an idea for overcoming the complex generation gap that exists in a number of professional contexts ... The older teachers wanted to pass on to their pupils what could be .... Walter had trained as a teacher within a more informal system, the so-‐called free ... books and she had no whish to rebel against school or her parents.
Understanding teaching in three generations Marianne Høyen, Aarhus University, Denmark
Introduction Through the last few years I have, in various contexts, interviewed people of different backgrounds about their childhood, education and work in order to get insight into their relation to nature. My aim has been to understand the relation between the individual human being and the surrounding nature, no matter how this was perceived. I refer to this relation as a 'view on nature'. My perspective is sociological, and a basic hypothesis of this study is that view on nature can be understood as a cultural phenomenon which can be explained sociologically. A further hypothesis is that humans' view on nature can be seen through a combination of two dimensions, a primary and a secondary, each stretched between two poles. The primary dimension consists of one pole which is based on a striving for mathematically inspired insight into nature's connections and a second pole which is oriented towards existence. The secondary dimension is based on understanding and interpretation of nature, and the polarisation of this dimension involves direct mastery of (Bourdieu, 1979, 1990)nature, on the one side, and a symbolic reading of nature and its meaning for humans, on the other (Høyen 2013). This understanding corresponds to Bourdieu's analysis of the social space (Bourdieu 1986). These hypotheses are implied in the analysis of this paper, but will not be discussed further. Here I will concentrate on a recurrent observation which I have only recently put into words, namely that our view on nature is reflected in the narratives that underlie the stories of our lives. It is this assertion that I wish to pursue and discuss in the present paper, if we, by taking our understanding of these stories as our starting point, are able to arrive at an idea for overcoming the complex generation gap that exists in a number of professional contexts. My case for discussing this assertion comes from the Danish primary and lower secondary school where I have conducted interviews with three generations of teachers.1 By 1 In Denmark children from the age of five or six years attend a 10-‐year primary and lower secondary school with forms zero to nine; the 10th form is voluntary. Then follows 1
analysing the transcribed interviews I have gained insight into how these teachers, throughout their lives, have developed and used various understandings and interpretations of nature in their teaching, primarily, though not limited to natural science subjects in school. I base my analyses on biographical interviews which I contextualise through documentary sources. I understand the individual teacher as a voice coming from a profession which, as a group, has its own history too. The history of the teaching profession is also the history of social reproduction institutions, namely the schools. Therefore, analyses of the story of the social agents – that is, agents who produce and reproduce the life of the institution – should be tied to analyses of the social function of that institution (Muel-‐ Dreyfus, 2004). Sociologically, institutions bare similar characteristics to individual agents: Both are inscribed in a social space and have relations to other institutional agents, including the field of power, not least the state. With the historically changing status, the meaning and importance of the school and education for people in general are changing, as are the role of the school and the teacher as representatives of this educational system. Therefore, I suggest that teachers' stories about their teaching in the cultural phenomenon 'nature' can be seen as an indication of how the school and the teachers, possibly through the nature-‐related subjects, at different times reproduce a view on nature which is consistent with the agents' position in social space. I draw on a biographical aspect, though from two perspectives. At the general theoretical sociological level I apply Bourdieu’s notions of social space and habitus (Bourdieu, 1990, 1995). I also draw on the research of Ivor Goodson into teachers' lives, showing that socialisation in childhood has an impact on how teachers understand and perform teaching later in life (Goodson, 1992, 2003). This figure of thought has previously proven itself in the understanding of view on nature, where empirical data shows that the mature adult's view on nature is rooted in childhood (Høyen, 2014). In a previous paper on biographical interviews with teachers of nature-‐related subjects I found a tendency which I – at a sketchy level and with reference to Lyotard (Lyotard, 1996) – described as a difference between grand narratives and small and local narratives (Høyen, 2010). The older teachers wanted to pass on to their pupils what could be voluntary youth education, which normally takes three years, for example leading to a GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). 2
understood as nature's grand narratives, for example the huge changes on the surface of the planet which occurred during the ice ages and remain evident from the landscape surrounding us today; and if we dig below the surface of the ground we may see in the various soil layers evidence of the processes during the withdrawal of the ice which created these changes. The younger teachers, on the other hand, were more interested in small, local societies: the ants on the pavement, the birds above our heads – living their lives separately from ours. Among the younger generation focus was not on the all-‐embracing biological and geographical systems, but on the near questions which can be observed here and now simply by being alert. Initially I want to take a closer look at these narratives, their content, offspring and social references. It seems obvious that narratives vary together with the different understandings of knowledge and science. Previous generations' search for coherent systems of theory has today been replaced by minor, limited narratives, and there does not seem to be any interest in finding a possible overall explanation. My question is then: Is it possible to analyse a (teacher) generation's relation to nature and its view on nature through stories like these? If the older generation focuses on the need for grand narratives, and the younger generation on the need for local narratives, then we might on an ontological level be dealing with a sort of generational gap. Such a change can be seen as general, with possible social traces. Finally, I will reflect on whether it is possible at the same time to preserve the story of the individual generation and overcome the gap between generations by constructing new stories. This could help the individual teacher to see that his/her knowledge is culturally based. Engaging with the development of such stories may improve the teaching as well as the teaching material related to nature.
