & Wright 1990: Hatton 1998). They do so for at least two reasons. First, because the codified, simplistic version of teaching presented to them in preservice preparation is often far removed from the complex reality they encounter when they enter schools. Second, because they are not given opportunities to develop the characteristics that they actually require for the complex work of teaching.

These characteristics include enjoyment of intellectual struggle; critical reflection on policy, practice, curricula and the like; the formulation of adequate, justifiable educational goals and the capacity to choose strategies appropriate for achieving their goals. The view taken in this paper is that, while it is never too late for teachers to acquire these characteristics, pupils in Australia would benefit if teachers had them from the outset. Thus this paper is premised on a view of teacher preparation which suggests that the view that the full complexity of teaching ought not be addressed until preservice students have allayed their survival concerns fundamentally flawed. Rather, ITE should aim to develop, from the outset, knowledge bases and characteristics appropriate to reflective teachers who are concerned with providing worthwhile learning experiences for all students.

While it is argued that social foundations properly have a place in ITE, this should not be taken to mean that all work undertaken by social theorists is appropriate to use in ITE particularly for use as a starting point in orienting future teachers to their work. Here, I refine the claim that social foundations has a role to play in ITE. I address two issues here. First, I discuss a genre of social theorising that suffers from what might be called the ‘devastating critique’ problem. This genre, it is suggested, is of little use in an ITE context. Second, I address a broader problem which is central to social foundations teaching content and pedagogy. For convenience, it is referred to as the ‘pedagogy of the impossible?’ problem. It is this problem which this paper attempts to address. top

Devastating Critique

Social theorists frequently provide devastating critiques of current educational ideology, practice or policy. While I do not dispute the overall usefulness and necessity of this work, I also believe that those critiques which take no interest in, or merely hint at, how practice might be reoriented are not helpful in initial teacher education. Beginners are unlikely totally on their own to suggest alternatives. Purposeful critique, on the other hand, can provide clear directions for teachers’ practice. It can assist in the development of practice that might stand a better chance of working for socially just outcomes. Thus critique which does not attempt to suggest alternatives etc. might reasonably be excluded from ITE. top

Here I allude to the point addressed earlier; namely, that foundational teaching in ITE typically makes too little impact on the racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism of many pre-service teachers in Australia (and, indeed, elsewhere). Teacher educators sometimes explain this problem away by saying "I taught them but they didn’t learn" (see Hatton, 1990, 1997). The problem then becomes the students; they are simply racist, classist, sexist etc. and that is their essential nature. The idea is that education cannot change this. What this line of reasoning overlooks is the power of good education to change knowledge bases, attitudes, values and practices. If this position is taken into account, then if "I taught them and they didn’t learn", then it necessary to look not at the preservice teacher per se, but to consider the adequacy ‘of my teaching. Perhaps this is the real site of the problem.

And when I take this look at my content and teaching a possible problem becomes apparent. Indeed, it is possible that the problem may rest significantly with the rationalist assumptions and abstract representations utilised in traditional sociological writing and teaching about issues of race, class, etc. Perhaps this approach may be inappropriate as a starting place when so many pre-service teachers in Australia come from a narrow range of relatively privileged backgrounds relatively unchallenged by adversity. These backgrounds may place considerable limits on teachers’ understandings of diversity and social inequality based on race, class, geographic location , sexuality and the like. Perhaps it is just too easy for preservice teachers to dismiss the objective knowledge presented to them through ‘objective’ rationalist discourse. It is this position which will be developed in the remainder of this paper. top

If we are to develop a pedagogy of the possible which makes it possible for social foundations to impact on, and develop in preservice teachers, appropriate socially just orientations to teaching, then perhaps social foundational work has to be done differently. To illustrate this case reference will be made to sociology since it is the area of social foundations with which I am most familiar.

