In this hyperconnected, dynamic world we live in, permeated by profound challenges and transformations, the awareness of complexity is unequivocally on the rise. This monograph argues that it is high time that our educational institutions and pedagogical approaches come to mirror this growing awareness, to assist and inspire humanity to embrace complexity, to learn to move within it with increasing sensitivity and wisdom. Doing so is necessary, for if there is one thing that the years behind us bear witness of, it is that the tendency and attempt to simplify, separate, control, and indeed exploit has – as the dark side of the advancements of modern life – brought upon us unprecedented ecological and humanitarian crises.
Schools, notably, are not closed spaces separated from society but open places within society, and as such they are inevitably complicit in the (re)shaping of our shared world. This book, therefore, proposes an ambitious pedagogical agenda. Specifically, it explores the relational ontological premise of entanglement in the context of pedagogical theory, raising the question of how, as teachers, we might meaningfully and responsibly engage with the myriad ways in which students are simultaneously shaped-by and shapers-of contemporary societal challenges. In close collaboration with twelve teachers as co-researchers, the book offers six ''helpful perspectives'' for teachers seeking to embrace such complexity in their own practices, referred to as: (1) entanglement-orientedness, (2) entanglement-awareness, (3) hopeful action, (4) inquiry within entangled phenomena, (5) practicing perceptiveness, and (6) practicing integrity.
Author(s): Koen Rens Wessels
Series: Sustainable Development Goals Series
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 98
City: Cham
Preface
Chapter 1 – Toward a Pedagogical Response to Complex Societal Challenges
Chapter 2 – The Entangled Student
Chapter 3 – Diffractions
Chapter 4 – On Relational Ontology and the Good Life
Chapter 5 – On Teaching the Entangled Student
Chapter 6 – Living the Question of Integrity
Chapter 7 – In Conclusion: Pedagogy of Entanglement
Acknowledgments
Contents
1: Toward a Pedagogical Response to Complex Societal Challenges
Confronted with Complexity
Confronted with Multiple Perspectives and an Open Future
Confronted with Movements in Motion
Confronted with Interconnectedness
Toward a Pedagogical Response
Modes of Inquiry
Inquiry with Teachers as Co-researchers
Literature Study
Autoethnography
Moving Forward
References
2: The Entangled Student
The Readiness Dichotomy and the Student as Participant
Educational Space for Participation – An Exploration
The Space Dichotomy and the Entangled Student
References
3: Diffractions
A Diffractive Approach
Step 1.1: Creating Diffractive Scripts
Step 1.2: Mapping Initial Insights
Step 2.1: Transforming Diffractive Scripts
Step 2.2: Patterns of Insight
Moving Forward
References
4: On Relational Ontology and the Good Life
Entrapment and Resonance
Entanglement-Orientedness
Entanglement-Awareness and Hopeful Action
References
5: On Teaching the Entangled Student
Inquiry Within Entangled Phenomena
Practicing Perceptiveness and Integrity
Practicing Perceptiveness
Practicing Integrity
References
6: Living the Question of Integrity
An Autoethnographic Engagement with the Six Interpretations of Integrity
Commitment: To What Extent Do You Experience a Lively Sense of Purpose in Your Work, How Would You Describe It, and How Do You Succeed and/or Fail to Let It Direct Your Actions?
Authentic Style: To What Extent, and in What Kind of Situations, Do You Experience in Your Work that You Are in Your Element, True to Your Passions and Strengths?
Professional Realism: How Do You Experience the Challenge to Ask Neither Too Little Nor Too Much of Yourself in Your Work, and to Both Embrace Your Responsibility and Influence and Their Limits?
Constructive Self-awareness: How Is Your Sense of Self Touched or Challenged in Your Work, and How Do You Succeed and/or Fail to Utilize this Experience for the Sake of Collaborative Inquiry?
Collegial Support: To What Extent, and How, Do You Sincerely Question and Develop Your Views and Actions in Dialogue with Expert Others?
Professional Independence: To What Extent, and in What Kind of Situations, Do You Succeed to Make and Enact Your Own Situated Judgments?
Closing Remarks
References
7: In Conclusion: Pedagogy of Entanglement
New Openings
Educational Research Methodology
Teacher Education
The School as a Professional Community
Curriculum Design
Exemplary Pedagogical Practices
References
