"It wasn't the writing," I said. "It was the teaching writing."

What do I mean by pedagogy? Firstly let me explore one component, namely, teaching. I came across this moving, poignant and compelling story about teaching which encapsulated for me all that is good about teaching and all that is good teaching.


In The Australian Literary Review (5th March 2008) (a monthly supplement of The Australian newspaper), there is a short reflection/essay by Alex Miller, a well-known Australian novelist. Alex writes of him accepting a position to teach writing at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He said the question whether he could teach "was one that greatly occupied my thoughts for the next few months ..." In the meantime, he visited his 86 year old mother in England whilst collecting a literary award. Upon return to Australia and beginning teaching at la Trobe, he received a phone call from his mother in England. She told him of a visitation she had from "[T]wo figures dressed in white .." about an offer of death. Three weeks after the phone call, Alex received another phone call from England but this time from his sister. She informed him that their mother was very ill and was in hospital, and was not expected to last more than a week. In fact it took her mother 6 weeks to die and was according to his sister, a very long, painful and terrifying "dying". Alex could not fly to England because this happened during "my students' crucial seventh week of term." He could not bring himself to abandon his students ...

"I felt I had to stay with my students, who it seemed to me were relying on
me. The response of my students to the work we were doing together had been far
more compelling than I had ever imagined it might be. There were not many of
them and we had quickly become a passionately committed group of writers,
knowing ourselves privileged to read the vulnerable early drafts of each other's
work: a unique privilege, I believe, at that time, for most of us.
We were all learning a great deal about the business of bringing a piece of
writing out of its clumsy early stages and making of it a confident work. I
didn't feel I could leave my students without betraying the trust and the hopes
they had placed in me and in the process I had initiated."

Alex Miller ended his essay with a recount his visit to his sister some years after the death of his mother. He disclosed he had unresolved guilt over his mother's death and his regret he did not fly to England before she died. He got his sister to recount everything about their mother and at the end, his sister said, "Mum's last words were, 'It will be all right when Alex gets here.' " "She looked at me. "Sorry, " she said, "But Mum was waiting for you. That's why it took her so long to die."

Later, at the train station saying goodbye, his sister said, "It's all right, you know. Mum understood that writing meant everything to you." And Alex ends his essay with these poignant words, "It wasn't the writing," I said. "It was the teaching writing."

The essay works on many levels. On one, it tells of strong sibling relations, of the courage, faith in the love the siblings had for each other to be honest and decent. Of course, the significant level I am concerned with is the commitment to teaching, to students and to the process of teaching and learning. It is not just the impartation of skills, trade, knowledge, or mere information. It is investment of time, effort and of oneself in the students, in their development, in the enhancement of their skills, in the increase of their knowledge and development of their faculty.

Teaching (or the lack thereof!) and Research in Australian Universities

In the Education supplement to Monday's The Australian Financial Review (17th November 2008), Don Aitken in his weekly column, wrote about the tension between teaching and research within all universities. He specifically discuss the tension in the context of selection committees and appointment of new academic staff. He came down in favour of looking beyond just the glittering research qualifications (including the ubiquitous and now almost mandatory long, long list of publications (usually repetitious, mundane and inane)) to questions of teaching capability and mentoring ability. However, the example of the former was not encouraging, Aitken giving the excuse that he was new in his job and therefore rolled over in his preference for an applicant "who stressed his fascination, experience and productivity in teaching and learning in his subject, attributes applauded by his referees."

It seems then that politics and political economy intrudes into this tension between teaching and research. It is trite to state that the manner of Australian Commonwealth government's funding of tertiary education effect a very political response by university administration and deans of faculties. Research stars are hired to embellish the research record of the faculty. (Hmmm, perhaps there is a research grant here on the issue of the market for academic research expertise. Any collaborators out there who wants to enhance their C. V.?) Where does that leave teaching?

I would venture that teaching in universities has become hostage to research. No, not just in the manner described above but in a slightly more insidious manner (or two). What I mean is this: As we know, research is dependent on the new, novus, innovative. So, teaching has become a fertile ground for academics to innovate, to try new ideas. Look, I am not against innovation but just am not impressed with innovation for the sake of innovation. There is an old-fashion word denoting a field of academic expertise that has almost become either supercilious (superfluous?) or just plain pejorative, namely, pedagogy. In case you have worked it out, these "innovative teaching methods et al" are then written up as research papers and voila! OR they become the basis of applications for research grants and again, voila! C'est magnifigue!

The second disturbing trend is the jumping onto the electronic, digital bandwagon. Let's make everything electronic, digital is the catch cry. Hence presently in Australia the trend to podcasting of lectures etc for downloading by students (presumably). The issue of pedagogy, redundancy, uniqueness of lecture (or content) is simply ignored/bypassed in favour convenience for students, and more importantly, bragging rights to being innovative.

Coming back to Don Aitken, he mentioned that his column was in part motivated by reading a letter from "a final-year law student in Quadrant" (a right-wing conservative opinion magazine), who lamented the fact that "certain interviewees, clearly intelligent and talented in their field, spoke with passion of their special areas of teaching interest and skills, yet had no established history of bringing in grants, and as such were dismissed [from consideration for the position]." That pretty much sums it all, doesn't it ?

Welcome!

Welcome to my Blog, tout autre est tout autre. If you are unfamiliar with the french language or french philosophy, and, in particular, the philosophy of Jacques Derrida (15th July 1930 – 8th October 2004), the phrase can be loosely translated as "the other is (in) the other".

I have been fascinated with tout autre for a long time ever since my high school "awakening" (or in marxist/feminist lingo, "consciousness awareness raising") when I discovered difference and that it matters. Of course with a huge dose of postmodern critical thought (and obviously Derrida's neologism, differance), difference is not just being different. It exists on several levels/topos. There is the physical difference of being from a different ethnic group, skin colour etc from the majority; the difference of wanting to be a philosopher whilst everyone else wants a career that pays lots of money and offers security and stability; the difference in having imbibed the art of thinking critically and thus looking at things/issues in a critical manner where nothing is simplistic (they can be simple(!) and yet complex) and thus really sucks at social polite conversation where I get carried away and become over-passionate or making a statement that is a real conversation-killer. Oh, there is also the difference of being physically male but being a feminist.

So, this blog is written from the outside/outsider who is the other, if that is possible. (Of course we know it is not; after all we are all Kantians, are we not? Derrida's most famous phrase taken absolutely out of context (but hey! this is a blog, ain't it ???): il n'y a pas de hors-texte.)

My aim is to reflect on philosophy, political economy, religion, theology, and pedagogy.

Happy Reading! Comments welcomed!