Sociology does not have to take the rationalistic form it traditionally does. Richardson, for example advocates an embodied sociology which challenges mind/body dualisms. (Subsequently connections will be made between this endeavour and feminist pedagogy.) Richardson (1993, p.706) says:

Richardson (1993, p. 706) advocates taking advantage of 'postmodernist culture' which 'permits us-indeed encourages us-to doubt any method of knowing or telling that can claim authoritative truth'. In her distinctive presentation of ethnographic interviews as poetry, drama and so on, she claims involvement in a different kind of science practice; 'a feminist-postmodernist practice' in which:

It is the potential within poetry that is significant for present purposes. As Richardson (1993, p. 695) points out 'poetry can touch us where we live, in our bodies'. It is this potential of poetry or poetic language which is significant for audiences who are 'Other' to the subjects of the research since in touching us in our bodies, poetry or poetic language arguably has a greater potential to enable the reader or listener to 'vicariously experience' and empathise with the lives of the researched. This knowledge, since it engages both intellect and emotion, is arguably far less easily dismissed than writing that engages the intellect alone. Thus, poetry or poetics not only offers 'a method for opening up the discipline to other speakers and ways of speaking' (Richardson, 1993, p. 697), it also potentially provides a means of better serving political ends.

Take, as a case in point, preservice Australian teachers and an issue such as social class. Given that, in Australia, teachers' origins are increasingly middle class (Hatton 1998), they are relatively unlikely to have knowledge of, and empathy for, the lives of working class people when they enter teacher preparation courses. However, approximately half of the school population in Australia is likely to be working class (Western & Western, 1988). If teachers graduate with classist attitudes, or with little commitment to socially just teaching for working class students, the political consequences for working class people are likely to be profound. Thus if foundational teaching in this or any other of the 'isms that oppress' is readily dismissed, the consequences are likely to be profound. And there is evidence emerging from case studies that these issues are having profound effects in classrooms (Nicklin Dent & Hatton, 1996, Hatton et al., 1996)..

There is little point in blaming teachers for their inadequacies in this respect if the real issue is a problem of pedagogy. More specifically, if teachers' major access to understanding about the lives of working class people has been via research presented through abstract, 'objective' social science language which suppresses the emotional dimension and real struggles of working class people we should not be surprised. By contrast, if we teach and represent the lives of working class or any other oppressed people in ways that engage intellect and emotions we may succeed in political goals where previously we have failed since:

While Richardson (1993, p.705) admits 'writing poetry ... may be ill suited for many topics, audiences, and writers', she claims its importance for 'knowing about lived experiences which are unspeakable in the "father's voice", the voice of objectivity; flattened worlds'. The textual representations of the views and perspectives of working class parents which appear in this paper are not poetry in a strict sense. They should be described more modestly as poetics or dramatic monologue. Nevertheless, these representations arguably share the capacity of poetry to provide a way out of what Richardson (1993, p. 695) describes as 'the numbing and deadening, disaffective, disembodied, schizoid sensibilities characteristic of phallocentric social science'. In what follows, I present selected poeticized accounts or monologues concerning aspects of the lived experience of working class parents. These, I suggest, illustrate the potential of poetics and dramatic monologue as a pedagogical tool. top

The vocabulary in the poeticized accounts and monologues is that used by the parents. The language patterns and rhythms including the distinctive use of the interrogative 'you know?' have been preserved. The only changes made to the text include the elimination of some repetitions and an occasional shift in the order of language. For example, occasionally a 'you know' has been shifted to a position in the dialogue where it has greater effect. Consider the following.

The working class Maori and pakeha (non-Maori, usually of European descent) parents in this study portrayed a picture of disillusionment and disappointment with the schooling process as they and their children lived it (for less creative social scientific presentations of data from this study see Hatton (1998, 1994)). The first account is given by Rick, a pakeha father, the next by Tiari, a Maori father. Both fathers, along with their partners, had resisted unsuccessfully the 'cooling out' of their children from schooling, as they saw education the only possible means to enhance their children's life chances. top

[If you want to listen to the poems click on the title. You need realplayer to listen to the audiofiles. If realplayer is not installed on your computer download the free version]

There's an Arsehole, Give it a Boot

Racism went unchallenged in the school. Indeed, Ariana, Tiari's daughter, was often in trouble for challenging teachers when they let racist abuse go unremarked. Tiari here describes how he teaches his children to deal with racism. He deconstructs this form of oppression powerfully. top

And We All Go the Same Colour When We Die

The transcripts are littered with parents' accounts of unsatisfactory relations with the school. Lack of respect for students and parents alike is a dominant theme. Tiari, in this dramatic monologue, recounts an interaction with a teacher which took place after he found his daughter Ariana at home in school hours. top

Those Little [Maori] Bitches Tend to Lie: A Lesson in Respect

I asked Ariana -
You know.'—
"Why aren't you at school?":
"Got kicked out, told to come home".
"Why?":
"Because I swore at a teacher."
"Oh yeah, what made you swear at this teacher?":
"Just the way he treated me".

