Possibilities and Limits of Self-reflection in the Teaching Profession

Reflection seems today to be highest fashion ineducation, especially in discussions aboutteacher education and the teaching profession.This has created the paradoxical situation that reflection is often used in an unreflectedmanner. Furthermore, this discovery ofreflection is not supported by earlierresearch. In philosophy, however, reflectionhas always played a central role.The purpose of this study is to investigate thepossibilities and limits of self-reflection forthe teaching profession by relating the problemto three masters of philosophy of reflection,i.e., René Descartes, Immanuel Kant andEdmund Husserl. In this way it is hoped that itwill be possible to learn from specialists onreflection for the teaching profession. Thelessons do not, however, need to be exclusivelypositive. Also from deficiencies and mistakesit is possible to learn.     

Bioethics, theology, and social change

Recent years have witnessed a concern among theological bioethicists that secular debate has grown increasingly "thin," and that "thick" religious traditions and their spokespersons have been correspondingly excluded. This essay disputes that analysis. First, religious and theological voices compete for public attention and effectiveness with the equally "thick" cultural traditions of modern science and market capitalism. The distinctive contribution of religion should be to emphasize social justice in access to the benefits of health care, challenging the for-profit global marketing of research and biotechnology to wealthy consumers. Second, religion and theology have been and are still socially effective in sponsoring activism for practical change, both locally and globally. This claim will be supported with specific examples; with familiar concepts like subsidiarity and "middle axioms"; and with recent analyses of "participatory democracy" and of emerging, decentralized forms of global governance.     

An enriched teaching program for reducing resistance and indices of unhappiness among individuals with profound multiple disabilities

We evaluated an enriched teaching program for reducing resistance and indices of unhappiness displayed by 3 individuals with profound multiple disabilities during teaching sessions. The program involved presentation of preferred activities before, during, and after each teaching session, discontinuation of identified nonpreferred activities, and a brief break and preferred activity following occurrence of resistance. Implementation of the enriched teaching program was accompanied by reductions in resistance and indices of unhappiness for each participant. Results also indicated no negative impact of the program on participant performance of the teaching steps or staff teaching proficiency. Staff questionnaire responses provided a degree of social validation for the observed changes in that staff reported the participants liked the enriched teaching program more than the traditional teaching process. Directions for future research discussed include identifying critical aspects of the overall program and the potential relation between teaching proficiency and the program's enrichment effectiveness.     

Finding the space between east and west: the emotional impact of teaching in St Petersburg

The paper describes our experience of teaching analytical psychology to a group of graduates of the East European Institute of Psychoanalysis in St Petersburg, our developing partnership as we struggled to teach and learn, each with our own assumptions, preconceptions and projections about the other, and the emotional impact of our radically different social, intellectual and political histories. We had to be affected to become effective. It draws on contemporary Jungian ideas to unpack the interpersonal dynamics involved when there are culturally different styles of learning, which created a complicated transference/countertransference matrix. We believe we have by now witnessed a process of individuation among our students and at the same time they too have witnessed some change and growth in us.     

Teaching the College “Nones”: Christian Privilege and the Religion Professor

Working with undergraduate students invites teachers into relationship and conversation with young people at a time when they are emerging as adults and forming their identities. Faith is one area of identity formation often attended to by scholars, college professors, and their institutions. But within that, little attention has been paid to those who do not identify as religious. Additionally, “the overwhelming presence of Christianity at American institutions maintains it as the spiritual norm on campus. … Those within the spiritual norm gain a level of privilege that is often unconscious” (Seifert 2007, 11). This has an effect not only on nonreligious students but on any student who identifies as anything other than Christian; and it has a unique effect on teaching and learning in the religion classroom. In this article, I will explain what Christian privilege is, why it is a unique problem in the undergraduate religion classroom, and what teachers of religion might do in response to it. In the end, I argue that educators need to better understand the effects of Christian privilege in our classrooms and become allies to the nonreligious in particular by using pedagogies that include and support all students, in their many religious affiliations and unaffiliations.     

Teaching and Cultural Otherness

This work focuses on the relational dimension of the encounter between teacher and students meant as a structural element for teaching practice. By using theoretical group-analytical and anthropo-analytical coordinates, the authors psychodynamically problematize some relational conditions that may influence learning. This research concentrates on the circumstances that limit and allow the birth of a group arrangement capable to learn from experience, rather than on a perspective to teach-learn in a perfect agreement with planning. Intercultural education is pointed out and located as a horizon and ideal term to guide educational practice.     

Peer review of teaching (PRoT) in higher education – a practitioner’s reflection

Peer review of teaching (PRoT) is recommended to both develop and assure the quality of teaching practices in Higher Education. An institutional implementation of a peer review process can be viewed as a genuine desire to improve teaching quality or as an instrument of accountability and performativity. There are many approaches to the peer review of teaching operating. This article documents the impact, advantages and disadvantages of direct participation in three peer review of teaching processes.