1 minute
The book that I am working on began as an attempt to write about the my experience as a university lecturer entrusted to teach the next generation of our communities who are tasked with building our futures. As I approached my ten-years as a university lecturer, I felt strongly that the direction that education is headed in is doing a disservice to needs of those who have to deal with the coming challenges of climate change, growing local and global inequality, the increased technologisation of our everyday lives, and the such. As an industry, education itself faces many challenges, from the retreat of the state in funding education, an assault from the neo-liberal economic rationalists, as well as needing to recalibrate itself to meet the needs of a radically differently digital and just-in-time workforce.
When I did try to write that, it sounded like a polemic screed with a certain preachiness that I do not actually want to have. Perhaps its a task beyond my abilities, and craft.
Then one of best the teachers I have had – Peter Williams – passed away. I wanted to write to his wife and son about the impact Peter had on me. As I wrote the letter, it made me reflect on my teachers, and their importance (for better or worse). I realised then that that is what I needed to write.
Before I write about the future, I need to go back into my past to reflect on my education and its impact on the formation of my identity, my responsibility to my community and my understanding of citizenship. I need to reflect and understand my story, before I attempt to tell there larger story. After all, that I fundamentally what I think is the overarching purpose of education.