I always try to get the kid's side first.
And nine times out of ten Ariana's side
And the teacher's side
Of the story
Were similar except for a few things—
You know?—
So I really couldn't see any problem.
But that's not what the teachers would say.
They wouldn't agree about that.
And that's when it come down to the matter of respect.

Ariana had something wrong with her hand
And apparently the teacher tried to make her participate in sport.
She told him that she couldn't - she even had a doctor's certificate.
And he just took this hardline attitude—
You know—
"You do as you're bloody told".
So she says: "Well, stuff you Jack", and walked out—
You know.;—
So she come home.
I said: "Well, you know, you just can't leave it like this".
I said: "I think you should go back".
And she says: "No I'm not going back there".
I said: "I'd better go and have a talk to this guy"
And she said: "He won't talk to you".
I tried to make an appointment by phone
And I was told that he was quite busy.
I said: "He's never too busy to see me".
"Oh no", they said,
"You have to make an appointment for some other time".
I said: "No, this incident happened today.
I want to see him today".
And that really upset me-—
You know—
I mean, you'd think that
They would try to get to the bottom of this sort of thing—
You know?—
And sort it out before it got any worse.

So I went over to the school anyhow
And I walked into the office and I said:
"I'm here to see Mr"—we'll call him Jack.
And they said: "Jack's busy".
I said: "I told you on the phone he's never too busy to see me".
And they said: "Well he's in classroom such and such at the moment".
I said:
"Well if you don't get him out here to see me I'll go into his classroom".
By then I was angry and tired--you know--
I was so angry
And it's the wrong time for me to be doing anything
Because I don't know how to piece my sentences together.
It all just comes out a big blu-r-r-up-
You know?—
And not really meaning very much, except that I'm angry.
So they got this teacher out, and he come up and introduced himself
Very polite.
And I said to him: "Shall we talk?"
And he said: "Oh yeah, we'll go into a interview room".
So we went in and I sat down and before I could say anything
He said: "Whatever she told you, is wrong!"
I said: "What did she tell me?"
And he said: "Well, whatever it is
Because those little bitches tend to lie".
I said: "You're talking about my daughter pal".
He said: "They all lie".
He said: "All the girls around that age and that group, they all lie".
And then I sort of changed a wee bit.
That sort of settled me down a bit
Because it gave me something else to think about.
And I said: "What group? What sort of bitches?
What are you talking about?"—
You know—
And I was waiting for him to say: "Maoris"
But he didn't.
He said: "All the girls that Ariana knocks around with".
Who were all
Maoris
And he said: "There's a little group of them",
"And", he says, "they instigate things.
And Ariana, she has a name for herself as an instigator.
She can get people to do things that they don't want to do--
You know-—
And I've seen it here with her mates.
She can actually get them to do whatever she wants them to do".
And this guy told me that.
I said: "Yeah, rightyo".
I said: "I'm not disagreeing with you",
I said, "but understand I'm not agreeing with you either".
I said: "I'm just listening to you".
I said: "You're entitled to your opinion".

I said: "Getting back to what happened today", I said,
"You didn't take time out to listen."
And I said: "I'm getting a wee bit sick of teachers' attitudes
Where whatever you say goes."
I said: "You've got to listen to some of these kids".
And I said something to the effect of
They’re young adults-
You know—
And they should be treated as such.
And he said: "They've got to learn to respect teachers first".
That's when we got onto this respect thing.
I said: "I think you've got the wrong end of the stick".
I said: "You don't think, just because you're a teacher,
You're entitled to respect. You have to earn it".
I said: "They may respect your position
But they've certainly got no respect for you".
And I don't think he quite grasped it—
you know?
In the end
He told me I was wrong"
And I said: "As for respect, I don't think you know what the word means".
I said: "You just take it for granted that because you hold a position of authority, that
you're entitled to it".
I said: "You're not". I said: "If you feel good about yourself,
And if you respect yourself anyhow,
It overflows onto these kids—
You know?"—
I said: "They must look at you as someone that "well he's all right
You know—
And they might even give you a chance".
I said: "But the way you operate",
I said, 'is full of shit, hey'.

