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| Socio - cultural imprints in teaching profession | | | Dr.G.Q.Sheikh | 12/7/2015 11:23:26 PM |
| Competition is a modern phrase of a global society. Parents want our schools to train in the competitive living and learning with the concept that such art of living prepare the young men and women to enter the competitive world.
The opening sentence denotes the significance of society for upliftment of its citizens through the means of education. Education is no longer know 'information' but "formation" in all aspects of life which is to be shaped and chiselled by our teachers in day to day classroom activities.
Modernism, progressivism, internationalism, democracy, socialism, and secularism are the variables that most school system claim exist at surface level of the curriculum but lacks at actual curriculum transaction. Conservatism, parochialism, dominance, administrative apathy and lack of understanding of the principles and process of learning and teaching are the road blocks to success to infuse socio-cultural imprints in our teaching profession.
Education is a social route for shaping personal and social identity. Most of the countries now realize the importance of teaching profession to prepare students to become effective citizens by enhancing students knowledge on the burning issues like intolerance, inequalities, discrimination, injustice, and inculcating moral values, liberty, and brotherhood and skills needed to participate in effective democratic engagements. Teaching profession calls for enlightening the hearts of individuals. What is being done today is to educate the heads and hands but not the hearts. We rank third in the world in skilled manpower. We produce better surgeons, better engineers, and better scientists but less good human beings. They excel in science without conscience, politics without ethics, freedom without discipline, knowledge without wisdom. Resistance to evil must be developed by inculcating in their impressionable minds and hearts the basic human values-good conduct, righteousness, peace and love. Civic learning is pivotal when dealing with diversity in societies. In USA the education for diversity has four elements: knowledge, Values, skills, and Action. The curriculum also deals with diversity, inequalities, racism, sexism, religious oppression, classism, anti-semitism and hetrosexism. New pedagogical methodology to initiate inter-group dialogue and mixed peer interaction is helpful to learn respect for differences. The teachers in USA are considered reformationists to foster democratic and civic ethos through service learning and community engagements. In Scotland, the knowledge about values, beliefs and cultures of societies are part in teaching profession. Teachers are responsible to ensure that all children develop the knowledge and skills to be responsible citizens and effective contributors. Group work with diverse peers attributes to be active participants in civic society. Greece adopted cross- curricular themes in disciplines to impart citizenship education as well as interdisciplinary optional subjects related to citizenship education such as Human Rights and Bio-ethics. Teachers encourage democratic pedagogical methods such as debates and inter - group dialogues to foster respect for all and conserve democratic values. Learning any art or subject matter invariably requires a teacher and teaching. The importance of a teacher and teaching varies with the level of interference. In the case of Ekalavya, the guru was just a symbol and source of inspiration. The extraordinary knowledge and skills that Ekalavya acquired was through his own efforts (self-learning) with steadfast devotion, dedication and diligence, the guru only being a source of motivation to him. Teacher according to Herbart (1776-1841), should arrange the course of instruction in such a way that the new material can be properly integrated with the already available store of knowledge. If the two fall apart, the learner hardly assimilates the new experience and will be thwarted. Teaching by and large in the present system is manipulation or dictation .The student is compelled to submit either to the will of the teacher directly or to a body of hardened impersonal knowledge of which the teacher and the textbooks are the custodians. In a humanistic classroom, the teacher presents the class with a variety of views to bring about the genuine dialogue - discussion on the subject matter. The teacher on the basis of experience and information assimilates knowledge and transmit through classroom interactions. It is not enough if the teacher knows 'just enough', but 'more than enough', is a sense of security and comfortability as far as his dealing with the subject matter and infusing socio - cultural ethos among pupil he is concerned.
Motivational illusions accompanied rewards and punishments are the oft - repeated behavioural proverbs existing in our professional dealings need to be stamped out by using tolerance encouragement and guidance for individual freedom. Seetharamu (2014) said that the parameter and composition in education and in particular teaching education is that it should cater in imparting holistic education. A teacher should totally commit, involve and devote to the profession and also have a strong convection of whatever he delivers in the class and should have utmost concern for students. Children come from and have to go society through school. Thus a teacher's responsibility to the society in terms of restructuring and transformation is vital. A teacher should analyse the value system existing in the society interalia social norms and standard. The need of education for civic learning and democratic engagement for building citizenship is particularly for societies which are characterized by high degree of diversity in its social, ethnic, racial, and religions belonging. The community determined values, sometimes contradictory to democratic norms and practices influence the behaviour of people from diverse groups. The behaviour of people is shaped in their formative stages through socialisation in the family and society. The values which shape the social personality in early stages of development often remained at variance. Therefore, the role of education in harmonizing the behaviour of pupils around common values to sensitise the youth to democratic values of equality, liberty, and brotherhood are the exigencies in the teaching profession to stamp in the socio-cultural imprints through the subject matter. Teaching profession should not be equated with only an employee drawing handsome salaries on the basis of which he performs duties as a teacher. But, he is a torch bearer under whose supervision in the school, a student up to 12th level spends more than 24000 hours of his precious growing life being influenced by the teacher and peer groups than that of parents. Teacher is instrumental in transmitting cognitive, perceptual and verbal skills in addition to inculcating values and beliefs among the students through his professional sagacity.
Author can be contacted on 9419182944 |
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