Download Exploring a pedagogy of the heart …

Towards a pedagogy
of the heart …
A paper to promote discussion and reflection
on learning and teaching
in the light of a ‘spirituality of the heart’.
Chevalier Institute, February 2006.
[email protected]
Towards a pedagogy of the heart …
A spirituality of the heart reverences the human heart as loved unconditionally by God, and as the privileged place of encounter with
God. Living such a spirituality involves the journey into one’s own heart and into the heart of the human condition, open to
encountering there the compassionate heart of Jesus, the Heart of God. It is this encounter which has the power to transform
brokenness into blessing, to create the world anew.
(Chevalier Institute statement on spirituality, 2003)
If there is an approach to, a vision of, learning and teaching that can be seen to emerge from a spirituality of
the heart, we might call it a ‘pedagogy of the heart’. There would be wide agreement that such a ‘pedagogy
of the heart’ would have to be based on a few foundational insights/mysteries. Different people would name
them differently, but they would very likely be along the lines of:
1) The mystery of God’s love for us: That the deepest human need is to be ‘loved into life’, and that
fullness of life consists in experiencing and believing that we are loved and lovable. On a ‘spiritual’
level, this means becoming aware of, receiving, and responding to … the love God has for us. This
is a life-long learning process, mediated through our relationships with others and with the world.
2) The mystery of ‘God-with-us’ (Incarnation): That Jesus Christ is God’s love revealed; that in his
human-Divine, gentle, wounded, humble heart, we experience the nature of God and our own truest
calling; and that the flesh-and-blood reality of our lives is the place where God is made known.
3) The mystery of ‘heart’: That ‘heart’ is a powerful and ancient symbol of the inner mystery of the
person, the place where the everyday meets the eternal, and the place of deepest connection with
others and with the cosmos.
4) The mystery of relationship: That the basis for our human identity is relationship – our
relationships with one another, with the universe/cosmos, and within both these, an Eternal
relationship with the one we call God (in whose image and likeness we are created). It is within
relationship that all growth and learning (transformation) takes, and the quality of our relationships is
the measure of our humanity. Compassion and reconciliation are vital to relationships.
In our work, we have made use of a ‘model’ that teases out these mysteries in terms of five categories: love,
relationship, contemplation, embodiment (whole self), and transformation. 1 In this paper, we would like to use
these same five categories, against the background of the ‘foundational mysteries’ outlined above, to explore
what might be a ‘pedagogy of the heart’.
Preliminary comments
Embodied, human experience and the ‘heart’ tradition:
The Sacred Heart tradition holds at its core the ‘stunning insight of Christianity’ that the Divine is revealed in
the specific, embodied persons and events of our lives. 2 In the flesh-and-blood, human heart of Jesus,
believers through the ages have experienced a symbol of the eternal mystery of the Incarnation i.e. the
existence of the Divine within the human and within the matter that constitutes the cosmos. Exploring the
dynamic of learning and teaching, we are entering deeply into the human-Divine heart, into the cor of our
being. In this exploration, we believe and trust that we are being led by the Spirit of God, just as Jesus was
led by the Spirit and entered deeply into embodied, human life. The tradition of the heart trusts deeply our
human experience and the embodied reality of life as the place of God’s presence and activity. It believes
that this experience, this embodiment, is the primary place of God’s self-revelation. It interprets scripture and
tradition as telling this very story, through the person of Jesus and in the lives of his followers through the
ages. Of course not all people will interpret their ‘heart’ experience in these (Christian) terms. However, the
starting point is universal. People of all traditions have a resonance with the mystery of ‘heart’, and this is a
great strength of the heart tradition.