Anyhow he told me he had no more time to talk to me,
And he had nothing else to say.
I said: "Well, it's only what I expected".
I said: "You haven't disappointed me".
I said: "But I am disappointed with the school"
They tend to - a lot of them had that sort of attitude, where
"This is my little kingdom,
This is how it should be run,
And no one else is going to tell me how to do it".

In the next two poeticized accounts Tiari, followed by his pakeha wife Heather, give their motivations for participating in a study which involved them in recounting a very painful story concerning episodes leading up to the expulsion from schooling of Ariana their 15 year old daughter. top

It Buggers up the Family

This is not going to affect us now
Our kids have left school
The parents
You'll speak to
Share the same aspiration
If you like—
We would hate to see it happen
To anybody else.
I hope that in years to come
All this sort of thing
Will be
Gotten out of schools
And
Won't happen to anybody else
You know?

I would hate to see young parents come through this
You know?
Okay we grew up with our kids
But, I imagine in years to come
With more pressure from outside
Because
Nowadays
You need mum and dad
To be working
To survive.
I imagine
As time goes on
It's going to get worse.
And to have something like this happen
It actually buggers up the family
You know?
Because after these meetings and everything
Because
As I said
My kids aren't
By any means
Angels
You know?
And I'd get angry at them
For letting this happen
Because there's a reason for everything
You know?
And they're not as pure as driven snow
You know?
So they must have given the teachers
Or someone in authority
Reason
At least
Part of a reason
To do
What they did.

It's Been Taken Into Her Life After School

I agreed
For the same reasons
Tiari said
But also because,
For Ariana
It's been taken into her life
After school.
Everything she does is affected
By everything that happened.
You know?
How hard it is to get work
Everything.
And like Tiari
I don't want to see
Other children go through it.

I think teachers need to be made aware that these things happen
And
Not just plod on
Through their years of teaching
Till they retire
But
They must be made aware
That
They can do something about this situation
That
They are the ones holding the key
To changing anything.
And
You know?
Whether it's re-educating them—
Whatever—
They must be made aware
That
There are these problems,
They can happen,
They do happen,
And
What can we do to stop them?

Despite an avowed policy of biculturalism both Maori and pakeha working class parents found the schooling process oppressive and destructive with respect to their children. Rather than schooling acting as a means for social transformation, which is the liberal goal vested in schooling in countries like Australia and New Zealand, it clearly acted as a means for mere social reproduction by ensuring working class students were ‘culturally cleansed from the schooling system with inadequate levels of education to face the demands of adult lives. Working class students were condemned to working class jobs or to a life of long term unemployment. The ‘isms that oppress’ were not challenged or interrupted in any significant way by the teachers these students encountered. top

These re-presentations present embodied experience in a way which I believe reconstitutes it practically and powerfully (Bastable & Hatton, in press). In the light of the power of passion and emotion, it is ironic that so much teaching is predicated on a mind/body dualism. Perhaps the problem in Australia at least, is that teacher education has been historically disproportionately staffed by males (Turney & Wright, 1990) who may not be familiar or comfortable with significant changes in social knowledge making and pedagogy based on a rejection of a mind/body dualism advocated by feminists (see Hatton, 1990)). Consider, too bell hooks (1993, p. 58), in 'Eros, eroticism and the pedagogical process', who notes how commonly teaching is predicated on the assumption that 'only the mind is present and not the body'. hooks (1993, p. 58) says of her own experience of university as a student:

Feminist pedagogy consistently challenges this disembodied approach to teaching and learning. For example, supporting Sam Keen's (1983, p. 5, cited in hooks, 1993, p. 60) reminder that, in its earliest conception, 'erotic potency' was not being confined to 'sexual power' but 'included the moving force that propelled every life-form from a state of mere potentiality to actuality', hooks suggests ‘eros’ and 'eroticism' has a place in the classroom:

Thus, hooks advocates surrendering to the passion of the quest for knowledge that enables the uniting of theory and practice. It is the contention of this paper that the representations of ethnographic text around which this paper is centred will help build a pedagogy in foundational teaching that not only challenges the mind/body dualism but also better equips preservice teachers to teach in socially just ways.