Method Interviewing teachers about their professional lives touches upon a number of different, but interwoven perspectives: the teacher’s life story and his/her childhood and youth, where the possibilities for his/her future was framed; the young adult life involving education and the forming of a possible future; and the mature adult for whom experienced and well-‐ established patterns provide possibilities in his/her private as well as professional life. Biographical interviews seek to construct stories around these perspectives taking as their subjective starting point the sense that it is the individual agent's understanding and 3
interpretation of his/her life and surroundings that is expressed in the interview which focuses on the individual’s life as a teacher. From a sociological viewpoint, however, such subjective perspectives can only exist within a broader societal frame. The individual teacher as well as the professional group belong as social agents to a general social space. They occupy positions with a trajectory – a past – which has led to the current position. This past orients the present as well as expectations for the future (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992). Similarly, the ‘school’ institution has a social trajectory that has been shaped by the past, exists in the present and is oriented towards the future. This I will also get back to in my description of the case below. When interviewing a teacher it is of course important to listen to what the teacher says, but also to understand the utterances within the social structures of the life of the teacher and the institution (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992). The individual teacher’s way of understanding, making sense of and handling his/her job on a daily basis must take place within these structure. The teacher must as a professional constantly, consciously or unconsciously, relate to the impact of these and political-‐administrative boundaries, no matter whether they are state-‐initiated, of a more local organisational type or subjective, with a view to making sense of his/her task of ‘being a teacher’. This is of course a much more complex task than just informing children of a certain corpus of knowledge – a rather banal description of teaching which nevertheless later in this paper will show to be important. On an abstract level one could argue that the individual teacher’s task of making sense of his/her world comprises an interplay between previous individual, subjective experiences resulting from primary and secondary socialisation, which to some extent shapes the subsequent choice of formal education – based on a background of a society with specific needs for labourers and professionals. Choosing a specific education which leads to an expected later professional life supports adapting to a professional practice, which itself has a trajectory of development in which the professional field creates, forms and understands the surrounding social world (Muel-‐Dreyfus, 2004). Biographical interviews are, in my opinion, one of the best ways to identify with another person’s understanding of his/her life. Through dialogue the interviewer is able to pose questions which are as ‘natural’ as possible and hence avoid ruptures by posing questions which, put forward at an unfortunate moment, may disturb the world of the interviewee. On the other hand, the questions that need to be addressed in order to qualify 4
the interview and lift it from a personal to a more general level can be asked as sensitively as possible within the framework of such an interview. In order to analyse a teacher’s understanding of what it means to be a teacher the interview must be embedded in specific social and institutional structures. Such interviews, although consisting primarily of flashbacks and therefore being somewhat rationalised (Bourdieu, 1987), provide insights into the changing conditions of ‘teacherhood’ and the practice of teaching specific subjects. By reflecting on the interviewee’s childhood, expectations of life, teacher education and later job(s) life story interviews represent a looking glass through which we can understand ‘being a teacher’ through different times. The individual teacher’s previous daily struggles, actual possibilities and concrete choices are much likely lost when we look back on the past. However, as interviewer my intention was, through dialogue and questions, to make room for reflection on how things were back then. Drawing on the notions of field and habitus from Bourdieu (1990) my intention in this paper is: •
First, to present the school as part of a larger educational field with changing positions within society, focusing on specific subjects’ trajectory within this field.
•
Second, through biographical interviews to analyse how generations of teachers describe themselves as teachers.
•
Third, to focus on their stories about specific subjects within the natural sciences. On this basis I will discuss how these and possibly new stories may bridge the gaps
between generations of teachers, knowledge-‐wise as well as sociologically.
The case I will initially give a brief presentation of the interviewed teachers. In the following analysis I will draw upon biographical interviews with three older teachers, two middle-‐aged teachers and one young teacher. The teachers' life stories illustrate in various ways that the generations have had different starting points in the social space, and that the school they enter into after having finished their education also changes positions during the same period. In general we may say that the agents' habitus – that is, the teachers' life conditions and professional practice within the institutional structure that is the school's position in society – on the whole 5
undergo certain changes. The teachers' experiences of tensions may be due to a lot of factors, but they become especially obvious when the habitus and habitat fail to match.
