Mekelle፡Telaviv, Nairobi, Pretoria, London, (Tigray Herald)
CONFESSION OF MY INNOCENCE: WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A ‘BEST TEACHER’?
By Haftu Kindeya
Initiated by Memhir Muluworki Kidanemariam’s thought-provoking post, I have reflected on my journey to be a university teacher.
Memhir Muluworki humbly remembers in the screenshot attached below that he once equated univeristy teaching with stars in the sky, a very distant dream. The moment he was called a university teacher, he asked himself with fear ‘Can I make it?’ He also questions if it feels the same now.
I had the same feeling. Very happy but felt frustrated at the same time when I was selected to be a university teacher.
His question does seem loaded though. The question looks to challenge the role of the university in society and if we, university teachers, are delivering the mandates we have. This of course is my understanding.
Below is my reflection.
I attempted to show my journey to be a university teacher which was characterized by innocence. Also tried to reflect on who the best teacher is in my attempt to answer what I called ‘the loaded question.’
Thank you Abenet and Genet for reading my draft and of course pushing me to post and share it with others.
THE BEGINNING
When I was a second-year university student, our professor organized a debate on ‘Who the best teacher is?” Some of us said that the best teacher is one who thinks good for his or her students. Some mentioned a teacher is best as far as s/he teaches well in the class despite showing unpleasant behavior towards students. Others said everyone can be a good teacher as far as s/he has good behavior and tries to understand students’ needs. Some stated s/he must know the subject matter, have the required pedagogical skills to teach and have positive attitudes toward his or her students. It means s/he has to be a whole person. Some likened this last teacher’s attributes to an ideal teacher and they argued that it is difficult, if not impossible, to possess all these three attributes for a human being at a time.
More challenging to accept at that time was our professor listed all the positive attributes mentioned by all of us on the board, asked us if we have missed anything, and then told us to add to the list what we believed is a good attribute of the best teacher. Then, he concluded that a teacher who is showing all those listed attributes is ‘the best one’.
We got anxious as we thought our wish to be the best teacher looked like a dream difficult to realize. Following this, our professor asked us to craft the attributes into items and develop a checklist with a 5-point scale and then instructed us to individually rate all our professors teaching us that semester. As anticipated, our results were found to be conflicting. Almost all the professors of the semester courses have become the best as each of us had different ratings.
After some discussions, the professor said that the best teacher is one who helped his or her students better than the others. He added, “You can have your own best teacher from those you evaluated and it is expected that you didn’t choose the same person as the best teacher”. That was his conclusion anyways.
We were not satisfied as we were looking for one answer and most of us had to go to the library to find the best teacher in the literature. Yet, our effort didn’t yield new things.
MY ENDEAVORS TO BE A UNIVERSITY TEACHER
I got my bachelor’s degree in Pedagogical Sciences at Bahir Dar University, commonly called Peda campus. Never expected Peda will be my future home. I was among the selected graduates to be a graduate assistant at the department soon after a week of my graduation. We had an interview but it was not difficult for a fresh energetic pedagogy graduate. Then, I turned out to be a university instructor overnight. Nevertheless, I was immediately immersed in thinking about the challenges ahead of me.
To make things worse, I was assigned to teach what l believed is the most difficult course in the department, Curriculum Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. A difficult course for prospective graduates made my life restless. The students I was assigned to teach were from the physics stream. We were using the same cafeteria in the past year, and many of them were my friends. This also had an impact on my teaching, particularly in posing a challenge to keep a reasonable social distance from my students. As my frustration has become a reality, I have to extend my efforts and assert to them that I am indeed their teacher. My high school science background has helped me a lot to support my lecture with examples.
I still vividly remember my first activity in the department. I went to the office of my role model instructor, Nigusse Kassahun, to share my worries. He was our best curriculum teacher and we all in the department used to call him Gashe. I asked him to help me out as I was assigned to teach the most difficult course for senior students. I also expressed to him that assigning me directly to seniors is not right. I then asked him to give me his course outline and supportive course materials as he was the one handling the course at that time. I was amazed by his answer though. “Haftu, I know the department may have its reasons for assigning you to the course and to the level you mentioned. But, I will not give you the course outline and my reference materials. You and your friends are here not to repeat our outlines and teaching methods but to bring your innovative ways of doing things.” That was true but bad news for me at that time.
My experience as a fresh teacher began with such frustration. Teaching has become the most daunting task for me. I have to spend my nights and free days preparing myself for the course. I read books, articles, encyclopedias, my old notes, and almost everything. I had to show my mastery of the content to my students. I was later feeling like a storehouse of knowledge. I felt that I am the most capable person to teach the course (innocence 1).
