How do I improve my educational relationship with the learners I work with, both adults and children?

Louise Cripps, Educational Enquiry, October 2007.

4,491 Words

I have organised my thoughts as follows:

Why I think educational relationships are important;

Why I want to improve my educational relationships;

Finding an appropriate way of researching how to improve my educational relationships;

My 'big educational picture';

My found and created knowledge:

Creating a reflective space for learning;

Found Knowledge;

The importance of creating communities of learners;

Nurturing Educational Relationships;

How do I open a respectful space for others to learn with me?

How do see myself modelling the learner I want my pupils to be;

So what have I learnt about how to improve my educational relationship with the learners I work with, both adults and children?

Why I think educational relationships are important

In listening to the stories of others concerning their own learning, people very readily identify others who were key to their learning choices and experiences. Many teenagers make curricular choices based on the teacher rather than the interest they have in a subject. When adults are asked to reflect on their own school experiences, they will usually identify a teacher who either enabled or disabled their engagement and ability to learn from school. These adults are often also able to express frustration that they, and their efforts weren't recognised or valued, and were often dismissed.

In my own experience as a teacher, I can see that the most effective learning takes place in the educational relationships which exist in a learning community. My understanding of an educational relationship is one built on mutual value and respect where a truly equal exchange of understanding takes place (Maturana, 2007, Appendix 1). A relationship where the learner is known and recognised as an individual, and learning is a collaboration rather than an imposition. I think that researching educational relationships of this quality could lead to the new language of education that Biesta (2006) is calling for from his analysis of the limitations of a language of learning.

"One of the central ideas of the book is that we come into the world as unique individuals through the ways in which we respond responsibly to what and who is other. I argue that the responsibility of the educator not only lies in the cultivation of "worldly spaces" in which the encounter with otherness and difference is a real possibility, but that it extends to asking "difficult questions": questions that summon us to respond responsively and responsibly to otherness and difference in our own, unique ways." (p. ix)

Why I want to improve my educational relationships

Just as I realize the importance of educational relationships, so I want to know how to improve the educational relationships I have so I can be as effective as possible both as an educator and as a learner. It is the need to improve what I am doing as an educator which has driven my need to research. I need to find an appropriate and apposite way of researching this for myself. I want the learners I work with to know that they are known and intrinsically valued; I want them to know that there is recognition and affirmation. I want them to be able to engage with and be excited by asking their own questions about the world, and to be skilled enough to be able to communicate their understandings in the most appropriate way.

Following Eisner (1993) I agree that 'we do research to understand. We try to understand in order to make our schools better places for both the children and the adults who share their lives there.'

Finding an appropriate way of researching how to improve my educational relationships

The significance for educational knowledge of researching the processes of improving educational relationships has been highlighted by Schon (1995) who claims that educational researchers need a new epistemology and that this will emerge from action research.

Eisner (1993) asserts 'if there are different ways to understand the world, and if there are different forms that make such understanding possible, then it would seem to follow that any comprehensive effort to understand the processes and outcomes of schooling would benefit from a pluralistic rather than a monolithic approach to research'

In a previous paper Eisner (1988) points out that we can often limit our representations by trying to use words to convey an understanding when other representations would be more effective, 'I hope we will even learn how to see what we are not able to describe in words, much less measure. And, through the consciousness borne of such an attitude, I hope we will be creative enough to invent methods and languages that do justice to what we have seen.'

And so although I have tried to explain with words the nature of the educational relationships I am engaged with, the images from the two video clips below more powerfully convey what I want you to experience about my understanding of educational relationships.

My 'big educational picture'

I have been Head-teacher in a primary school for almost 5 years and as I worked on this assignment I discovered the application letter I wrote for my current job. In the section on 'Philosophy and Practice of Education' I wrote:

'Children are at their most successful as learners when they feel confident to tackle new challenges. They need to know they have intrinsic value, and this needs to be constantly affirmed by the adults around them in the way they're respected and listened to. As their strengths are made explicit to them and built upon so self esteem is developed and a positive attitude is engendered towards tackling new challenges.' ( Letter of application 2002)

It was really pleasing for me to find this evidence of what I was thinking in 2002, because I can see what I believed then to be of fundamental importance as an educator.'