Presentation of the teachers The following descriptions will point to themes which cannot always be ascribed to a certain generation, as overlaps between generations of teachers do occur. But in general, each life story about teaching nature-‐related subjects expresses a whole around a core which, I will argue, represents changing views on nature. First, I want to outline specific characteristics of the agents in question and the understanding of their teaching practice which they put forward in the biographical interviews. The empirical data is slightly limited, as only six teachers were interviewed; however, the questions I raise in the following pages are questions which to some extent are all discussed in other research touching upon similar issues (social kritik etc.). I could therefore claim that this is a generational portrait seen through the lenses of the teachers. The older teachers (Edwin, Walter and Henry, all retired now) Through most of his teaching career Edwin taught older pupils in lower secondary school. His main subject was physics, and as this particular subject only takes up two one-‐hour lessons per week he taught several classes at the same time. He mostly worked in parallel with a colleague and shared everything concerning his teaching with this colleague: layout of the physics laboratories at school, teaching material and textbooks etc. Walter had trained as a teacher within a more informal system, the so-‐called free schools, which entertains alternative pedagogical ideas. This led to a teaching career mainly within the area of integrating exiles from the former Yugoslavia. Henry taught several subjects during his career; however, geography and biology – the subjects on which the interview focused – took up a major part. Henry was engaged in these subjects not just in primary and lower secondary school, but also in voluntary youth school, where he was in charge of arranging extensive excursions to places of specific interest. He also spent a large part of his leisure time teaching, making films, arranging exhibitions, recording TV programmes, all with the purpose of supporting his teaching and that of his colleagues.
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The middle-‐aged teachers (Michael and Cathy) Michael grew up in a suburb outside Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. His parents then moved to an area with newly built single-‐family houses which was physically and socio-‐ economically situated opposite to a block of flats. Michael moved to a school which attracted children from the area, a school with mainly young teachers who ‘wanted to do something as teachers’. As a child Michael read a lot of popular science reference books related to nature; the subjects were prehistoric animals, birds, anything which the sales brochures had on display and which he found interesting. As a boy scout he met a young scout leader (who later in life became a professional colleague) who, through a shared interest in Indians, introduced Michael to various aspects of nature. Michael experienced a deep gap between his interest in nature and school subjects which failed to capture his attention. After completing his GCSE Michael considered a degree in forestry, but chose to work as a postman for a couple of years before he eventually turned to higher education which had to ‘have something to do with people’ – an interest which had emerged from his contact with older people, listening to their stories, as a postman. He considered becoming either a social worker or a teacher, but eventually chose the local teacher’s training college, which was located closest to his home. Cathy grew up in the countryside. Both her parents were teachers, and she remembered her childhood as happy and without problems. As a child Cathy read a lot of books and she had no whish to rebel against school or her parents. In general she felt that she had been a good pupil who did what she was told. After they had finished school Cathy and her boyfriend went to university. However, life as a university student was too stressful, and they decided to move back home to study at the local teacher’s training college. They started a family just after graduating, got jobs, children and a house close to the school where they work today. The young teacher (Laila) Laila was born in the capital, but when she and her sister were still very young the family moved to a newly built area of single-‐family houses in the provinces. During her childhood Laila and her mother – who had trained as a kindergarten teacher, but did not work – played around with a lot of creative ideas such as growing vegetables and fruits in the newly laid out garden. Laila remembered activities involving investigations and new experiences as an important part of her childhood. In addition, her grandparents were inventors of a sort, and she loved visiting them, although they lived far away. They also had a lot of animals. 7
As a young adult Laila wanted to become a veterinarian, but her school marks were not good enough. She therefore repeated her A levels in maths twice and found a job as an assistant for a veterinarian in the city.2 However, she never succeeded in getting into the programme, which devastated her and made her try other educational possibilities at university. None of these lasted for more than six months, though. Then an older friend of the family told her that she should become a teacher – a possibility which she had never previously considered. Laila chose to specialise in English and nature-‐related subjects at the teacher’s training college, and she found friends with similar interests there. Today she is teacher at a large school in Copenhagen and has a young son. The teachers' life stories in social space For the older generation (Edwin, Walther and Henry) training as a teacher was an opportunity to climb up the social ladder. They had few other possibilities, as a university education was costly in terms of living expenses – money which the families did not have – and it implied leaving home and finding a living in the city, which could make the physical, cultural and social distance to home too much. All three teachers had the support of their parents, and therefore no break with the family was necessary; their choice of education was consistent with the ambitions of their parents. At the time training as a teacher did not require a GCSE,3 and both Edwin, Walther and Henry began their education after 10 years of compulsory school at the age of 16-‐17 years. Consequently, they