In the course of teaching, especially deep teaching, teachers take on different aspects in order to reach their student. Sometimes this is as simple as presenting a confidence we do not feel, sometimes it is a more involved face or drama created for the student’s benefit. Any time we teach, we choose what facets of ourselves to show our student in order to best teach them. Our job, after all, is to help the student understand the material, perhaps the world, not to understand us.
In order to evoke class discussion and decrease drop-out rates, these teachers posed as students, using on-line personas with invented names, photos and profiles. When the teachers revealed these actions, some students and faculty reacted with outrage, feelings of betrayal, and questions about the teachers’ ethics.
Most of us were raised in a time when teachers could not easily pass as students. On-line this is no longer the case. We may find it unsettling, but our discomfort alone does not make it unethical. We must look beneath the surface of our assumptions, to the core of what we understand, to our touchstone: what is in the student’s best interest?
The instructor in this case benefited the student in at least two ways: first, increasing student involvement, as intended, by demonstrating how an involved student might act. And second, by reminding students that on-line all we know is what we are shown, all we have is masks. Even when photos and bios are a good semblance, they tell us little about the person behind them. These are both useful teachings.
As the world around us alters, we must be careful to distinguish between what is new to us and what is at odds with our best principles. Being surprised at how a teacher teaches does not mean we need also be outraged. The on-line world is a tool, and how we use it to teach is what is important.
For those on the path of excellence in teaching, it is to our advantage to understand how we use presentation in our teaching and why.
My offered practice: in the course of teaching, notice yourself presenting a facet of yourself, a persona, a mask. What is the benefit to the student of this particular presentation? In another moment consider the question again.
The practice you offer is particularly helpful on a couple of levels. One, that it illustrates value of awareness of the moment-to-moment nature of masks. There’s not one that’s good for all occasions. And two, it is a reminder that it really is all a mask.
Could you speak about teaching this?
Teaching about masks depends on the intent of the teaching. There may be little benefit to the student in revealing that your confidence as a teacher is a put-on, take-off mask — or there may be, depending on the student and what you are hoping to convey to them. Students often see more than we realize, and so a poor mask may be worse than none at all. Teaching about masks can be as simple as changing masks in a way the student notices, or it may involve a discussion of how we each have many facets to ourselves and how, with practice, we can choose which one to bring forth at any given time.