Apart from content preparations, I and my friend Tebeje Molla had bought a small recording tape and were recording our voices after conducting a mockup teaching for each other in our home to check the clarity of our voice and accuracy of our language. I remember we were critically commenting on each other. We used to have a lot of fun with ourselves for our recorded voices were different from our expectations.
WHAT DOES THE LITERATURE SAY?
Literature shows that teachers pass different career stages at different periods. Many models try to put teachers’ development into stages though they are not free of criticism. One of these models is Michael Huberman’s Stages of Teacher Career Development. The first stage is called ‘Career Entry”. It covers the periods 1 to 3 years in the profession. It is termed as a time of survival and discovery. It was indeed a time of survival for me as I was trying my best to make sure that I stay in the profession. I have to show my senior colleagues, immediate bosses, my friends who were also new teachers, and my students that I am indeed a teacher with the necessary capabilities. I was trying to discover many things in the content, methodology, curriculum, etc. What I did not recognize however was that I was trying the impossible journey of becoming the best teacher in one semester (Innocence 2).
I ended that semester with pride and confidence and asked my students to write me their comments on a piece of paper. I instructed them not to write their names. I also told them not to write any positive things. I told them to write only those things that they believe should be improved. I collected and put all the pieces of paper in my pocket and went to my home. I excitedly sat on my bed as we had no reading table and started reading the comments before having my lunch as if I will get everything in those pieces of paper. But, the students’ comments were the polar opposite of my expectations. Almost 99% of the comments were positive. I felt angry at first as I couldn’t trace my weaknesses. Of course, the students might not be honest with the evaluation as they might have felt I may affect their grades if they wrote my flaws. I had the same feeling when I was a student the past year.
The next year, I joined a higher diploma program that certifies me to be a licensed teacher educator after a year. My performance was well in the program. I was a young member of the group and had the privilege to present and get attention from my senior colleagues. Many of the group members who were in the cohort were my teachers. It was a nice experience to see my gaps. I was always comparing myself with everyone (innocence 3). Later, I realized that I have to compete with myself as it was challenging to imitate everyone’s strengths.
The following year, I joined a master’s program in curriculum studies and spent two years. After I graduated, I joined back my teaching. The master’s program gave me a good opportunity to know my subject matter in-depth. We were reading Paulo Freire, Jerome Bruner, Ralph Tyler, Philip Phoenix, and books by other noted educationalists and psychologists.
After the master’s program, I was feeling better about my performance. Later I got a good opportunity to assist in the graduate program. I had the chance to interact with graduate students. I was facilitating, lecturing, and sometimes handling chapters for master’s degree students. The senior pedagogical sciences department staff at Bahir Dar University were purposely engaging the young staff in those programs so that we can develop our professional capacity. Such exposure allowed me to publish academic articles with the most respected academic staff. This allowed me to get promoted to the rank of assistant professor. This level not only brought me additional salary but also additional workloads as I have to handle master’s courses independently. But, this seemingly very interesting academic progress was weakened as I was assigned to an administrative post at the university. I have spent a significant number of my age working in various administrative posts (department head, curriculum officer, executive director for academic affairs, etc.). Unfortunately, though it had a positive impact on my general development, it negatively affected my academic development and of course, my aspiration to be the ‘best teacher’, if it exists at all.
Surprisingly, I won the best teacher award in my college, the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Bahir Dar University. I accepted the award with skepticism as I felt there were others whom I believe deserve it. During this period, I got a scholarship and went to Europe to study for another master’s in higher education leadership.
The second stage in Huberman’s terms is called ‘Stabilization’. It ranges from 4 to 6 years in the profession. Here, teachers usually make a commitment to teaching as a career and achieve a sense of instructional mastery. I, of course, managed to feel teaching was my profession and had a feeling that I had a good mastery of the subjects I was teaching. From the five stages of Huberman’s career stages; I am now in the third stage called the divergent period. It includes 7 to 18 years of stay in the profession. It is a period of experimentation and activism as teachers develop their courses, try out new approaches to teaching, and confront institutional barriers. Yet, others see it as a period of self-doubt and re-assessment; many teachers leave the profession at this stage as their level of frustration with the system reaches its peak. Mine looks positive in this regard. In those many years though, I still inquire to know who the best teacher is.
SO, HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND THE ‘BEST TEACHER’?
Who is the best teacher? After all, does it exist? Is it possible to have the best teacher in a certain school, region, or world? How are we going to define the term ‘best’? Is not it a difficult concept that leads to different contradictory answers? What criteria should be used to know the best teacher? Many questions can be raised here and the answers depend on our experiences and philosophical perspectives.
In terms of historical influence, probably we may list big names such as Jesus, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Confucius as best teachers. In many instances, people try to answer the tricky question of who is the best teacher as the teacher who has most influenced your development.