were all young when they entered the teaching profession, and all found jobs through personal relations. They married young, each with a girl they had met during the last year of school or during their first years as a professional. Their spouses had jobs for shorter periods of time or worked part time. Two of the teachers from the older generation settled down close to their childhood homes, while the third chose to live far away from home – his mother was driven away from home and rejected by the family when she became pregnant without being married. The social climb experienced by the older generation was not as obvious among the middle-‐aged teachers (Cathy and Michael). During his own schooling Michael was a fairly mediocre pupil, and both of his parents belonged to the lower middle class and throughout their lives performed the jobs that were available to them. Cathy had been a non-‐reflective hard-‐working pupil who did what she was told without questioning this. To her, getting an 2 In Denmark it was until recently possible to improve one’s marks either by taking the same exam again or by working for a period in an area relevant for the given education. 3 This was the case from 1966 and onwards. 8
education and later on a decent job was a matter of course. Both Cathy and Michael read many books of various kinds: fiction, biographies, travelling reports and non-‐fiction, especially reference books. Becoming a teacher had neither been Michael’s nor Cathy’s first choice. They had tried other possibilities and later rejected them. Training as a teacher represented an opportunity to live what they both called a 'happy and whole life' with good job opportunities and time for leisure activities and a family. None of them were especially interested in politics or community activities. Both had settled down not far from where they had grown up. For the young teacher (Laila) training as a teacher entailed climbing down the social ladder, as this choice of education failed to meet her ambitions and dreams as a young woman. Her parents, on the other hand, had been very open towards her choice of a future profession. As a pupil Laila had done well in some subjects and less so in others. If she had been unable to see the purpose of a given school activity, she had simply refused trying to learn it. Understanding the objective of an activity had always been vital for her. For Laila's generation, a CGSE was necessary in order to be enrolled in a teacher's training college. Therefore, she had had to retake certain natural science subjects twice before being admitted. She worked in non-‐skilled labour jobs for several years and attempted to get a university degree (she left university within six months) before she at the age of 28 began training as a teacher. Becoming a teacher was not something Leila had thought of herself. She settled down at a fair distance from where she grew up.
Changing contexts – the school and the nature-‐related subjects As mentioned in the introduction to this paper the school can also be seen as an agent in the social space. The school itself has changed immensely through the period covered by the six teachers' life stories. In 1958 an extensive school reform put an end to the two divisions that had existed within the comprehensive school system since its beginning, namely the difference between schools in the cities/towns and the countryside, respectively, and the difference between schooling which led to a further literary education and schooling which led to a practical vocational education. So far the role of the school had been to convey knowledge, shape the children’s character and ensure that the future citizens had the necessary basic skills to function in society. The 1958 reform placed the child at the centre and aimed at educating 9
harmonious, happy and good human beings. Consequently, the role of the teacher changed too, as emphasis shifted to a form of teaching that was both motivating and pleasurable. Nature-‐related subjects were not at the centre of this reform. However, the older teachers do describe teaching activities which were both subject-‐related and supportive for the collective. In the 1970s 'the social' was introduced into schools, which resulted in a stated objective about equality and social mobility. The goal was to create a better society. As the amount of leisure time of the individual would in the near future be increased thanks to the use of technology, the focus of the individual should be on family and community-‐related aspects, but also on the work place and society in general. Pupils in primary and lower secondary school now had to learn, instead of simply being taught; they now had a voice and their parents would become an active part of the school. Some of the nature-‐related subjects, namely biology and geography, were – together with history – seen as part of a general subject on modern social studies (samtidsorientering) focusing on conflicts, interests, values and oppositions in society. In the 1990s focus in the school system shifted from society to the individual. The rights of the individual in the welfare state were now supplemented with citizens' duties and the idea that everyone had a personal duty to develop, be responsible for themselves and undertake lifelong learning. In the 1970s the school strived to minimise social differences; in the 1990s the school was expected to create trust, equality and understanding of society, other cultures and nature. The school became a provider of a service and the role of the teacher was now to stimulate the pupil’s work with his/her individual identity. Human interaction with nature was now, for the first time ever, mentioned in the school preamble. In the 2000s the school turned towards subject knowledge, especially due to the results of the PISA tests conducted in the beginning of the period. These tests placed Denmark much lower on the international ranking scale than expected. Other enquiries showed that the Danish primary and lower secondary school was far from successful in securing social mobility. These results contributed to general criticism of the school, focusing on its subjects as well as its organisation and management. The Danish Ministry of Education formulated a set of binding goals for each form, and the need for the establishment of canons was discussed. Furthermore, national tests were introduced, as
