Transforming the Profession of Teaching in a Changing Society : Teaching as Philosophical Inquiry and Stanley Cavell's The Senses of Walden
スポンサーリンク
概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
This paper examines an alternative view of teacher education that enables teachers to redefine their image and mission in the changing society of Japan. This vision is inspired by and draws upon the educational and philosophical thoughts of nineteenth-century American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and contemporary Harvard philosopher Stanley Cavell. The paper first clarifies the nature of bewilderment regarding teachers' professional identities, basically following the changes accompanying the end of the era of modernization efforts. Recently, teachers have been forced to yield their historically secure and respected positions in their communities, because not a small number of people have begun to doubt the validity and efficiency of school education and teacher education. The article therefore examines the necessity and possibility of an alternative approach to teacher education, which reclaims space for teachers philosophical questioning about their lost identities as well as the mission and practice of teacher education itself in an age of crisis for teachers (and students). Finally, the archetype of teacher education is unearthed from a correlation between Cavell and other writers on whom his moral and educational theories are based, namely Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The philosophical interplay of these philosophers shapes the view of teacher education as a creative place in which teachers can question their roles. It is not questioning in the form of irresponsible criticism by someone isolated from society, but it is rather a voice of awakening, a voice that challenges the language in which one dwells, and an expression of social transformation from within. This portrait of teacher education conversely brings light to the rediscovery of what makes teachers teachers: a creative commitment to the society, in which teachers work through their language.