In recent times, the World’s Best Teacher and winner of Global Teacher prize Kenyan Peter Tabichi who has been teaching for 12 years made an interview with the BBC on April 2019 on how he won the prize.
He mentioned it is because he mentored and closely worked with his students. Through his mentorship, he stated that he made his students like sciences which many of them were not positive about before. His students also affirmed that their teacher is always willing to assist and create teamwork among them. Peter also mentioned that he used technology to assist his students’ learning.
From my experience and the discussion above, it is possible to assume that the best teacher is the one who supports his or her students achieve their dreams. S/he is the one who restlessly tries to improve his or her professional development. It is the one who always is keen to update and know the current literature in his or her field. The best teacher is the one who owns the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor demands of the subject s/he is teaching. S/he is the one who always tries to integrate his or her theoretical knowledge with practice. The best teacher is the one who always aspires to make his or her students succeed in every possible way. The best teacher is the one who happily celebrates the achievement of his or her students.
As I mentioned earlier, I am in the third stage of Huberman’s career stages, the divergent period, which is characterized by reassurance and frustrations. Unfortunately, I still believe I am in a state of confusion to assert myself to be a good teacher. I am trying to develop and reflect on my courses, try out to integrate new approaches to my teaching, and of course, confront the institutional barriers that I believe should be solved. Yet, I feel my journey to be the best teacher that fulfills the above-mentioned attributes is way long to reach.
THE BEST LESSON I GOT FROM MY STUDY IN EUROPE
In my study in Europe, I had the opportunity to know different people and cultures. The academic rigor was better. I was academically engaged in those two worthwhile years. But, the most important thing I got is attitudinal change. The affective component of the curriculum was remarkable. The professors were so kind and polite. They were there to help you whenever in need. They were beyond an academic guide. I learned about the affective aspect from practice.
“TEACHING CAN NEVER BE INNOCENT”
Unlike my persistent innocence, noted educationalists claim that teachers should not be innocent as the profession is demanding and very complex to understand its consequences. According to Stephen Brookfield teaching innocently means “thinking that we’re always understanding exactly what it is that we’re doing and what effect we’re having. Teaching innocently means assuming that the meanings and significance we place in our actions are the ones that students take from them.”
This resembles the first two of Huberman’s career stages of professional development: career entry and stabilization. In these stages, teachers take action to survive in the profession and attempt to have instructional mastery. It was similar to my situation in the first few years of my teaching. I used to feel I am the storehouse of my subject and believed that I exactly know and understand the actions and consequences of my teaching. I was very confident when instructing my students on the dos and don’ts of my teaching. No uncertainty about what I knew. Never felt short to explain whatever questions students ask in or out of class.
Brookfield further noted that one of the hardest things teachers learn is that the sincerity of their intentions does not guarantee the purity of their practice. The cultural, psychological, and political complexities of learning and how power complicates all human relationships (including those between students and teachers) means that teaching can never be innocent.
Thus, we need to understand that we rarely have full awareness of what we’re doing. The time we come up to know what we were doing was not right; we become depressed and start to blame ourselves. Then, our once beloved profession becomes a source of our daily complaints. It is important to integrate a critically reflective stance for teachers to avoid such “traps of demoralization and self-laceration”.
MY INNOCENT SUGGESTIONS AGAIN!
In the 21st century, it has become difficult to cope with the dynamism of knowledge in general and the development of the fields we are teaching in particular. Thus, we teachers need to not only understand the contents and methods of teaching as it was in the past but also we need to acquaint ourselves with the demands of the digital era. Moreover, we need to have the capacity to integrate pedagogy, content, and technology to teach our respective subject matters. Moreover, teachers need to be critically reflective practitioners on issues that matter more to their professional development such as students, subject matter, philosophical and psychological developments, pedagogical and technological skills, policies, and the development of society in general. Of course, this needs very advanced training and extra effort from each teacher.
Teacher training and development should get our prior attention if we want to change the heart of teaching and learning, i.e. the classroom. Unless we change the actual instructional practice in the classrooms, we cannot bring the intended results that we wish to achieve in education quality. In the current practice, the least performing students are joining the teaching profession.
Experiences show that the teacher candidates who join the teacher training institutes are all low-performing students. This has to fundamentally change. Moreover, the teacher professional development career stage or ladder currently practiced needs to integrate actual teacher development changes into account. A mere stay in teaching should not be a guarantee to be a lead teacher.
To conclude, I am still trying to be the best teacher I have been aspiring to be. Although I always strive to make yesterday different from today, I still don’t feel complete. Whatever it takes, though, I will try to be a better teacher to my students. Not to mention all the difficult mandates, I have to conduct relevant research and engage in community outreach activities.
Thank you for reading! It is only you who finished reading it.