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were themes such as entrepreneurship and innovation, especially related to the idea of globalisation, which replaced the former idea of the knowledge society. To sum up, many things have changed through the years in which the three generations of teachers represented in this study have been active. In the beginning of the period the compulsory education was seven years, and in the three upper forms the pupils were divided into an academic and a vocational line, respectively. Society’s expectations to these two groups were that the first should study at university or a college, while the second should opt for a practical education. From the 1970s onwards compulsory education in Denmark was increased to nine years and the division of the pupils in the upper forms was rejected. The subject’s (biology) trajectory in the school system Biology first became a subject in Danish schools from 1958 onwards. Around the years 1957-‐ 1960 a major reform took place in the country’s primary and lower secondary schools, and one of the consequences was that the phrase ‘biology’ was introduced into the curriculum. Although the subject had existed for a long time, it had previously only existed as part of another, somewhat broader and purely descriptive subject, namely natural history. In the period 1958-‐2010 the purpose of the school subject biology was changed five times by the Danish Ministry of Education and its offices. The purpose of biology is, like any other school subject, regulated by law. However, in relation to the establishment of most of the major school laws the ministry, together with teacher organisations and specialists, creates a set of guidelines for the curriculum which specifies how the teachers may approach the more detailed planning of the given subject at each form level. In 1958 this guide was rather detailed, but it was up to the individual teacher to follow it or not. Recently these guidelines have become more strict and a mandatory requirement which the teachers must follow in order to meet certain centrally formulated teaching goals. These curriculum guidelines have developed through the period. The 1958 guidelines used words such as consideration, establishing a lifelong interest in nature, leisure time and aesthetic values and mentioned the idea that humans should protect animals and plants (Undervisningsministeriet, 1960). In the next set of guidelines 18 years later, in 1976, the biological idea of the ecosystem was introduced, not directly, but as humans and animals living inside a physical environment. Humans (the pupils) should be able to observe and describe this system and engage in local as well as global environmental 11
issues, which in the mid 1970s focused on pollution (Undervisningsministeriet, 1976). In the third edition of the guidelines from 1995 humans and animals had become living organisms existing in relation to the surrounding nature. Stress was put on understanding connections or relations, and a specific didactic direction was introduced, as the teaching should now evolve from the pupils’ own experiences and ideas. The pupils' sense of responsibility towards nature and the environment also had to be developed. After the turn of the millennium the guide introduced goals for every teaching subject in each of the lower secondary forms. These goals were organised as ‘central knowledge and skills areas’. In biology four themes were put forth, namely biological systems (covering the ordinary biological teaching up until then), environment and health, applied biology (a professional aspect dealing with, for example, food production) and biological ways of thinking and working (Undervisningsministeriet, 2002). In 2009 the common goals of the subject were supplemented with ways of working and seeing in the natural sciences, knowledge of contributions from other branches of the natural sciences and acknowledging that the natural sciences and technology are part of our cultural idea as well as our idea of the world (Undervisningsministeriet, 2009). These last mentioned alterations are linked to a recent major reform of the Danish upper secondary school, the gymnasium.
How do different generations of teachers describe themselves as teachers? The life story interviews I have conducted with the three generations of teachers in this study touch upon several factors which, in various ways, concern the changing conditions of their teaching. The changing objective and focus of the school naturally influence the work of the teachers and so do the diverse goals for the nature-‐related subjects, including biology, as illustrated above. These varying conditions along with the changing position of the school in the social space during the period influence the teachers' professional self-‐understanding. Furthermore, teachers of nature-‐related subjects do not belong to the group of teachers who are at the centre of the school's self-‐understanding, even though several interests outside the school for many years now have pointed to the necessity of precisely the natural sciences. This has an indirect influence on the subject and is mirrored in the informants' stories about their work life. 12
By analysing the teachers' narratives about their teaching it is possible to unearth the underlying understanding of nature which gives rise to the story of nature told by each generation of teachers. The teachers do not see themselves as storytellers. But if we combine the general development of the school, the development in nature-‐related subjects and the teachers' stories about their teaching – which are rooted in their childhood and youth – we arrive at coherent understandings of nature within each generation. Such understandings are the result of the teachers' interpretation of how they should teach their specific subject. In my analysis of the interviews I have – inspired by the principles of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014)4 – studied the significance attached by the informants to their subjects and their teaching of these subjects. Through this analysis I aim to identify the underlying ‘changing stories about nature’. Teachers’ changing ideas of understanding nature The analysis reveals certain differences between the descriptions made by the three generations of teachers. Most significant are their differing understandings of the subject itself: What do physics/chemistry, biology and geography in fact deal with? These subjects have on a general official level been assigned a purpose and goals have been established, just as a set of teaching guidelines has been made available. Regardless of these official