A spirituality of education:
‘The secrets of good teaching are the secrets of good living.’ 3 In all that follows, it is presumed that learning
and teaching are overlapping, interdependent realities. Learning/teaching is like life: a mystery to be lived,
rather than a problem to be solved. We need to be prepared to walk within the mystery. Parker Palmer
enigmatically suggests that ‘Good teachers dwell in the mystery of good teaching until it dwells in them.’ 4 If
life is a spiritual endeavour, then learning and teaching is a spiritual endeavour. We do not always (or even
often) speak about it in these terms, but nonetheless, whatever teaching and learning strategies we may
employ, whatever particular subject area or educational level we inhabit, this deep insight holds. Despite the
James Maher msc, ‘The way of the heart’, Australian MSC Province News, June 2004
Wendy Wright, ‘A fresh look at an ancient image: Sacred Heart in dialogue with nonviolence’, NCR (Dec 7, 2001), 30.
3 Mary Rose O’Reilley, Radical presence: teaching as contemplative practice
4 Parker Palmer, ‘Good teaching: a matter of living the mystery’. Article available online … sorry, lost web address!
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Chevalier Institute, February 2006
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subtle (and not so subtle) pressures to simply focus on being ‘effective, efficient and respected
professionals’, the deep, the paradoxical, the profound, the mysterious … the spiritual dimension, will not go
away. We are called to be learners and teachers together, pilgrims together, sharing together the walk within
the mystery of life. ‘Reclaiming the sacred in knowing, teaching and learning is incumbent upon us.’5
Love
(compassion, care, acceptance, acknowledgment, inclusion, mutual trust,
non-judgment)
“Love sums up the whole person;
it is the whole person concentrated at one point.
All the rays converge on this one centre;
everything harmonises: attraction, feeling, instinct, intelligence, will;
and all of it echoes together at the same time in the heart.”
(Jules Chevalier msc, Le Sacre-Coeur de Jesus, 103)
As Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, we live our faith in the Father’s love revealed in the heart of Christ. We want to be
like Jesus who loved with a human heart; we want to love through him and with him and to proclaim his love to the
world. (MSC Constitution n.10)
The foundational Christian doctrine preserved by the Sacred Heart tradition is the doctrine of Divine love.
“We have learned to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and anyone who lives in love lives in
God, and God lives in them.” (1Jn4:16) “There are three things that last: faith, hope and love, and the
greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13) “I give you a new commandment: Love one anther as I have loved
you.”(Jn 13:34) It has been said that love is the only truly creative power on earth. One well known Australian
MSC educator used often say of the students: “You’ve just got to love ‘em!”
What do we mean by ‘love’? An essay in itself! The word ‘love’ puts some people off. It is perhaps an
overused and confused word. Maybe words like ‘compassion’ or ‘care’ or ‘acceptance’ are less open to misinterpretation. However we cannot ignore the gospel injunction to love (agape), and we must recognise that
this love is the foundation of any Christian spirituality. Love is an expression of a relationship that brings
another to life. Even the traditional understanding of the role of teacher (in loco parentis) suggests a parental
love as the foundation of the teacher-student relationship. Jules Chevalier’s favourite image of Jesus, the
Good Shepherd, expresses the love-relationship … the good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for
his sheep, and who ‘knows his sheep and they know him.’6 A philosophy of education that is based on a
spirituality of the heart must begin and end with this mysterious call to love as God loves.
Most people would readily see how such a starting point has major implications for pastoral care, but it is
less obvious how this impacts upon learning and teaching. “You’ve just got to love ‘em” can sound naïve and
sentimental. But reflection upon what actually facilitates learning reveals that there is indeed a deep
pedagogy at work within this imperative. For example, the research of Julia Atkin (a well known Australian
education and learning consultant) over the last 30 years, has led her to develop a framework for effective
teaching which attends to three overlapping dimensions: the human spirit, the learning environment, and
guiding the learning process.7 At the centre of the ‘human spirit’ dimension she places unconditional love,
which she says needs to be expressed in care and concern for, acknowledgment of, belief in and positive
expectation of the student. This is all placed within the context of relationship, which provides security,
creates opportunity for modelling, and can build and maintain self esteem. The second dimension, the
learning environment, is profoundly affected by the first, and involves all the conditions which can facilitate
learning, such as motivation, sense of challenge (but not threat), and sense of achievement; and which are
enhanced by emotional involvement, by a sense of ownership and self-direction being fostered, and by a
Parker Palmer, ‘The grace of great things: reclaiming the sacred in knowing, teaching and learning’ in The heart of learning:
spirituality in education, ed. Steven Glazer, New York: Penguin, 1999.
