Abstract:

As the world shifts through crisis and technology, teachers have less visible central roles in educational processes. The changing role of the teacher, often seen as a positive development in education, is supported by recent theoretical developments in online pedagogies such as the CoI (Community of Inquiry) (1, 2, 3) and the FOLC (Fully Online Learning Community) (4). This indicates an assimilation of the teacher, and teaching, into the digital learning of students. This paper first outlines ideological, technological, and theoretical movements that are pushing education towards student-centred learning and, in the process, relegating, or removing entirely, the concept of the teacher. The authors argue that this crisis in teaching is a result of neoliberal reforms of education, and the revolutionary impact of technology on interaction, communication and information distribution. In teacher-centred modes of education, little trust is placed in the capacity of students to study, learn, and determine for themselves what is important. However, student-centred learning, while putting trust in the students, risks undermining trust in teachers’ knowledge and experience. This paper draws from Charles’ (5) notions of educative power, Mezirow’s (6) transformation theory, and Biesta’s (7) world-centred pedagogy to argue that teachers have a valuable role as disruptors in both physical and online educational settings, and that engaging in this disruption is valuable in reorienting a focus of education that is all too concerned with student-centred learning.

References:
[1] Garrison DR. Online community of inquiry review: social, cognitive, and teaching presence issues. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 2007 Apr 1;11(1):61–73.
[2] Garrison R. Shared Metacognition in a Community of Inquiry. Online Learning [Internet]. 2022 Mar 1 [cited 2022 Mar 19];26(1). Available from: https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3023
[3] Garrison DR, Anderson T, Archer W. The first decade of the community of inquiry framework: A retrospective. The Internet and Higher Education. 2010 Jan 1;13(1):5–9.
[4] van Oostveen R, DiGiuseppe M, Barber W, Blayone T, Childs E. New conceptions for digital technology sandboxes: Developing a Fully Online Learning Communities (FOLC) model. In 2016. p. 667.
[5] Charles M. Towards a critique of educative violence: Walter Benjamin and ‘second education’. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. 2016 Oct 1;24(4):525–36.
[6] Mezirow J. A Critical Theory of Adult Learning and Education. Adult Education. 1981 Sep 1;32(1):3–24.
[7] Biesta G. World-Centred Education: A View for the Present. New York: Routledge; 2021. 126 p.

Keywords:

Critical pedagogy, student-centred learning, online learning, higher education.