papers, though, the teachers talk about their subjects quite differently. Equally important is the fact that the teachers themselves had different relations to nature during their childhood, mostly due to the fact that peoples’ closeness and hence relation to nature in general changed in the post-‐war years. Society saw a shift from locally connected occupations and trades to centrally concentrated industries and businesses. Farming and the once affiliated industries used to be scattered throughout the country, giving every small town its own dairy and many other small workplaces; today this structure has disappeared and the many smaller dairies have transformed into a few large, technologically complicated production plants. The consequences hereof on the teachers’ lives was a shift from a ‘natural connection’ to a complex mastery of natural products and nature itself (dairy and water/electricity), which has resulted in alienation, both concerning the processes involving natural products and nature itself. This is true for the teachers, but also for the pupils and 4 I also use the CAQDAS tool called Nvivo. 13
their families, which gives the teachers fewer opportunities to relate to ‘known conditions’ in their teaching. The older generation The older generation of teachers expressed an understanding of nature as a matter of course. Nature is out there, whether as a physical landscape, chemical substances or laws which can be proven through tests. Nature is 'out there' both on an epistemological and a physical level, as the pupils learn about natural facts through observation, possibly assisted by the teacher – or even better – by an expert or professional.5 For example, Henry talked about a visit to a local power plant:
Edwin: If I was in charge we would go to the huge power plant each year. Through the years I have taught many of the electricians up there and I know the manager. Actually they have created a small room for schools where pupils can try to connect wires etc. We do not do things like that in school. One of the electricians takes care of the teaching instead of us ordinary school teachers. That's great.
Ideally these trips should take place outside school in what this teacher described as 'the real world'. According to this teacher, the real world is the place for which the school should be preparing the pupils. Didactically, the greatest challenge of the teachers was, according to Edwin, 'making the pupils interested in the subject. Making them see how exciting it is and how smart everything really is'. The means to do so was partly to teach using the available textbooks, possibly supplemented with additional material such as TV broadcasts. Especially attractive were excursions and visits to interesting places and meeting the people in these places. In school the teachers just followed the approach described in the textbooks.
Me: What about planning your teaching? Henry: Well, yes, such things have never been my ... its not a big deal in physics and maths ... all textbooks in these two subjects are written according to the official guidelines and then, when teaching, I simply follow the book. When the school year is over then we have finished the book, or the two-‐three books depending on the system.
5 Professionals are, for example, school services at museums, inspectors at public plants such as waste incineration stations, power stations etc. 14
What Henry described above mirrors how he trained as a teacher. Starting teacher training at the age of 17 with only 10 years of prior schooling did not give him a lot of material to work with as a teacher compared to teachers today. What Henry did have was a stable core of knowledge of a given subject, which he could pass on to his pupils. When the goals of the school change and the central teaching guidelines are altered the teachers from this generation all sought new knowledge from, for example, television – documentaries or informational TV shows where the public can ask questions to various experts. The teachers of the older generation did not mention challenges with relating the subject to 'the real world'. The pupils' parents would often have jobs related to farming or fishery or be employed in work spaces the pupils knew from their daily life. Therefore, the pupils already had knowledge of the world which they – probably without question – could expect to become a part of in their adult life. The middle-‐aged generation To the middle-‐aged teachers interviewed in this study nature was a matter of course, as was also true for the older generation; however, their relation to nature was learned through their own interest in nature-‐related subjects or literature describing human interaction with nature and through their primary focus on making the pupils interested in subjects related to nature and the use of nature, for example through stories of explorers. The idea is that nature is full of things to discover, and the more knowledge one has, the more interesting things remain to be discovered. According to this generation of teachers, nature-‐related subjects are also something that must be taught. Contrary to the older generation their pupils do not have a direct relation to nature through the work of their parents or grandparents. This does not mean that knowledge of nature is suddenly unimportant, though, but the teachers cannot expect the pupils to have a natural curiosity towards nature. If the teacher is successful in awakening such interest, it is fine: Cathy: To me, there are so many things in nature that they [the pupils] should know about. I think it is part of the knowledge you should have when you live here [close to the sea]: to know the difference between oak, wheat, rye and barley [traditionally the four most common grains in Denmark], and when walking in the sand hills down by the sea: to know the difference between the various types of heather. I think it is part of common natural education ... it is not something we can count on the pupils to know from home. 15
