Introduction to 3260

Hello, My name is Alix and I work with not-for-profit organizations in the areas of legal advocacy and pubic health and safety programs, with an emphasis on community-based education/ training.  Really pleased that the primary course text is written by Stephen Brookfield, who has an incredibly interesting background and perspective on adult education and social change.  Looking forward to learning about other 3260 participants and discussions on professional practice.

Autobiography:

I have history of working with individuals with disabilities, particularly in the area of legal advocacy, and access to training, resources and employment.

My major project on forest tenure reform, which I completed in 2000 for my Masters of Arts Degree in Conflict Analysis and Management, advocated for Aboriginal and value-added models of control over forest land in contrast to the current dominance of private property and corporate concentration, and I have since had a strong interest in economic and environmental dispute management.

As a Legal Advocate for Together Against Poverty Society (TAPS) for seven years in Victoria I assisted individuals and families to receive the income supports and medical benefits and to which they were legally entitled.  I recruited, trained and supervised UVIC and Camosun College, and community based volunteers who assisted applicants qualify for disability status. I have also prepared and provided public legal education presentations to the staff of community organizations.

In my most recent work as the Coordinator/ Grant Writer for the “WITS” program (preventing peer victimization among school-aged children) I have been responsible for supporting public elementary schools across Canada to introduce the WITS Program.

I am interested in improving my ability to deliver training, both internally in organizations, externally to community agencies providing services and to stakeholder groups and policy makers.  The PIDP has completely opened up possibilities for me in these areas, and I wish I could “rewind” training that I have provided that may have been less than engaging, or too focussed on content.

I have children in elementary school who are 7 and 10 who are increasingly asking lots of questions about the physical and social world around them, and I feel concurrently alarmed, terrified and optimistic about the future.  I studied political science in university years ago and have an interest in collective action, ending homelessness, environmental sustainability, and the labour movement.  I am increasingly obsessed with the gentrification process occurring in cities around us, and the implications for neighbourhoods, communities and wanting to have a coffee that is less than $8.00.   I am rolling my sleeves up in current federal election with a  keen interest for Canada to be a country that welcomes refugees, supports veterans, maintains social programs, respects Aboriginal and Indigenous control over land and resources and opposes Bill 6-51 (hoping for a change!!)

Here is a link to the PIDP SIE facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/VCCSchoolOfInstructorEducation#

Find these recommended blog posts from PIDP 3260 colleagues addressing renaissance topics including creativity in education, culinary training, and a journeyman painter providing apprenticeship instruction in our neighbouring province:

http://hairinstructorsblog.blogspot.ca/

https://mikaelvolke.wordpress.com/

https://mike7244.wordpress.com/

“For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The qualities of a good teacher, to my mind, favour a critical thinking approach to classrooms and learning.  Diverse students are provided a sense that their life experience is relevant to their learning, and consider the knowledge they have in the context not just of an individual, but also in the broader world.  A critical perspective involves understanding phenomena in a historical framework, in order to prepare and create a better future (for society as a collective).  I learn from teachers who can effectively support discussion, debate, and collaborative case study, but also provide forums for quiet contemplative learning (presentation of concepts, research etc).  I wholeheartedly agree with Brookfield’s contention in Chapter One  that teaching is not a static, linear, prescribed activity but should be a muddle, with unexpected turns and outcomes and that teachers need to be (ironically) prepared for uncertainty.  Learners are unique individuals with an influence on the world around them, and the circumstances of our external environment are in constant flux as well.  The external society in which we live will in turn influence the classroom environment, and individuals within.  It would seem that the trick is for a teacher to be organized but expect and welcome a bit of chaos, largely because of the significant learning opportunities that are created by pushing through obstacles, but I do not understand how pedagogy of children and adults would differ in this regard (“expect the unexpected,” and perhaps they do not.

 Here is an excerpt from Assignment 1 that I enjoyed writing :  Brookfield believes that “…the starting point for dealing with teachers’ problems should be teachers’ own experiences” (p.11).  However, he recognizes that teachers are not always or automatically conscious of the value of learning from their own experiences.  Of more concern, in the quote being discussed here,“Simply having experiences does not imply that they are reflected on,, understood or analyzed critically.  Individual experiences can be distorted, self-fulfilling, unexamined and constraining…” Brookfield identifies how detrimental our own experience can sometimes be in constraining the development of our ideas, and limiting our ability to take different perspectives which can lead to a perpetuation of intolerance, bias and prejudice.  As teachers or educators the potential harm caused by transmitting unchecked beliefs are particularly great.  I am reminded of seeing a bumper sticker on a car in traffic recently that said “You don’t have to believe everything you think.” This funny, but politically provocative message gave me pause to try and understand exposures to topics such as politics, culture, education, humour and family roles that directly and indirectly influenced my thinking, and developed into an informal and then increasingly (with age) unyielding belief system, which I would like to characterize as consistently rational, but at times could only be considered irrational and actually even include a fair measure of superstition.

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