Having just finished reading Enhancing Canadian
Teacher Education Using a Story Framework by Susan Drake, I found that
there were many traces of previous topics I had encountered in previous
courses. The idea behind stories is that they are filtered through
various perspectives such as personal, cultural, global and universal.
From these various perspectives, one must look at both the past and
present story, while also looking towards creating a new future story.
This could be in two forms as there is a realistic direction that the
present story transitions to, which contrasts with the necessary direction.
Both directions lead to an eventual new story and action taken.
I have come across topics similar to this as
individual's should reflect on how their pedagogical processes are shaped by
their experiences around them, as well as the powers and structures that
restrict them. The stories model encompasses this entire idea as it looks
at the personal, cultural and global perspectives. It is imperative that
one looks to the past when dealing with the present as they should understand
how they got to where they are now. Without understanding what we have
done in the past and how our stories have unfolded then we may be doomed to
repeat as we will make the same mistakes.
When looking at our present story it is important
to look to the past to see what we have done but we also want to look forward
into the future to see where we are headed so that we can plan accordingly.
This follows the idea of backwards design where we set a goal of where we
want to be or what we want to end up learning and then work backwards to
determine how to reach that goal.
The idea of a story framework brings to mind George
Santayana's quote "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat
it". This would account for only a portion of the story framework
however the message is still clear and implies the importance of looking to the
past. Based on the story framework, we must not only remember about
the past but imagine about the future or else we are doomed to stay in the
present.
Jordan a good start and I certainly agree with you as many historians would. You have the general gist of the story model. I would like more details to sink my teeth into. What did this mean to you at a personal level? How does the cultural story fit into your personal story? Can you relate this to anything? Past? Anticipated future? Are their some links that you might connect to and that the reader might also connect to? These are some thoughts to guide your feedback and next individual blog. :-)
ReplyDeleteJordan, I agree with you that teachers should reflect on how their pedagogical practices are shaped by their experiences. I don’t think enough teachers remember to do this at the end of the day. It’s very important to be able to understand where we come from and our own story first before we can begin to understand the stories of others. In addition, I agree with you that if we don’t learn from our past mistakes we will continue to make the same ones and I guess in a sense our story will not progress, but repeat itself. Where would society be today if no one bothered to change their story?
ReplyDeleteJordan - I also want a Dinosaur. Though, you got me thinking about something other than what I would name my Velociraptor with your comment about backward design. I would think that this idea applies mostly to curriculum goals, but I wonder if it could applied to a generation of students as well. For example, the end result is a generation of compassionate, ethical, critical, and responsible students - and the way they get to that point is how? I would assume that most teachers have that kind of goal in mind, particularly in the 21st century classroom, but I wonder how many actually think of the ways that it can be accomplished. We also read Tanner (2013) for Monday's class that would suggest that the old, and current story is about "teaching to the test". Where in that model of teaching does one focus on creating that kind of student that most educators want to see? How is it even possible when a lot of educator's current stories are restricted by the culture of their own schools and ministries? I also wonder how many teacher's end goal is to just have their students graduate, regardless of whether or not they accomplish other aspects of their education.
ReplyDeleteThe end goal for innovative classrooms is to provide engaging spaces were students take ownership of their own learning, and are able to engage and think critically about the world. But how could that be done when the present story is the way it is?
They say that hindsight is twenty/twenty and if used wisely we can prevent history from repeating itself. That’s because hindsight involves looking back to see what might factors might affect the future.
ReplyDeleteWhether we are talking about history, educational theories, or an individual from the moment it begins to exist a narrative enfolds. For the individual the personal narrative is journey that is created by the decisions we make. The story is dynamic and ever-evolving. From time to time we come to impasse along our path and we need to take stock of where we have been, and where we would like to go before we can surmount the obstacle. It is these points in our narratives that allow for growth and change can take place.
History, unlike the individual is made up of personal narratives from various people living at a given moment. When we share our stories, we can see the themes and events that have made up a particular period of time. Together we embrace how far we have come and reflect on what we are doing now. From this we can build our vision for the future.
We have to be cautious that we don’t to spend too much time buried in the past or fantasizing about a future that we are not even sure about. We need to realize that the here and now is far more important an indicator to help us determine what will come and how we intend on getting there.
So let’s remember that “Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery but Today is a gift that is why we call it the present.”