5
The kindness at the heart of Chevalier’s spirituality was not based on weakness, but rather on a strong and demanding renunciation of self:
“There are two sorts of kindness which we must not confuse. The one comes from grace and the efforts we make to acquire it; the other proceeds
from nature and is the result of temperament. This latter, if it is not perfected by serious virtue, easily develops into indifference. It makes the
character soft, indolent, apathetic. The soul is without force, without energy … this so called good nature is a fault against which we must react; it is
not a virtue. The virtue the Lord recommends is quite different: it is the fruit of prayer and generous efforts; lively and hasty characters have to do
themselves violence to acquire it… This virtue is not natural to people; we need incessant efforts to acquire it with the help of God. We are all born
violent, angry, inclined to be carried away. Opposition irritates us; resistance inflames us and contradiction makes us angry. Why? Because our nature
is impaired and our heart is filled with pride… It is impossible for the proud person to be kind, or for the irascible person to be humble. This is why
Our Lord unites kindness and humility and recommends these two virtues in a special way: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.”
(Jules Chevalier, Meditations vol II,108-110, cited by Cuskelly in Man with a mission, 132)
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Julia Atkin, Learning by design, Course notes, 2004, p8. n.b. Some articles pertaining to these course notes are available online at
http://www.learning-by-design.com
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non-judgmental approach which honours approximations and encourages continual improvement. In terms of
the third dimension (guiding the learning process, the quality of compassion (central to a spirituality of the
heart) can be seen to support the discernment of learning needs. Compassion means to ‘feel with’ another,
to allow and to encourage the expression of ‘how it really is for me’.
Elsewhere in her writing, Atkin quotes the ‘Characteristics of an autonomous learner’ developed by the
Tanjung Bara International School, which states (schematically) that ‘An autonomous learner has a sense of
self worth, combined with affective attributes expressed in relations with others, a reflective and purposeful
approach, and a positive outlook.’8 It is the experience of being loved, mainly within the family, that either
develops or limits a person’s sense of self worth. However, teachers can make a major impact on this sense
in a child as well. A person needs at least one experience of being loved to be able to believe in their
loveableness. Even only one experience can be enough! Love, then, is perhaps the most foundational and
most enabling pedagogical tool we have at our disposal.
Translating the “You’ve just got to love ‘em!” injunction a little differently, we might say: “You’ve got to care
deeply about them.” A spirituality of the heart is focused, always, firstly, on the person, and on the belief in
the presence and action of God in their life. Particular curriculum areas must find their place within this
context, and not the other way around. But it is worth highlighting two levels of care … caring about the
student as a person, and caring about their learning. The first is about acknowledgement of ‘who she/he is
as a person’ … her/his being, her/his intrinsic value, her/his ‘lovability’. This should involve acknowledgement
of her/his uniqueness as a person, and wherever possible acknowledgment of her/his unique learning needs
and learning styles. A secure identity (largely provided – or not provided – by the family) is the foundation
upon which learning occurs. The second level of care is critical too. As educators, we must care deeply
about the student’s learning. There a few important premises that should be named here:
(1) We must believe in her/his ability to learn (being prepared to challenge our own assumptions or
prejudices or ignorance in this regard)
(2) If we care about learning, we will seek to understand how learning happens, when it happens, what we
can do to help it happen, and how this may vary from individual student to individual student.
We might first ask ….“What does the student know and what can she/he do already? What is her/his current
mental map and understanding? What can she/he do and how well? What does she/he want to know; what
does she/he want to be able to do?”
Second … design learning experiences that challenge students current ‘mental maps’ and enlarge and expand
on their experiences;
Third … ‘nudge’ their processing so that their personal meaning making goes beyond simply their own
processing style.9
Learning is about growing as a person, growing towards wholeness. This is a lifelong process, and it only
happens amidst our personal vulnerabilities. Learning is profoundly connected with our identity and our
sense of self. Learners (e.g. those students in the classroom, laboratory, library, workshop) are expected to
expose their vulnerabilities all the time! Perhaps a minority of students avoids this, because they absorb
information or pick up skills or understand processes easily. These are the ‘winners’ in the competitive game
called ‘school’. But for the majority, it becomes instead a matter of learning strategies to hide their
vulnerabilities and to hide within the system.
