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Figure 2
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Connected teaching
Women want a system of
teaching in which knowledge flows in two directions, from teacher to student
and student to teacher. The kind of teacher with whom they best develop is the
"midwife teacher" who assists students to give birth to their own ideas, making
their own tacit knowledge explicit. "Midwife teachers focus not on their own
knowledge but on the students' knowledge. They contribute when needed, but it
is always clear that the 'baby' is not theirs but the students'"(p.218). The
circle is one of confirmation, evocation, confirmation.
- Connected Classes
In Freire's "problem-posing"
method, the object of knowledge is not the private property of the teacher but
"a medium evoking the critical reflection of both teacher and students." Rather
than having the teacher think about the object privately and talk about it
publicly, both teacher and students engage in the process of thinking and they
talk about what they are thinking in a public dialogue. "As they think and talk
together, their roles merge"(p.219) . The connected class constructs truth not
through conflict but through consensus, bridging private and shared
experience.
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Women want a system of teaching
in which knowledge flows in two directions, from teacher to student and student
to teacher.
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In summary, the lessons we have learned from listening to
women's voices are that educators can best help women develop their own
authentic voices by: emphasizing connection over separation; understanding and
acceptance over assessment; collaboration over debate; respecting knowledge
that emerges from firsthand experience; and encouraging students to evolve
their own patterns of work based on the problems they are pursuing.
A next step in this important research is to further validate
and extend the findings and to apply them in education. The validity of the
findings is best judged, at our current level of knowledge, by the reception
accorded to the study by other researchers. That reception has been
overwhelmingly positive. Further development is underway through the efforts of
these and other researchers. It is up to us in the educational system to make
these findings known to teachers and to women generally, and to work to make
education more "women-friendly" in the ways outlined above as well as through
ways that evolve as we integrate these findings into our understanding of women
as adult learners.
Joan McLaren is the Director of Program and Staff
Development at Red River Community College in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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