Recently returned from a two-week odyssey around my girlfriend’s native land of Barbados, I’ve been tasked as part of our first module in EDCI 335: Learning Design with introducing myself and my intentions in the course. I’ll admit that it’s something that – this far into the ongoing learning project of this blog – strikes me as a little odd. Those looking to ‘meet’ me through this post will find no shortage of background on what has brought me here with a little exploration of my About Page, or by delving into my post categories and tags.

The short answer is that I am a HS Gifted Program teacher in Coquitlam, BC, with specialization in History, English and Leadership. Additionally, I am also a music teacher at my school, where I teach an open online Introduction to Guitar course, as well as a similarly open Philosophy 12 class. I live in the suburban seaside community of Port Moody, where I can generally be found canoeing, walking and running, often either with my dog, the gal who introduced us, or both of them.

As to the follow up questions to my own introduction, I am asked to speak briefly about what I would like to teach the world, and how I plan to going about this goal. Here I will refer new and existing readers to a post published on this site near the end of last semester:

This semester I have come to believe more and more that all education is citizenship education. All education should be concerned with the Project of Enlightenment and the search for greater justice that it entails.

And I do admit that it is encouraging to note here that we spend a great deal of time incorporating ideas of “social responsibility” and “justice” and “democracy” into learning outcomes, core competencies and school codes of conduct. Ensuring that the education system’s explicit messaging system – The Curriculum™ – reinforces these ideas is an excellent place to start.

But if we are serious about cultivating “lifelong learners” capable of delivering on the promises of the Enlightenment, and to guard against our own democracies falling prey to those who would subvert their intent for private or minority gain and exclusion (I’ll let you decide who you imagine in that role), we must have the courage to address the observation that many of modern schooling’s implicit messages communicate to young people (and teachers alike) messages about power, agency, and citizenship that can be seen as contradictory to the basic values of learning and progress.

In his popular essay, Immanuel Kant begins his response to the question, What is Enlightenment? by stating that:

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] ‘Have courage to use your own understanding!’ – that is the motto of Enlightenment.”

It is within this notion of the intellectual tradition that I strive to frame my own notions of pedagogy and schooling

I think this foreground provides an ample challenge for this semester’s learning about design, as it involves creating a particular learning ecosystem that fosters infinite growth and complexity, possibility and potential. I’ve experimented with a few different learning environments to this end in the last few years, and am looking forward to finding more in the weeks and months to come.