Relationship
(connectedness, intimacy, belonging, collaboration, independence and
interdependence, self and others)
Ours is a spirit of family and a spirit of [true relationship], formed by kindness and understanding, by compassion and
mutual forgiveness, by gentleness, humility and simplicity, by hospitality and a sense of humour. (MSC Constitution n.32)
True community does not come about all at once. It grows by God’s grace and the constant effort of each member. It
needs to be built up as a human community, knit together by [close] relationships, where each member brings their
talents and knows that they are recognized, accepted, heard, encouraged and challenged. (MSC Constitution n.33)
Love implies relationship.10 The journey into life begins and ends with relationships! Karl Rahner says, “In the
heart … I am originally and wholly related to other persons and above all to God, who is interested in the
person as a whole and whose action in giving grace or guidance is therefore aimed at this heart-centre of my
8
Ibid, 5
Ibid, 17
10 In fact, the biblical idea of ‘knowing’ is very much linked with loving, with ‘being in relationship with’ the one (or the thing)
which is known. (see Parker Palmer, To know as we are known: education as a spiritual journey, New York: HarperCollins, 1993).
See also article by Raymond Gaita, ‘Three Rs and an L’, SMH Spectrum, June23-24, 2001
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being.” [Theological Investigations 3, 332] Learner-centred educational research throws much light on the
impact of relationships of care and trust on the learning process (Pine and Horne, Coombs). When people
feel loved, respected and valued for who they are, they are more likely to take the risks required to explore
new ideas and to try new things, which is key to the learning process. In relationships of trust, where people
feel they will not be judged for ‘not knowing, not comprehending, not having a particular skill’, there is much
more likelihood that learning will occur. Also, learning is facilitated in a community where all are thought of as
being learners together. Much of what has been said under the heading of ‘love’ is obviously said in the
context of relationships. As mentioned, relationship provides security, creates opportunities for modelling,
and builds and maintains self esteem. We only come to know ourselves in relationship with ‘the other’. The
fundamental Christian faith vision is one where our identity comes from our relationship with the Divine, and
being part of the one Body of Christ. Despite this absolutely fundamental truth, the dominant educational
paradigm in the West has up until now been one of individualism and competition. In a powerful little book
called To know as we are known, American author Parker Palmer shows how this educational vision can be
linked to a 19th century scientific paradigm (c.f. the atom as an isolated particle, made up of smaller isolated
particles). Modern nuclear physics now thinks in terms of interdependent particles and connectivity! Societal
expectations and pressures still encourage the competitive/individualistic educational paradigm in our
schools, with the demand for scores and percentiles.
Ross Keane writes that ‘[For transformative learning to occur] time and attention need to be given to building
a strong, trusting, interdependent, interpersonal environment, characterized by significant experiences of
inclusion’11 For Parker Palmer, the way to ensure that these conditions exist is to build community, and to
work to preserve a communitarian ethic in teaching and learning. Interestingly, the MSC Vision in Education
statement has community at its core: ‘MSC schools strive to build a community of faith amongst staff,
parents and students. In the spirit of a loving and supportive family, members help one another grow in
knowledge, faith and service (action)’.12 A staff member working in the boarding house in an MSC College
said once that his contribution to the learning of the students was to help ensure students felt they belonged.
