What it means to teach!

The four capacities that form a new basis for teacherly authority

The four capacities that I have discussed in the last four postings (here, here, here and here) cannot easily be put into a curriculum and a teacher is unlikely ever to say “we are having a class on insight today”.  Rather, it is in the many one-to-one interactions, where students need insights into their work, how to do their work, how to position themselves vis-à-vis the world around them and, most profoundly, to uncover unsuspected capacities and opportunities that will shape their future lives.

Of the four, caring for others is, perhaps, the easiest of these capacities to model and teach for those who already recognise that relationships are paramount.  Again, via one-to-one interactions – some of which will be visible to other students – all the elements of how we care for others can be modelled and encouraged, from psychological safety to celebration.

Every teacher will have a different way of offering these capacities to their students with different emphases on the four capacities making each teacher’s practice in this area unique to them.  What matters is that the capacities that students value, and need, are being offered in such a way that every student enters a relationship of teacherly authority with each teacher affording the orderly and efficient transmission of the whole range of twenty-first century skills.

A small minority of teachers have always done this and had lifelong impact on their students.  It is now time to expand this group to a critical mass.

I will be offering a one-day program in Term 3 for those teachers interested in further learning about how to develop high levels of legitimate teacherly authority and join the small minority of teachers who have a lifelong impact on their students and whose students willingly do their best work.  Stay tuned.

 John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation.  At the core of this work is the concept and practice of teacherly authority.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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