In clarifying this to myself, I hope to be able to see more clearly how I can more effectively create the learning environment founded on positive educational relationships which best supports the values I hold to be crucial, as well as modelling the way in which I learn them.

My found and created knowledge

While I was in the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath one day before Christmas 2006, the ideas about my understandings about educational relationships finally began to surface. All the inputs my mind had received in so many ways began to be accessible to me in a way I could begin to articulate. I began to perceive my thoughts about learning as a collection of discrete but connected images. The thoughts were very tentative, and I was concerned that I might forget, so I sat and wrote, amongst the sculptures and inspired by them.

It seemed to me that as I looked and enjoyed these sculptures it helped me to see a way in which I could try to work out and communicate to myself and others my understanding of the nature of educational relationships, I began to think it would be helpful for me to look at my own insights as they occurred as a collection of sculptures at an exhibition, and particularly the exhibition I was sitting in the middle of, based as it was on the mixture of a juxtaposition of found and created objects, invested with a variety of memories for the artist, which worked together to form a new understanding for the engaged observer.

In order to focus on the particular gallery which holds the current collection in my mind about educational relationships, I think it is helpful to establish the context of the exhibition which provoked this particular metaphor.

The exhibition of sculptures was entitled Paradise, and the work which engaged me a great deal was created by a local artist, Edwina Bridgeman. I found the sculptures inspiring and thought provoking, combining a variety of elements in a stimulating way. I felt I was invited to interact with the sculptures, someone else's ideas and thinking was made visible to me, and in turn provided me with an opportunity to make new meaning as I brought my own experiences to what I was seeing. These meanings may never have been the purpose of the artist, but they acted as a provocation to my thinking and understanding. It also helped me to clarify my own thinking in response to what I was seeing and understanding.

I find this experience paralleled by my engagement with the thinking and writing of others. During the course of this module, I have been particularly engaged by the work of Dweck concerning the limitations learners can put on their own learning by their mindset. I have found I am revisiting the ideas, and that they are having a direct effect on the messages I convey to the children I work with. One Tuesday evening this extract was shared, which I found very powerful because it asserted something I found very hopeful,

'Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training. This is so important because many, many people with the fixed mindset think that someone's early performance tells you all you need to know about their talent and their future'. Dweck, 2000)

My involvement with Dweck's work and thinking came about because her assertions about the development of artistic ability were very relevant to my thinking about my own learning, and the development or limitation of creativity.

As I look again at this, I also realise that it is more than the work itself, it is because I was able to see how her ideas had impacted the thinking of another, and it was in discussion about her ideas that the co-creation of new knowledge began, as those ideas were formulated in a new context. So I am aware that although I feel I learn experientially, I also welcome the opportunity to make sense of what I've experienced in the company of others with whom I have an educational relationship.

As I present my own thoughts based on my own experiences and perceptions of educational relationships, in a similar way, as an exhibition of separate but connected insights on a theme, I will explore the use of this metaphor to help me develop my understanding and discover more clearly what I value in my own learning in terms of educational relationships, and how this impacts on the way I try to enable learning to happen.

Creating a reflective space for learning

The gallery itself is physically a peaceful and restful space full of inspiration. It is all the more peaceful because it contrasts with the noise and business of the city centre. When I'm there I feel it reflects the need in me as a learner to find a reflective space to access what I really think and feel in the busyness of my mind. I need the space to know what I think, and that for me is when learning occurs. All the input has happened from a bombardment of sources, and my mind is now able to make connections in some kind of free fall, like the connections on a mind map. I understand now, that for me learning occurs when I have space in my head to assimilate ideas. I have also been able to identify this in the primary school learners I have worked with for 20 years, and it raises the question for me about creating the need for reflective space in educational relationships.

Found Knowledge

When I first experienced the 'Paradise' exhibition, I wrote,

'I love the ideas of Paradise conveyed here. The mixture of found materials and manufactured, the way the artist has saved and stored up materials until they can be of use. It taps into my idea of memories stored, being accessed again and bringing ideas to life and visualisation, affirming and strengthening what could be just a random collection of thoughts. There is a sense of important memories being used physically to bring alive current and future thinking.' I looked at the sculptures in the space allotted to them and felt that they each had a story to tell which would contribute to the big picture. My first level of understanding was of the big picture, which drew me on to look at the detail of each piece. It is hard to take in all the detail in one go, so each piece needs to be visited again and again. So I feel it is with learning. It is more than alright, it is necessary for me to revisit something I'm trying to understand. So now I'm realising that I need opportunities to look again and again at an idea, and maybe from different angles, and space in which to do it.