Anything that contributes to the sense of community is contributing to the learning of those within the
community. Again, Palmer writes that ‘community is central to … the nature of reality, how we know reality,
how we teach and learn, and how education forms or deforms our lives in the world.’ 13 If we have an
individualistic/competitive philosophy of learning (or education), then we are ignoring the deeper reality of our
interconnectedness and the riches that this has to offer the learning/teaching process. We are buying into a
sort of educational Darwinism … where knowledge/education is a scarce resource, for which we must
compete fiercely, and it is all about the survival of the smartest! Community (an interconnected web of
relationships) offers a much richer and more authentic context for learning/teaching. Within community, we
can recognise the gifts and talents of all, and grow in awareness of self and others. The research of Pine and
Horn, amongst others, affirms that learning is facilitated when everybody in a community is thought of as
being learners together, and learning is seen as a collaborative rather than competitive endeavour of mutual
support and richly varied perspectives. 14 As already mentioned, the external pressure from the grades
demanded by society goes directly against this communitarian model of learning.
Contemplation
(reflection and discernment; discovery, expression of, response to - real
needs; action, evaluation)
“Learning occurs most readily when the process of learning moves from experience, to reflection on experience,
so that a ‘pattern’ or ‘framework’ allows the learner to grasp the meaning of the learning …” 15
“We teach by listening deeply – by creating space for students (and for all those with whom we share life) to discover (to
experience and know) their hunger, their real needs.” 16
Most often when we use the word ‘heart’, unless we are cardiac physicians, we are not referring to the organ
which pumps our blood at all. ‘Heart’ is a deeply symbolic word, and mostly we use it to refer to the
mysterious interiority of beings and things. Any spirituality, and especially ‘heart spirituality’, is concerned
with the deeper dimensions of being ... the dimensions beneath the surface. The spiritual traditions call this
the contemplative dimension. One of the origins of modern ‘education’ is found in the monastic traditions.
The student is the seeker of wisdom and insight, who is guided to develop habits of listening. The word
‘education’ has the same root as the word ‘educe’ … to draw out from within. In the monastic model, the
student is seen as a retreatant, and the teacher as a spiritual companion (or director), whose task is to help
Ross Keane, ‘Transformative learning’ (Course notes, 1991, 5)
MSC Vision in Education
13 Palmer, To know as we are known ,xiii
14 The article from which this is drawn was unreferenced! Still trying to track it down. Sorry!
15 Julia Atkin, Learning by design, 35
16 Mary Rose O’Reilley, Radical presence: teaching as contemplative practice, Portsmouth, NH: Boynton, 1998.
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the student (retreatant) listen to their inner voice (vocare), the voice of God speaking through their own
thought processes and experiences. In a similar vein, Plato said that ‘the task of the teacher is not to put
knowledge where it does not exist, but rather to lead the mind’s eye so that it might see for itself.’ 17
Jim Cuskelly, a famous MSC theologian (and Superior General of the order), described what he called the
four movements of a spirituality of the heart. The very first of these movements went as follows:
“We have to go down to the depths of our own soul in a realisation of our profound personal needs of life, of
love and of meaning.” (E.J. Cuskelly msc, With a human heart, Kensington, Chevalier Press, 1981; p 39-40)
Cuskelly is speaking here of the first step in a contemplative movement … a deep listening to our own
hearts, and to the heart of human experience… a gentle reverence towards our hearts and the hearts of
others, as the basic and necessary attitude of a spirituality of the heart (imitating the heart of Jesus).
How does a contemplative or reflective attitude come to bear upon learning/teaching? There is much that
has already been said with regard to the human spirit that is deeply nourished by a contemplative approach
to life. But in addition to this, habits of reflection are at the very core of successful learning. Reflective
practices are an integral part of the learning/teaching process and are essential to enable people to make
personal meaning within the learning process. Julia Atkin says that “when learning experiences are reflected
upon, this leads to conscious awareness, further action and response.” 18 Being reflective about learning
encourages us to develop critical thinking … skills and processes that help us reflect more thoroughly, more
honestly and more fruitfully. It is important to encourage reflection at a range of levels (e.g. rational,
emotional, physical), since deep (transformative) learning is often disorienting, confusing, emotional and
stressful, and manifests in all the dimensions of the self. Also, as educators, we need to reflect upon what
successful learners and teachers do … on what it is they have at their disposal which helps them to learn,
and see what can be used to help others succeed in learning.