This description illustrates the teacher's knowledge of teaching children who’s parents or grandparents had lived as farmers or fishermen, and that such an idea for a future life is hardly realistic. A few of the pupils’ parents still worked close to nature, but in a much more technologically assisted type of work. The result is that knowledge of nature is no longer necessary and, subsequently, the children do not learn about nature from their parents. The teacher, on the other hand, may maintain an idea of nature as relevant – for general educational purposes. Sometimes the teacher succeeds in arousing the pupils’ curiosity through carefully planned activities aimed at exactly this: to make the pupils curious about nature. Most natural science amusement parks are aimed at this. The pupils find these parks fun and amusing, but nothing more. They do not learn anything, according to the teachers. In general the teachers wonder why the pupils are not as curious or interested in nature as the teacher thinks they should be, and the reason for this may be found in the media and new technology: Me: Would you say that the pupils have fewer words with which to express themselves today compared to previously? Cathy: I think so. In the countryside, where we live, we use fewer words than people living in the city. But it is also in times like these. The young pupils skim what they need. They are flooded with so many impressions all day long – pictures, sounds, words – all the time. They skim what they need, somehow, and in order to survive, and then, yes – well – quite often they do not understand everything and then they take something from here and something from there. They skim, pick up what they think they can use, out of context, and make their own expressions and their own pictures. They are so used to not understanding and they do not stop and ask: ‘Hey, what is actually going on here?’ I think our generation was much more curious. In the quotation above Cathy argues that she and her generation learned by being curious and investigating nature. They did this as children, mostly through books they found interesting, and they did it as young adults in a teacher’s training college. Here they met what they in the interviews remembered as active, inspiring and well-‐educated teachers who on a professional as well as a personal level meant a lot to their students. The generation that was studying to become teachers in the 1970s had a lot of opportunities to try out things on their own, which they did by travelling and by taking on various non-‐skilled jobs. Their curiosity could be fulfilled in various ways, and it paid off. 16
These teachers did not mention having other ambitions for their pupils related to nature than general education. They were not ambitious on behalf of the pupils, partly because they saw nature-‐related subjects as demanding and therefore only suitable for the upper forms. Understanding nature required a high level of abstraction, which made the subject useful only as entertainment in the lower forms . Cathy: I have a fourth form who collected waste. They were upset about how much waste they could collect in a short time. They walked along the roads and filled their waste bags. They talked about dumping waste in nature as very wrong ... I do not know how much that experience changed their behaviour two months later. It requires a certain maturity to think back and remember ... you have to do things like that again and again and again, and somehow we want to believe that such experiences change their behaviour. The young generation The young teacher did not speak about nature as something ‘out there’. She placed nature at the same level as society. She was enthusiastic about the subject and wanted to pass her excitement and insight on to her pupils. The aim of her teaching was not to give the pupils knowledge of nature, as was the case among the older teachers, but to make them acknowledge the world’s numerous variations of life, which can be studied as equal spheres. This she pointed out when talking about her reflexions in teaching:
Laila: Sometimes I tell them: ‘Try to see how fantastic everything is. How many ... how many lives you meet when walking to school. Creatures are flying from the ground, well the birds are flying. Try to zoom in on these birds. Isn't it amazing that other living creatures than you fly around in the sky? And they don't pay any attention to you at all. Try to have a look’. For the children this is something really distant.
The approach expressed here relates to an idea of the world as a multifaceted place where humans – and other species – live side by side. During the interview this teacher said that she saw nature as something rich, a world she wanted to teach her pupils, while instilling in them a sense of curiosity about understanding things. In her teaching she related to her own childhood, where she had paid little attention to school subjects that seemed meaningless to her. Later in life, however, she had begun to realise that those meaningless things were perhaps not meaningless at all. She had often learned this from people she trusted. She 17
hoped that by being aware of her own pupils’ sense of alienation towards nature she could succeeded in explaining the meaning to them. As a teacher she was aware that different pupils learn in different ways, and that she had to take this fact into account in her teaching. She had not read a lot as a child or during her youth; instead she had been visually oriented: Laila: To me it is alpha and omega that a teacher varies her teaching and approach to the subject (...) some of the pupils just throw themselves into things and show through their behaviour that – bam, bam, bam – they understand everything. Whereas other groups of pupils just sit there and have no idea of how this relates to anything at all. This young teacher had learned as a child to pursue her own interests. All her parents demand of her was that she did things that made her happy. As a consequence she remembered her childhood as explorative, investigating things together with her parents. Being a curious child she had paid little attention to books, school and subjects related to nature. She had learned about nature through animals. During the interview she referred to her strong wish of becoming a veterinarian as romantic or naive. Years later she had also learned to appreciate other aspects of nature. The will to learn played an important role in her own education, and today she tried to teach her pupils in the same way that she had been taught. The tradition and history of the subject, however, appealed to her and she wanted the school she taught at to keep old artefacts such as traditional textbooks and stuffed animals, even tough she felt that these items were of little use in today's teaching. She was attracted to new media such as smartboards, not for illustrating things related to nature (the approach taken by her older colleagues), but for highlighting aspects that were difficult to illustrate using plain text.
