Abstract
This chapter deals with teacher biographical data analyzed through a temporal lens. It borrows narratives from existing works and attempts to show the effects of a fixed notion of time and the manner in which it dominates teacher consciousness. But more, by means of biographic deconstruction it shows how the intuition of a different order of time might enter the existing dynamic. Understanding time and temporal relationships becomes key to transcending convention and tradition, and moving toward what we might call biographical praxis. And the first thing that enters the picture is the need for a careful deconstruction of accumulated experience that brings to the fore the distinction between fragmented time and time as whole. A single wave of intelligent movement might manage a whole complex effort rather than seeing it as a sequence of discrete tasks. Shifting our attention along these lines, if, by a certain effort of insight if we are able to swing our focus to the inner duration, then the multitude of tasks facing a teacher no longer seem daunting. This is not to trivialize the challenges faced by the teacher, but “time-management” will always appear nerve-wracking seen from the side of the multitudinous succession of tasks. Durational awareness does not apprehend reality in terms of succession of broken up pieces or as lists; rather, it encounters the real as intensity. It is the intensity that manages it as single movement.
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Notes
- 1.
Sue Middleton, “Developing a Radical Pedagogy: Autobiography of a New Zealand Sociologist of Women’s Education,” in Ivor Goodson (Ed.), Studying Teachers’ Lives (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 20.
- 2.
Dan C. Lortie, School Teacher (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).
- 3.
J. Gary Knowles, “Models for Teachers’ Biographies,” in Ivor Goodson (Ed.), Studying Teachers’ Lives (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 104.
- 4.
Richard Butt and Danielle Raymond et al., “Collaborative Autobiography and the Teacher’s Voice,” in Goodson, op. cit., p. 77.
- 5.
This is certainly not to suggest that there are no external factors bearing down on teacher practice, but that we do not avail of the potential that exists in deeply freeing ourselves from culturally ingrained habits.
- 6.
Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness (Transl.) F. L. Pogson (New York: Dover Publications, 2001), p. 127.
- 7.
Butt et al., in Goodson, op. cit., p. 69.
- 8.
Dwayne Huebner, “Curriculum as Concern for Man’s Temporality,” Theory into Practice, Vol. 26:S1, pp. 324–331.
- 9.
Butt et al., in Goodson, op. cit., p. 79.
- 10.
Richard A. Cohen, “Translator’s Introduction,” in Emmanuel Levinas, Ethics and Infinity: Conversations with Philippe Nemo (Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press, 1985), p. 10.
- 11.
Butt et al., in Goodson, op. cit., p. 81.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Ibid., pp. 81–82. Paragraph reconstituted with commentary.
- 14.
Huebner observes: “The environment expressing concern for man’s temporality must make possible those moments of vision when the student, and/or those responsible for him, project his potentiality for being into the present, thus tying together the future and the past into the present. Somehow, the environment must provide opportunities for the student to become aware of his temporality, to participate in a history which is one horizon of his present. Only in this way can he contribute to the continual creation of the world and recognize his own active participation as an ingredient in the transcendency of the world. This framework provides the possible reinterpretation of the significance of the categories of purpose and learning in the educational process. Given man’s temporality, the future makes sense only as the horizon of his present. Heidegger’s “ahead-of-itself” is not a future “now” that can be prescribed. Rather, it is Dasein coming toward himself in his own potential for being. It is the projection of a “having-been” onto a present to create the moment-of-vision.” Dwayne Huebner, op. cit., p. 329.
- 15.
Goodson, op. cit., p. 86. Paragraph reconstituted with commentary.
- 16.
J. G. Knowles, In Goodson, op. cit., p. 112.
- 17.
Ibid., p. 117.
- 18.
Karol Wojtyla, The Acting Person (Transl.) Andrzej Potocki (Dodrecht: D. Reidel Publishing, 1979), pp. 128–129.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 44.
- 22.
Ibid., p. 134.
- 23.
Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Inhuman: Reflections on Time (Transl.) Geoffrey Bennington (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press: 1991), p. 67.
- 24.
Ibid., p. 68.
- 25.
Ibid., pp. 69–70.
References
Dan C. Lortie, School Teacher (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).
Dwayne Huebner, “Curriculum as Concern for Man’s Temporality.” Theory into Practice, Vol. 26:S1, pp. 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405848709543294.
Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness (Transl.) F. L. Pogson (New York: Dover Publications, 2001).
J. Gary Knowles, “Models for Teachers’ Biographies.” In Ivor Goodson (Ed.), Studying Teachers’ Lives (London: Routledge, 1992).
Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Inhuman: Reflections on Time (Transl.) Geoffrey Bennington (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991).
Karol Wojtyla, The Acting Person (Transl.) Andrzej Potocki (Dodrecht: D. Reidel Publishing, 1979).
Richard A. Cohen, “Translator’s Introduction.” In Emmanuel Levinas, Ethics and Infinity: Conversations with Philippe Nemo (Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press, 1985).
Richard Butt, Danielle Raymond, G. McCue, and L. Yamagishi, “Collaborative Autobiography and the Teacher’s Voice.” In Ivor Goodson (Ed.), Studying Teachers’ Lives (London: Routledge, 1992).
Sue Middleton, “Developing a Radical Pedagogy: Autobiography of a New Zealand Sociologist of Women’s Education.” In Ivor Goodson (Ed.), Studying Teachers’ Lives (London: Routledge, 1992).
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Roy, K. (2019). Teacher, Time, and Biographical Praxis. In: Teachers and Teaching . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24670-9_6
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