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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! 1 2 Towards a pedagogy of the heart Chevalier Institute, February 2006 2 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) 6 7 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 Towards a pedagogy of the heart Chevalier Institute, February 2006 3 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 9 Towards a pedagogy of the heart Chevalier Institute, February 2006 4 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. 11 12 Towards a pedagogy of the heart Chevalier Institute, February 2006 5 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 Towards a pedagogy of the heart Chevalier Institute, February 2006 6 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 Towards a pedagogy of the heart Chevalier Institute, February 2006 7 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