The word ‘courage’ has the same root as the word for ‘heart’ – in Latin, cor. ‘Good teaching requires courage – the
courage to explore one’s own ignorance as well as insight, to yield some control in order to empower the group, to evoke
other people’s lives as well as reveal one’s own. … Taking heart means overcoming the fears that block good teaching
and learning.’ (Palmer, Good teaching: a matter of living the mystery)
The way we most commonly reflect upon learning in formal educational settings is through assessment.
Assessment itself is a concept and a practice that deserves much reflection and discussion. The ‘what’ and
‘how’ of assessment is well known to have a major impact upon what is learnt or not learnt, and the way we
carry out assessment reveals our values and beliefs with regard to learning. As teachers, we need to reflect
carefully on our purpose in assessing student learning. If reflection is not built into the learning process, if it
isn’t seen as integral to the actual learning in a formative rather than merely summative way (i.e. assessment
which informs the next step in the learning, not merely ‘summing up’ what a student has learnt or not learnt
at the end of the unit of work), then assessment is just a series of hoops through which the students have to
jump, often making the same mistakes over and over without any integration of the learning from the
assessment experience. In this scenario, students are likely to stay at a low level of achievement. As
teachers (faciltators of learning), we need to ask ourselves: “Do we assess prior knowledge, so that we can
assess the ‘value that has been added’ in the learning process? Do we provide opportunities for students to
reflect on their own learning and their future learning needs? Do the insights gained from assessment tasks
help identify learning needs and thus inform the next step for the student/teacher in the learning process?”
These are difficult questions to face when the assessment agenda in high schools is so strongly influenced
by the societal demands for students to be simply placed on a percentage ladder. But if we really care about
students and their learning, we must be counter-cultural (as Jesus was!) and ask these questions.
Contemplative practices, reflective habits, help us to grow in wholeness; to integrate the often scattered
dimensions of the self. Contemplation enables us to become more honest with ourselves and others, and to
make personal meaning out of the vast array of information, insights and experiences that come our way in
educational settings. We learn, in a transformative way, by listening deeply!
The whole self
(heart as symbol of integration of physical, emotional, rational, relational,
spiritual, metaphoric), learning is about the whole self growing and changing,
engaging of the feelings is critical.
Karl Rahner writes: “heart … denotes the core of the human person which is original and inmost with respect
to everything else in the human person. In the heart, the whole concrete human being, …which exists … in
17
18
Cited by Julia Atkin in Learning by design, 13
Atkin, Learning by design, 19
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soul, body and spirit … is taken and grasped (and remains) as one, as though … fastened at its mid-point.”
[Theological Investigations 3, 332]
The heart is an ancient symbol of the whole self. Recent research on the brain has uncovered a biological
foundation for this ancient tradition. [c.f. Joseph Chiltern Pearce, The biology of transcendence, 2004) Brain
scientist now speak of the ‘fifth brain’ or ‘heart brain’, which functions to integrate all the other brain levels.
Heart spirituality is a holistic, incarnational spirituality. (see Annice Callahan, ‘Heart spirituality’ in New
Dictionary of Christian Spirituality) The heart of the person refers to the physical organ – very much of the
body, flesh and blood – but also the home of the spirit, the seat of wisdom, the centre of the emotions, and
the source of the will. In most ancient cultures, it is the heart (not the brain or the mind) which ‘knows’,
chooses, feels, thinks, rejoices, suffers ... . The Hebrew scriptures attribute the most incredible array of
attitudes and functions to the heart. It is by far the most common anthropological term in the bible.
Julia Atkin writes: ‘Human learning is deepened and amplified by integrating our multiple ways of knowing.
Teach to ENGAGE and INTEGRATE all modes of processing, regardless of personal thinking style. … Truly
effective learning, learning which can be transferred to new situations and communicated to others, will be
known in … many languages … and these ways of knowing will be integrated and coherent.’ 19 Much
research in recent years has alerted us to people’s different learning styles and preferences (e.g. kinesthetic,
auditory, visual), the multiple intelligences (linguistic, mathematical, visual-spatial, musical. emotional,
interpersonal and intrapersonal, metaphysical, natural, physical) or whole brain thinking (Hermann Brain
Dominance Instrument). Learning is deeper and more lasting when it engages the whole self. We are whole,
multi-dimensional beings and we need to access all the dimensions of the self in learning – offering a variety
of pathways to experience and/or integrate the learning. The areas for growth are the areas which are least
developed in us … outside our ‘comfort zone’ or preferred styles. Left brain/right brain research shows
clearly that the whole brain thinking (whole self learning) provides the deepest and most integrated learning.