During the course of this reflection I have often become frustrated by my lack of ability to identify and remember people and experiences which have been key influences in helping me find a way to form and sustain the educational relationships I aspire to. It is hard for me to identify a starting point, and just as hard to bring to the foreground and honour the influences which have been so key. My interpretation of the composition of the sculptures provides me with hope that the stored memories will be accessed in part, and will bring life to my current and future thinking as I engage with the ideas of others currently.

The importance of creating communities of learners

But for me as a learner, learning goes beyond the acquisition of knowledge or skills, there needs to be a response involved. Watching live music, rather than listening to a recording of the music marks something of the difference between an individual learning from a textbook or the internet, and the shaping of the learning in discussion with another person. It requires an educational relationship. The learning engages more readily, and goes deeper, when an emotional response is also required. The opportunity to process my reflections on my learning experiences such as I experience with the Masters group at the university, brings the learning to life. In embracing the value of wanting to co-create a learning space within the classroom, I recognise it is not something that can be communicated in words alone, but rather in the living out of that belief or value and the evidence presented needs to communicate those qualities.

So I really appreciate the fact that I currently belong to three regular communities of learners. I am part of the learning community of Swainswick School, and in particular the class which I co-teach. I am part of the Master group of learners, and I'm also part of an educational community of Head-teachers who meet regularly to reflect on how we can live our educational values more fully within the educational contexts and external constraints we are face with.

I am aware that I am a part of all three communities even when I'm not present with the people who form the communities, and all hold supportive yet challenging accountability for me. The communities become linked in my learning, as I learn and develop my ideas about the nature of educational relationships through observation and reflection in one context, and generalise those understandings to the other contexts. So maybe this is one learning community with three different centres.

Through this account I will offer multi media narratives as forms of evidence that are consistent with the relational values I hold and which form my living educational standards by which I judge my practice and seek to improve it. Rayner highlights the importance of understanding relational values from a perspective of inclusionality when he writes:

Our thinking, language, mathematics, science, art, theology, management and educational systems thereby deepen from what breeds opposition, hegemony, waste and conflict to what brings mutual understanding, diversity, sustainability and co-creative relationship. (Rayner, 2007)

Nurturing Educational Relationships

I readily listen to the ideas of others, and am energized by working hard to understand what another might mean, by either spoken or written word, and this engagement shapes my thinking and my way of being which is recognized by others. The following clip illustrates the strength of the educational relationships which lie at the heart of our Tuesday Masters group. I feel the visual image captures the engaged flow of ideas which Jack engenders by the quality of the educational relationships he facilitates as he leads this particular community of learners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_YSX7SlI0

I also feel this quality of receptive responsiveness as I watched the 2 minute video-clip of the educational relationship between Louise and me as we explore possibilities for Louise's writings. (Whitehead, 2007)

How do I open a respectful space for others to learn with me?

Human beings seek recognition of their own worth, or of the people, things, or principles that they invest with worth. The desire for recognition, and the accompanying emotions of anger, shame and pride, are parts of the human personality critical to political life. (Fukuyama, 1992, p. xvii)

As educators we have the responsibility and privilege on a daily basis to communicate and affirm a child's intrinsic value to them. It's no good just believing it ourselves, or in telling children that they are special regardless of what they can or can't do which is going to make any difference to them. It needs to be in the way we live and learn alongside them. A crucial aspect of this is in the time we have for others, and our willingness to spend time in listening to them, and in really hearing what they say.

As significant adults the verbal and non-verbal responses we make in our discussions with children both individually and in various size groups, are incredibly important and rewarding.

Although as educators, we often control the classroom agenda, it is as we are willing to share the learning agenda with others that true engagement in learning is more likely to flourish. The more we are able to show the areas we need support in, the balance of power changes. It is our need that leaves space for others to lead the learning. It is not absolving us of our responsibility. If as leaders of learning we are always self sufficient, we leave no room for others to lead the learning. We deny others the opportunity to learn what they are capable of.