Imagine, for example, Tiari's powerful reconstruction of racism being used in a debriefing after a simulation experience in which students feel the cruelty, irrationality and injustice of being oppressed on the grounds of some aspect of their ascribed characteristics. Or imagine the empathetic pull of Heather's concern that her daughter's expulsion affects Ariana's subsequent life in many ways being used as a way of helping preservice students to access the educational perspective of parents very different from their own. It would be very difficult to dismiss Heather's deep seated concern for her daughter's future with the usual stereotypes about working class parents and their lack of interest in education. top

Conclusion

And I would not want to suggest that traditional rationalistic discourse in content and Pedagogy have no place in ITE. Rather the claim is that as a pedagogical starting point they are likely to be inappropriate starting points. Social knowledge might well best be presented differently in ways that overcome mind/body dualisms.

There are undoubtedly limits to the material amenable to representation as poetry or poetic language (Richardson, 1993, p. 705). However, as the poetic accounts/dramatic monologues presented above demonstrate, this approach has considerable potential to re-present lived experiences of working class 'Others' in ways 'which allow us to uncover the hidden assumptions and life-denying repressions of sociology: resee/refeel sociology' (Richardson, 1993, p. 705). And accordingly they present an approach to teaching about the 'isms that oppress' that is potentially powerful because they touch people in the mind and in the body. Specifically, since the poetics and dramatic monologue used in this paper, "'show" how another person feels something', its potential as a pedagogical starting point rests in its capacity to evoke a response through the body 'even if the mind resists' (Richardson' 1994, p. 9). As Eisner (1997, p. 8) suggests, the desire to engender empathy for the lives of others is no longer considered an inappropriate goal by many scholars:

References

Bastable, M. & Hatton E.J. (in press) Social theory and embodied knowledge: an exploration through visual impairment. Auto/Biography.

Eisner R. E.W. (1997) The promise and perils of alternate forms of data representation, Educational Researcher, 26(6), pp. 4- 9.

Hatton E.J. (1990) Teacher education and bricolage: towards a model of teachers' work. PhD thesis, University of Queensland.

Hatton E.J. (1998) Exclusion: a case study, in: E.J. HATTON (Ed.) Understanding Teaching: curriculum and the social context of schooling, 2nd edn pp. 221-234 (Sydney, Harcourt Brace).

Hatton E.J. (1994) Devolution and division: lessons from New Zealand, in: B. LIMERICK and H. NEIL SON (Eds) Participative Practices and Policy in Schooling, pp. 245-260 (Sydney, Harcourt Brace).

Hatton, E.J. (1996) Dealing with diversity: teaching and teacher education, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 17(1), pp. 25-42.

Hatton, E. J., Munns, G. & Nicklin Dent, J. (1996) Teaching children in poverty: three Australian primary school responses, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 17(1), pp. 39-52.

Hooks, B. (1993) Eros, eroticism and the pedagogical process, Cultural Studies, 1, pp. 58-63.

Nicklin Dent, J. & Hatton, E.J. (1996) Education and poverty: an Australian primary school case study, Australian Journal of Education, 40(1), pp. 42-60.

Richardson. L. (1993) Poetics, dramatics and transgressive validity: the case of the skipped line, The Sociological Quarterly, 34(4), pp. 695-710.

Richardson, L. (1994) Nine poems: marriage and the family, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 23(1), pp. 3-13.

Turney, C. & Wright, R. (1990) Where the Buck Stops: the teacher educators (Sydney, Sydmac).

Western, M.C. & Western, J.S. (1988) Class and inequality: theory and research, in: J.M. Najman & J.S. Western (Eds) A Sociology of Australian Society (South Melbourne, Macmillan).

About the author

Dr. Elizabeth Hatton
Professor and Dean of Faculty
Bunbury Campus.
Edith Cowan University
PO Box 1712, Bunbury
WA 6231, Australia.
Email: e.hatton@ecu.edu.au