All learning is about making personal meaning. Narrow, content-based approaches isolate ‘facts and data and theories’
from the context of the whole self, within a human community, thus disconnecting the content from its meaning. The
process of education is itself healing when it is based on, and seeks to preserve, the wholeness of being.
(Rachel Naomi Remen, ‘Educating for compassion’)
Each of the different dimensions of the self provides a different pathway for learning (e.g. rational, emotional,
physical, creative-symbolic, relational), and each pathway gives access to different, complementary ways of
‘knowing’. To take the emotional pathway as an example, learning is about changing or re-organizing our
personal meaning systems. Without the involvement of emotions and feeling, it is unlikely that learners are
making any personal meaning of things. A culture or environment which strives to control emotion thus stifles
learning, putting enormous pressure on the learners to conform to others’ ‘needs’ for order and control,
rather than their own need to learn.
Deep learning is something of the spirit, and it results in right action. St Ignatius insisted that above all, true
education results in new actions on the part of the person … ‘Love in action.’ Authentic learning means that
personal meaning has been distilled from the experience and that it is has been integrated into the self in
some way, thereby changing the self. W.G. Thompson reflects:
‘Our journey through life may sometimes take us to new vistas of knowing, to deeper realms of trusting, to ever widening
circles of belonging, to more creative and effective ways of acting. As we develop, we are enabled to embrace a wider
world, to acknowledge a more adequate truth, to live in a more inclusive community, and to enter more deeply into the
mystery of human existence.’20
A transformative journey
(from woundedness to wholeness, awe and wonder, vulnerability as the point
of growth, ‘healing and learning are one in the same.’)
From 40,000 responses to the request to identify metaphors or analogies for learning, the most common responses
were: journey, growth, creation-recreation, transformation, enlightenment, empowerment, enrichment.
(Julia Atkin, Learning by design, 10)
At some level, every human heart is a divided heart, a wounded heart. The Christian doctrine of ‘original sin’
is really an attempt to describe the reality that as human beings we have a tendency to be divided within
ourselves, disconnected from our true selves and from the God in whose image we are created. Deep down
we doubt our ‘lovableness’, our ‘blessedness’. Life then is a journey, through our own woundedness and
19
20
Atkin, Learning by design, 36
W.G. Thompson, ‘Spirituality, spiritual development and holiness’ in Review for religious vol 51, 1992, 651
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self-doubt, home to ourselves. We are always on the journey. We never ‘have it all together’. We are always
in a process of becoming! It is a healing journey … a gradual growth towards greater wholeness, becoming
more and more myself, and connecting more and more with my sacred Origin and Purpose. This has a most
profound relevance to learning. Learning is a transformative journey, a healing journey. Learning is growth
towards wholeness. It is not only the journey through woundedness that facilitates this transformation. It is
also the profound experiences of love, meaning, awe and wonder.
“Teaching is a daily exercise in vulnerability.”
