Those who work with me
will know that I have a dislike of the word ‘delivery’ being used to describe
education. In the medical world many clinicians talk about ‘delivering lectures,’
or ‘delivering teaching.’ I hear this as
a transactional description of the educational process which implies a
commodity based concept of learning, whereby the teacher (the expert) gives,
bestows upon or hands over the knowledge, skills or even attitudes to be taken
up by the learner. Freire (1972) called this the ‘banking method’ and wrote
extensively about the damage such a view of education can cause.
Notice, while I am on the
subject, the number of times the word ‘teaching’ is used when learning is what
is meant. Junior doctors leave the clinical setting of the ward or theatre to
attend ‘teaching’ but it is not they who are doing this teaching. People say,
“I was at some teaching the other day..” when they were there to learn. What is it about the distinction between the
two words that causes discomfort to me and confusion to others?
Some languages have the
same word for ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ and some of those languages differentiate
between the two by the use of the passive or the active voice – teaching being
the active part of the verb (as though learning is not active!)
I have looked at the etymology
of some of the words used to explain the actions of those who are engaged in
the learning process. To ‘deliver’ means to bring, hand over, provide, or to
surrender something. It comes from the Latin ‘de’ meaning away and ‘librere’
to set free. So to deliver teaching is to bring along something that is handed
over, or surrendered to the learners, which in my interpretation means that it
is then relinquished by the teacher who can walk away from the process, responsibility
discharged. Where, I ask, is the reflexivity in that? What role does the
interrelationships between teacher and learner, teacher and material and
learner and material play? Very little it would seem.
So would ‘provide’ be a
better word? ‘Provide’ means to make available
for use, to supply, to make adequate preparation for or to allow or cater for,
to present or to yield. It comes form the Latin ‘providere’ meaning to
foresee or to attend to; ‘pro’ meaning before and ‘videre’
meaning to see. So to provide means to preview.
Is this what happens in education? Maybe. But do we provide teaching or
learning?
I tend to use the words
‘facilitate learning’ to explain what I hope will result through the organised
activities I set up. To facilitate comes from the French ‘faciliter,’ meaning
to make easy. I am not sure that the learners I work with would all agree that
I make things easy for them, but it is certainly my intention when preparing
for the educational episodes in which I will be involved. Facilitate also
refers to smoothing the way, to helping to cause something and that is what I
hope that my educational endeavours result in; the causation of something new,
be that understanding or practice.
So next time you use the
words ‘delivery’ or ‘teaching’ just stop and think what kind of message you
wish to convey about the education you propose.
Freire,
P., (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed London
