Having just finished re-reading Pullman’s trilogy “His Dark Materials” it was a nice coincidence to come across the outline of an intriguing paper written by Hamish McLeod and Jen Ross, both of Edinburgh University. The paper is entitled: “Structure, authority and other concepts: teaching in fool-ish spaces” and was presented to the ICE3 conference which took place at Ross Priory, Loch Lomond, in March 2007. Unfortunately, the link to the full paper is broken and so I can only refer to the outline of the paper on the conference website — I believe the full paper would be well worth reading.
The coincidental aspect was in the mention by Hamish and Jen of Pullman’s notion of the daemon, the familiar that is an integral part of what it to be human in Lyra’s world in the trilogy. The intriguing aspect was in the playful, and yet entirely serious, suggestion by Hamish and Jen, that the teacher’s role in an online space might productively reflect a relationship to learners based on something akin to the relationship between the daemon and his or her ‘owner’. Or, to take a different tack (yet with evident similarities), the role might be modelled on the Loki from Norse mythology, or the figures of Coyote and Raven from Native American culture, or the court jester of European renown.
In the sense suggested by the notion of the daemon:
“The teacher must be a presence that the learner can create and control to a certain extent, and yet be a real and autonomous virtual other with whom the learner can interact, collaborate and conflict.”
And if we look to the Jester model:
“The responsibility of these characters is to poke fun at the established authority, and to ask questions about what would seem to be the obvious, natural order of things. The fool is an irritant in the society around — like the proverbial grain of sand in an oyster. S/he.…..is a maker of mischief and a creator of tension, occasionally with actively malicious intent, but more often than not s/he is also responsible for the resolution of the tension by fun and foolery.”
Anyone involved in thinking through the implications of the changing context for education inherent in the embrace of social media or Web 2.0 or online distance learning must be well aware of the discomfort that teachers will inevitably feel at the shifting role brought about by those changes. Helping learners to learn, or shaping the environment that makes learning more effective or more relevant, or prodding and discomfiting learners to provoke them into thinking in fresh ways — all of these and others are valid roles for the teacher today. As Hamish and Jen note:
“These roles are not easy to sustain — they are uncomfortable and, perhaps, quite lonely. By embracing discomfort and loneliness the teacher/fool can therefore also perhaps gain insight into their students” sense of being lost in online spaces.“
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Teacher as a necessary irritant; teacher as the motivating spirit or soul of the learner: interesting new slant, awesome responsibility.
By the end of the trilogy, Lyra became a daemon for the entire world.
Regardless of what organized religion claims to see in these books, I find them to have a very strong moral tone with obvious savior/sacrifice images.
Thanks to heyjude for pointing me to your blog!
diane
Diane — good to make your acquaintance via Judy’s blog.
There are some uncomfortable ideas in the notions expressed by Hamish and Jen. Taking your own words: ‘teacher as motivating spirit’ should cause no one much of a problem, but ‘teacher as soul of the learner’ I would want to think through very carefully. There are too many, I fear, who would see that as a route to control rather than guidance or encouragement. Of course, (too) many teachers already see themselves as a controlling force anyhow.
Whichever notion one accepts, you are right that the choice itself, as well as the execution of the role taken on, is a massive responsibility, and one that requires wisdom and great care. I always believe it is beneficial to be put into an uncomfortable place when thinking through such critical decisions — the paper by Hamish and Jen does that.
I obviously need to sharpen up my symbolic skills, as the notion of Lyra as the world’s soul had not occurred to me — but you are right.
Fascinating analogy, John.
I am more comfortable with the notion of teacher as Fool or Jester than as Daemon. The latter is inextricably interconnected with the ‘other’ with whom s/he shares life itself. The Fool (Ariel, Puck) , on the other hand, can needle, harass, provide cognitive conflict but is ultimately and gloriously separate.
If our aim as educators is to enable young people to be independent and autonomous, critical and creative, then at some point we need to encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning, their own lives.
’In fairy tales, it’s always the children who have the fine adventures. The adults have to stay at home and wait for the children to fly in the window’.
hi John — thanks for this post and the nod towards our paper! I am really interested in what you say about discomfort around the idea of the teacher as daemon or soul of the learner. I think that actually I share that view. Our full paper talks a lot about the tensions between the power of the teacher’s role and the potentially chaotic and unruly nature of digital spaces. However, in our revised version (available at http://jenr.edublogs.org/2008/09/25/paper-about-teaching-online-jesters-tricksters-and-fools/ ) we have removed the reference to the daemon. It didn’t seem to quite fit any more, though we do still argue that the online teacher has to find ways to create a felt presence for his or her students. I think your comment about how teachers may feel the need to try to control students and online spaces illustrates how difficult a balancing act this may be!
Oops! — managed to spell my name wrong in that last comment!
Must admit, Jen, I loved the daemon reference, but I understand why you have removed it. I will read your update with great interest and, no doubt, will comment soon.
John
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