(Parker Palmer, ‘The heart of a teacher’ in Change magazine, vol29:6, 1997, 14-21)
Deep learning changes me as a person. It is transformative. I grow. I am different afterwards. Functional
learning (e.g. learning to pass the test) does not. We can easily see the truth of this when we think of the ‘life
learnings’ that have been part of our experience. But it is true of any type of any ‘deep’ learning. What do we
mean by deep learning? Julia Atkin writes:
“When what is being learned is motivated from within, or when it is perceived to have high intrinsic worth, and there is a
‘felt need’ to learn, the learning which occurs will have deep personal meaning, and the learner is transformed.” (Julia
Atkin, Learning by design, 15)
In our teaching/learning we need to affirm the journey, to acknowledge always being ‘in process’. This is very
liberating. We don’t have to ‘have it all together’! Curiously, lots of research suggests that we’re not so good
at this. Arthur Combes (Creating an environment for learning and change, 88) suggests that people’s true
needs are rarely discussed or explored in schools, and that the culture within most schools encourages
competition, the seeking of status, individualism and fixed, inflexible attitudes and stances. Such a culture
discourages the expression of true needs, since this is seen as weakness and inadequacy! So much for all
being ‘on the journey’! This happens amongst the staff, the students and the parents, and in the ‘learning’
interactions amongst these three groups. Why is this? Combs suggests that people’s ‘true needs’ are usually
hidden underneath the ‘needs’ for power, status, protection and autonomy. He suggests that people’s ‘true
needs’ remain hidden because of feelings of fear, embarrassment, inadequacy, mistrust, hurt, anger or
frustration. In terms of ‘learning needs’, we could be talking here about the need for development in the
areas of synthesizing or analyzing information, accessing resources, sequencing tasks, organisation of data
or making hypotheses or approximations, setting learning goals or choosing learning methods. If facilitated in
the ‘right’ way, people can be helped to discern such ‘learning needs’ and not see themselves as failures for
having them! (c.f. a good assessment tool will identify my strengths in a range of areas, and will point to
areas for possible development).
The journey into my own heart and into the heart of the human condition is one of discerning my deeper self,
my real needs, which exists amidst my vulnerability. As learners (and later, as teachers) we are not
socialized to express or even discern our real needs. A spirituality of the heart, a way of the heart, is a way
connected to real needs, and the way that requires risk and vulnerability. American medical educator
Rachael Naomi Remen, suggests that two of the great blocks to learning are the masks of competence and
objectivity. The first mask (‘competence’) is created by the fear of exposing my ignorance or incompetence,
the second (‘objectivity’) arises out of a fear connecting with my deeper self and with questions of personal
meaning (Remen, ‘Educating for compassion’ in The heart of learning) The transforming of ‘brokenness into
blessing’ obviously happens at our points of vulnerability. Just as we can only be ‘wounded healers’, we can
only be ‘uneducated educators’!
‘True education and healing are one in the same. Both require trusting in the wholeness of life and people. … The
beginning of healing and education is attending to wholeness. The tender heart is usually hidden behind the masks of
competence and objectivity.’ (Rachel Naomi Remen, Educating for compassion)
Let us pray for wisdom. Let us pause from thinking and empty our mind. Let us stop the noise. In the silence let us listen
to our heart. The heart which is buried alive. Let us be still and wait and listen carefully. A sound from the deep, from
below. A faint cry. A weak tapping. Distant muffled feelings from within. The cry for help.
We shall rescue the entombed heart. We shall bring it to the surface, to the light and the air. We shall nurse it and listen
respectfully to its story. The heart’s story of pain and suffocation, of darkness and yearning. We shall help our feelings to
live in the sun. Together again we shall find relief and joy.
Michael Leunig
A Common Prayer
Jesus was forever healing and liberating through encountering people heart to heart; meeting them at their
point of need, in their vulnerability, inviting them to stay on the journey. Those who do not know their needs,
who cannot enter into their own vulnerability, are ‘unreachable’ in some way – perhaps uneducatable! If I am
trapped in the belief that I’ve got to ‘have it all together’, that I have to always be competent, then I will not
know my learning needs and I am very unlikely to learn in a transformative way. Jesus was particularly
critical of the scribes and the Pharisees (the one’s who had ‘knowledge’, but did not know their deeper
needs)
Towards a pedagogy of the heart
Chevalier Institute, February 2006
8
‘… Education at its best (these profound human transactions called knowing, teaching and learning) are not just about
information, and they’re not about getting jobs. They are about healing. They are about wholeness. They are about
empowerment, liberation, transcendence. They are about reclaiming the vitality of life.’ (Parker Palmer, The grace of
great things)
Towards a pedagogy of the heart
Chevalier Institute, February 2006
9