The stories The stories the informants told me about nature were to some extent concealed in their stories about their professional lives. The informants had defended the reproduction system (the school) and their subjects (the natural sciences here represented by biology, geography and physics/chemistry). This was put into words when their points of view were challenged
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by the school as an organisation, the pupils and/or the pupils' parents – and eventually by me as interviewer and outsider. The opinions the teacher express during the interviews should not be interpreted as individual point of views but as voices from a generation of professionals. The reasons for educating as teachers differ as we already have seen, and their goals for being a teacher differ, too. For the elder generation, teaching was a possible and acceptable choice for social rise, the middle generation was oriented towards their a happy life, and the young generation focus on doing something for children for at least a while. They do not see themselves as being teachers their entire life6.
Relation to nature As we have seen in the descriptions above, children’s and adults’ relation to nature changes over time: from being a stable and objective nature to one where humans live together with other species. When the idea of an external, stable nature was gradually abandoned, a question emerged concerning knowledge about nature in terms of general education. These changes are at large consistent with what is expressed in the official teaching guidelines. On the other hand, a solid and profound relation to nature seems to be a necessary basis for dealing with nature-‐related subjects as a teacher in primary and lower secondary school, but according to the young teacher in this study few teacher students today are willing to take on nature-‐related subjects. Many consider the subject to be too extensive and complicated to learn within the scope of the standard teacher education, and, what is even worse, they do not think they have the necessary overview to teach the subject. This may be an unavoidable consequence of the development of nature-‐related subjects in the Danish primary and lower secondary school. In the 1960s, following the implementation of the large school reform, the core curriculum for these subjects dealt with what was seen as a stable world and a relatively stable pool of knowledge. It was possible for teacher students to acquire this knowledge and, through a relatively limited effort, to learn more within the same area of knowledge. Later, when the guidelines encouraged pupils to pose questions, the teacher had to deal with an even broader range of aspects within and related to the subject. This approach, posing questions about nature, was described by the two teachers belonging 6 More interviewing have to be done in order to get a stable description of the teacher generations, but this accounts quite well with other research. See for example (Larsen, Hygum, Olsesen, Pedersen, & Prieur, 2010). 19
to the oldest generation of teachers as very difficult to deal with. As Cathy put it, ‘I cannot pose good questions if I do not know in which direction I should end’. During the last decade subjects related to nature have become more and more fragmented. Parts of the 1958 curriculum are still in use, and so are parts of the curricula from the 1970s and 1980s. Today the curriculum also includes actively applying the subject of, for example, biology and its ways of thinking and working. It involves a very broad understanding and knowledge of the subject which must be acquired by pupils whose childhood had less to do with nature than that of previous generations and who are taught by teachers whose own relation to nature is at a minimum.
Stories that bridge the gap between generations Across the three generations of teachers the question of nature-‐related subjects as school subject and its didactic considerations play different roles. It is not just a matter of a curriculum that changes through times, but also of a curriculum with changing ontological view on nature. This too causes complex gaps between generations. Today the last 20 years’ attention to nature and what is seen as a lack of general interest in the natural sciences have given rise to a number of initiatives aiming at making nature-‐related subjects more relevant, especially to pupils in primary and lower secondary school. Most of these initiatives are taken outside school: amusement parks, private companies, and public offices. The teachers find these initiatives amusing, but to them the children do not learn a lot. A few months ago I was introduced to a form of didactic thinking about teaching nature-‐related subjects to school pupils that draws on a broad spectrum of knowledge covering both the older generations’ approach to nature and to teaching and the young generations’ view on nature as consisting of multiple spheres of living creatures living side by side. This form of thinking came out as a carefully crafted story, constructed through contributions from several school subjects, each providing a specific perspective on what can perhaps be described as a holistic narrative (Vad & Dall, 2009). The parts of the story, which was called ‘The legend of brave reindeer’, came from literature, biology and geography, respectively, and the interesting thing about this story was that it covered both a number of nature related subjects and 50 years of teaching guidelines. In short, the story combined traditional storytelling with objective natural sciences and concerned relations between various parts of nature, focusing on its multiple spheres or biotopes. 20
In order to construct and write such a story the knowledge of the older teachers and the younger teachers must be combined. This way each generation contribute to the same stories and each view on nature has its place in the larger picture, the story frames.
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