Dean’s Message

Welcoming Remarks to the Class of 2009/2010

Dean Rosa Bruno-Jofré
1 September 2009

In my capacity as Dean of the Faculty of Education, I welcome you personally and on behalf of the Faculty to the new academic year. Today, you are taking the first steps in a life-long journey, a formative journey that I believe we are undertaking together, for I hope that you will view the Faculty of Education at Queen’s as your professional home throughout your career. As a professional educator you are expected to cultivate a degree of autonomy, participate in the affairs of the profession, and generate new knowledge through your pursuit of practical wisdom.

The process of becoming a professional educator demands that you develop an ethically defensible vision of education and related educational aims. These are, as Noddings writes, our ideals guiding us in the construction of goals and objectives in the enactment of our pedagogical approaches. An ethically defensible view of education of necessity includes an understanding of what is desirable and good in education. Within this context, I would like you to think about democracy and education at a contradictory time of intellectual and spiritual pluralism within a culture that tends towards technicism. Last year, I invited the incoming teacher candidates to think about the question ”What are the conditions for a pedagogy that would lead to wonder and imagination?” This year, I will add, “What conditions are necessary to move beyond conventional wisdom and generate a reconstructive and even transformative critical environment that would lead to the building of a democratic and socially sensitive educative experience?”

It is important to have in mind that behind our educational theories there is an aesthetics of human existence that is manifested in our vision of education. At the core is our commitment to the well-being of our fellow humans and, in our case, as educators, a profound desire to understand our students’ existential conditions and encourage their dreams and realize those dreams. The concept of education is related to inquisitive habits of mind, personal transformation, a systematic approach to the resolution of problems, a questioning of the way we filter and imagine the world, and the building of an ethical self that should not be devoid of communal concerns.

However, education is not neutral; it is deeply political. The educational process happens at the complex intersection, which needs to be interrogated, of the socio-economic and political context, the intimate core of personal experience, the contours of the classroom and its power dynamics, and interest groups of various sorts. The educational process is tainted by the tension between the practicalities of life, the need to prepare students to earn a living, and visions of human actualization. Finally, the educational process is embedded in the cultural and political signs of the time. The history of education is populated by educators who were sophisticated inquirers and inspiring visionaries as well as people of action. Many of them have had a history of active protagonism in transformative movements with futuristic and contesting tones. A well known example has been the merging of progressive education ideas with the characteristic openness and innovation of the arts that characterized Black Mountain College (1933-1957), near Asheville, North Carolina, in the United States. [1] Another example is the convergence in Latin America in the 1970s and early 1980s of popular education, influenced by Freire’s writings, with popular theatre, music, poetry, and the work of grassroots organizations. Educators and artists have been involved at various points in time in a redefinition of the symbolic cultural hierarchies with creative impetus.

In the complex contours of life in the classroom, there are basic conditions that compel movement beyond standardization and conventional wisdom. By understanding how experience, which includes all ranges of emotions, is a locus of the students’ learning, educators bring to the forefront of pedagogy a dimension that tends to be neglected in an all-too efficient world. Philosopher Charles Taylor coined the notion of the social imaginary, which is the background picture of people’s characteristics and their relations that feed social life, politics, and speech, as well as identity construction. The educator’s task is to nourish changes in the construction of the social imaginary by cultivating a psychological state that is open and critical when construing and understanding reality.

In the pursuit of inter-culturality and human rights, a pedagogy based on reciprocal critical understanding may lead to an exploration of the construction of identities. This approach can potentially make the pedagogical practice a civic means and an avenue for dialogue. Of particular relevance are the educator’s disposition and the ability to cultivate humility, a virtue understood as openness to revise and transform oneself. This is particularly meaningful in light of the educator’s ethical commitment to work creatively across difference, unveil the complex interlocking of beliefs and practices, question the impact of various forms of oppression, and walk the steps towards a moral democracy as an ideal.

I would like to close by reiterating what I have said in previous years regarding the teaching profession. You have decided to enter the most precious of professions, one that gives you the possibility of filling an inspiring role in the lives of many. Let me share with you that I strongly believe that courage is a fundamental virtue that defines the life of an educator: courage to question, courage to build a democratic community in our schools, courage to imagine the future, and courage to love our students in the uniqueness of their life situations. I am challenging you to display courage of mind and courage of heart in your work as educators.

As your Dean, personally, and on behalf of the members of the Faculty of Education, I wish you success in all your endeavors, and I look forward to working for and with you. I promise for all of us that we will do our best to meet your expectations and your needs. Once you graduate, we hope that you will become proud and active alumni, and that you will remain in touch with us to continue renewing and building the Queen’s educational community.