We are privileged to be part of those experiences when learners verbalise their understandings, and try to develop their understanding. Our responses, both verbal and non verbal, need to affirm these sometimes tentative thoughts. As we listen to these responses, they provide windows or insights into the mind of the learner and the way they are thinking which then provides for a co-creative learning space. Listening to others share their insights and understanding provides the opportunity to make explicit aspects of the learning process as it makes learning visible.

People only learn about their intrinsic value from the responses of others, so for many learners, or for many aspects of learning, it is only in relationship with others that we formulate what we really understand. Learning is never developed in a vacuum, although knowledge can be acquired in a solitary state.

Our responses to others in many different situations show clearly and consistently to an objective observer how we view them. Children are often more aware of this than we are as adults. They know what it feels like. They can all too readily be conditioned to believe certain limitations about themselves, just from the responses they ate given. So we can inadvertently create real barriers to learning.

However the power is in our hands to ensure the children receive the positive messages of self worth and ability to learn. As we know children will learn from what we do, not from what we say. There is nothing as strong as example.

How do I see myself modelling the learner I want my pupils to be?

The following video clip shows one of the communities of learners exercising what I believe to be positive educational relationships as they work collaboratively to develop new understanding. As I watch this I see the qualities of educational relationships I seek to develop more fully amongst this community of learners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ck_ECxcaEc

I offer these reflections on the learning session so you can see what it is that I intend when I talk about effective educational relationships, and what it is that I am trying to improve.

Firstly it puts me into a position which I really value, which is of being able to learn alongside other learners, and to work collaboratively with them in a genuine attempt to work together.

I really appreciate the flow of focused conversation between us all as we try out different understandings. The conversation also requires the learners to be understanding each other and their difficulties with understanding, and so there was a reflective quality built in.

There was no imposition by anyone on the others on the group. I felt that I, as a learner, wasn't pushed or rushed into being able to do something at the expense of really understanding it, and I also felt that the others in the group felt in the same position although we all had different levels of knowledge or understanding about the task.

Throughout the activity at the time, I was very aware of the way in which the knowledge and understanding was being woven throughout us all. This activity couldn't have happened without the relational flow between the learners in the group.

There was a real connection between the four of us as learners as the ideas passed from one to another.

Geraldine starts off with the knowledge, but wants to share it. It was her challenge to help us understand.

Louis very quickly shows that he knows what it was all about, and keeps testing what he sees against the ideas already in his head.

Edward quietly watches, and is given the space to keep working out what is happening. I am aware that at the beginning he is as puzzled as I am, but my perception is that he is seeking clarity in the same way as me. This is reinforced for me by watching the video, when near the beginning we unconsciously mirror the same kind of thinking body language. I am aware with Edward of a breakthrough moment when amidst all the chat; he quietly reaches out and picks up the cards to try something out. At that stage I don't think it quite works out, but Edward I think has found a new theory to pursue.

Also in terms of the dynamic of the group, each respects the learning of the other and makes space for it. I feel too, that there is real respect for each other as well as the learner. This activity isn't just a polite exchange of ideas, it is real collaboration.

There are separate conversations and exchanges happening throughout as well, but not to the exclusion of others in the group.

I want to know what Louis' understanding is because I am fascinated by what his thinking is, and he is able to articulate it. He wants to know what my thinking is because he wants to understand where I am, so he can show me more clearly how to understand. Although we all know each other, we haven't worked in exactly this way together before, and I'm thinking that it makes explicit the quality of relationship which must exist, and which I greatly value as an educator, but which I wouldn't take for granted.

As I watch the clip, I'm also fascinated about what the other learners bring in terms of their gifts, and I'm challenged about the importance of providing opportunities for the learners I'm responsible for to develop their gifts.

Louis has really appreciated the chance to work specifically with like minded people where he knows his ideas will be understood. Although he had developed an understanding very quickly he was happy to wait to explain what he understood. He gave that to the group, and helped us all develop our understanding in an inclusional way.

