Our classroom is home for 6 colleagues and one professor. People build
homes but homes don't build people. In our 2nd class, we laid down the corner stone for the
spacious house we will build throughout the semester.We created our countries and designed all systems needed to be run.
Last time, we took a step up towards the structure of our house. To do so, we work in teams of twos where each
group focuses on building their rooms and decorate it the way they want. We all will create a common stairway that we all will climb to reach out to our aspirations.
Marriam keeps on surprising me
with her fashionable and creative ideas. When she said that they will preserve
a fashionable clothes manner for all their immigrants as part of the
educational system, I was like "Seriously!".But, Dr Joyanne looked cool with the idea as long as there is no harm
would come from it. At that moment, I asked myself a question "Do I need to broaden my thinking horizons
to accept ideas that may seem unacceptable or kind of shocking to the way I
think?". Actually, I still didn't find the answer to this question. May be
I need to wait for a while until I am exposed to more of these ideas and then,
I will be able to form an opinion.
Mike and Othman kept on
developing educators’ indigenous professional development to meet the purposes and goals of the educational system in their country. I like the way
they fit in all the pieces together. I like the fact that despite the poor situation in their country, they are able to
come up with realistic solutions and making use of every single resource they
have. They, also, have just built a new university in their country and that is why I will take the opportunity to congratulate them
"Congratulationssss guys :)".
For Care and I, I think that
there is yet a lot that we will learn about ourselves. I like that we both work
with passions and enthusiasm. We want for our educational system to be the
best. We want to reach out to almost every single student in our country and provide them with quality
education; which is not necessarily tied up with the financial status of the person. I don't want quality education
to be exclusive to the wealthy. I want for every person to be able to have access to the type of education they
would like to pursue.
Most often, we overlook an
important fact and it is that mainstream education trajectory is not the only educational venue that exists. There is also the Technical Educational
system with its various branches;commercial, agricultural and industrial. I believe that focusing on
that side of education will help heal the rift between individuals socially and culturally. There is this notion in
the Arab world that whoever chooses the technical trajectory is beneath those in the mainstream system. And to
be clearer, students DON'T choose it, they are sent there automatically because they get lower scores than
their peers. Thus, these students are labeled with failure and disappointment
which eventually lead to a parallel unproductive generation. That if we considered that the mainstream system students are productive!
It all goes back to the matter
of prestige, which student graduated from which reputable school; sometimes regardless of what they learn. So, as long as I have co-created my
country with my partner; Care. Next class, if we will still build up on our
activity and do our scaffolding, I would like to develop new ideas with my
partner to see how we can build two parallel, interrelated and integrated
educational systems; mainstream and technical.
C u all in another fruitful
class ;)
Koboul, thanks for this reflective post. Your question: "Do I need to broaden my thinking horizons to accept ideas that may seem unacceptable or kind of shocking to the way I think?" is an interesting one. What makes some ideas unacceptable to you? What makes some ideas shocking to you? Do you need to accept all ideas or be able to exist alongside them? This process as you said will take time and requires us all to listen more and judge less.
ReplyDeleteI believe that what makes some ideas shocking or unacceptable is because they don't fit in the "norms of my life" or what I gained or absorbed from the surrounding I grew up in. Sometimes these ideas contradict my viewpoints about life and how I evaluate matters. I think it goes back to REFLECTION, as well as to the fact that sometimes we need to question the "norms of our life" and have a confrontation with the SELF because I guess it is way easier to be engaged in a war with an enemy rather than launching a war against oneself.
ReplyDeleteIt is always challenging and at times extremely difficult for most of us to engage in something that requires intense critique and analysis!!! We are growing, Koboul, and we are learning!!! Embrace it, challenge it, and play with it... at the end we'll create something to be proud of!
ReplyDelete