Saturday 27 August 2016

Teaching as White Water Rafting (From Aug 15)

Monday, 15 August 2016

Teaching as White Water Rafting (Brooksfield Chapter 1, 2nd Edition)

Well, I've never been good on water but I can say that white water rafting can undoubtedly work as a metaphor to teaching. While others may see it as a job with many uncontrollable variables and decisions to make in little time, all while tumbling downstream with rocks and obstacles in the way, I see it as organized chaos.

Sure, you have your obstacles, people to work with and decisions to make. Time management is crucial, both in the water but also as a teacher. Brooksfield writes "teachers are struggling gladiators of ambiguity" (p. 9). We make structured knowledge out of information clouds, and (more or less) successfully communicate retained knowledge to learners through some chosen medium.

All I can say is, to the untrained mind the idea of teaching can seem treacherous. That said, to someone who's never had the experience of or the yearn to whitewater raft, the same can be said about that. I'm terrified of rapids, seeing as I'm not a strong swimmer. I can only imagine how people must feel teaching white water rafting.

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