Geraldine gave us a clear demonstration, and was also very patient in helping us understand, and gave us clear pointers without feeling she had to dominate or be the one who knew. She too was able to read the group and each of us in it, and give us the space we needed.

Edward had the capacity to stay with the task, to listen and watch, and build his understanding in that way.

I feel pleased by my role in the group, as its how I want to be as an educator. I'm very happy learning alongside others. I want people's ideas to be heard, and I want people to feel valued. I really enjoy engaging with the ideas of others, trying to understand what they're thinking by what they say. Like Louis, I find it helpful to know where people are in their thinking and understanding. As an educator if I know that, I can more readily help others move forward in their understanding, and as a learner I can move forward in my own thinking and develop my own understanding.

Having a clip like this is a gift which helps me to reflect and understand more about what it is in my own practice and values which are really important to me, and in discussing it with others, it gives it credence to what I believe in as an educator, and helps to strengthen both my values and practice.

Whitehead's reflections on this clip affirm the qualities that I am seeking to evidence in my practice (Appendix 2).

So what have I learnt about how to improve my educational relationship with the learners I work with, both adults and children.

Through carrying out this enquiry, I have affirmed for myself the importance of building educational relationships, I have recognised myself in connection with others as part of a community of learners. I have had the opportunity both to articulate and show the nature of educational relationships in action. I have considered the power of opening an educational space for others, and come to understand much more about the balance of laying down power in order to empower others to lead the learning. I have learnt that it is an important question to continue to pursue.

In making explicit what I have learnt so I know more fully the worth of what I want to improve. As I watch Jack at work, and myself as part of a group of learners, I see more clearly what I value and what I want to improve. I continue to work towards an understanding of how to bring that more fully into the classroom, which is based on bedrock of valuing others and finding ways to engage with them.

References

Biesta, G. J. J. (2006) Beyond Learning; Democratic Education for a Human Future. Boulder; Paradigm Publishers.

Buber, M. (1961) Between Man and Man, London & Glasgow; Fontana.

Dweck, C. S. (2000) Self-Theories: their role in motivation, personality, and development.

Philadelphia, PA 19196; Psychology Press.

Eisner, E. (1988) The Primacy of Experience and the Politics of Method, Educational Researcher, Vol. 17, No. 5, 15-20.

Eisner, E. (1993) Forms of Understanding and the Future of Educational Research. Educational Researcher, Vol. 22, No. 7, 5-11.

Fukuyama, F. (1992) The End of History and the Last Man, London; Penguin.

Schön, D. (1995) The New Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology. Change, Nov./Dec. 1995 27 (6) pp. 27-34.

Whitehead, J. (2007) How do I improve my educational relationship with Louise Cripps in the creation of my living educational theory? An educational enquiry. Unpublished draft, 7 June 20.

Appendix 1

The Student's Prayer

'Don't impose on me what you know, I want to explore the unknown. And be the source of my own discoveries. Let the known be my liberation, not my slavery.

The world of your truth can be my limitation; Your wisdom my negation. Don't instruct me; let's walk together. Let my richness begin where yours ends.

Show me so that I can stand on your shoulders. Reveal yourself so that I can be something different.

You believe that every human being can love and create. I understand, then, your fear when I ask you to live according to your wisdom.

You will not come to know who I am by listening to yourself. Don't instruct me; let me be. Your failure is that I be identical to you'

Umberto Maturana (1/07/07)

http://www.school-survival.net/poetry/the_students_prayer.php

Appendix Two

Jack Whitehead's reflections on the video-clip.

For example, in the following 5 minutes 57 seconds video-clip, Louise is participating in the collaborative creation of understandings with her pupils in a way that shows her educational relationship and influences in the learning of her pupils. Louise holds her pupils within an inclusional gaze that for me can be distinguished by what Martin Buber refers to as the humility of the educator and by the recognition of values in the glance of the educator:

"If this educator should ever believe that for the sake of education he  has to practise selection and arrangement, then he will be guided by another criterion than that of inclination, however legitimate this may be in its own sphere; he will be guided by the recognition of values which is in his glance as an educator. But even then his selection remains suspended, under constant correction by the special humility of the educator for whom the life and particular being of all his pupils is the decisive factor to which his 'hierarchical' recognition is subordinated." (Buber, p. 122, 1947)