Thanks a lot Nicol and everybody !
I am new in this group and let me share with you my impression on our meeting today.
First, the topic and the format of discussion was wonderfully different from the average Faculty & Research Office organized meetings, which regrettably tend to be tooooooo research output-oriented, tricks to publish or a one way delivery of scholarship (though some of them are good, I admit) that doctoral students' scholarship remains veiled.
Second, I liked the depth of our discussion taking into account that except perhaps Nicol no one else knew much about F. Reading materials before meeting is a true sign of seriousness.
Third, seeing the topic through a variety of contexts (China, education, gender etc) forwarded by the participants was most enriching.
As a whole, this meeting made me feel more like an aspiring scholar at a university, rather than growing uneasiness as a journal article writer in payroll. I hope you understand what I mean: I am speaking about my vocation about which I feel passionate, not about my job-discourse. Ha ha
I am looking forward to seeing you next week.
Best regards,
Jae Park
4 条评论:
I think Jae you raised one very important issue at the heart of research practice, and that is the absence of joy, or pleasure or passion in people's experience of doing research nowadays.
To some extent, people doing research, no matter if they are students or full time researchers or academics, are more or less treated as 'factory workers' because there is this emphasis of efficiency, productivity and outcomes in the control and governance of research practice. And this is certainly reflected in the discourse being created in actual research activities, as well as the social cultural structures where the discourse emerges.
Of course, people are not just passive receivers of such forces, and they do resist and negotiate and find alternative spaces to do something differently, even if it's doing so in a very small scale and limited way.
Thanks Jae for sharing your experience of the meeting!
Your comments remind me that study or research cannot be reduced to paper publication or other output-oriented only.
Recently, I read a book called "Teachers' knowing in curriculum change: A critical discourse study of language teaching", written by Zongjie Wu. In the part of Introduction, he writes:
"For a long time there has been an argument about whether teaching is a skill, an art, a craft or a science. However, if I take an immediate reflection upon those great educators in history, e.g. Plato, Confucius, Rousseau and Dewey, I feel it is difficult to attribute any of the choices to them. They are merely thinkers, as simple and ordinary, as every teacher could be. They teach what they think or what they do not know, rather than what they know. They become 'extraordinary' only because we no longer see them as a person of thought, but a person of language or knowledge."
I think it is important for us as a researcher to become a thinker, as simple and ordinary. I am looking forward that our group meeting becomes sort of arena to sharpen our critical thinking.
Issa,
Your comment is thought provoking. As a researcher and teacher, I think academic freedom and independence are very important. A good teacher should be first an independent thinker and then a good story teller. Above all, we should have the "capitals” to decide what the story is about, where the story will start and how it will develop and end…
Let us not forget that those great thinkers were not simply intellectuals detached from society. They were also people who practiced what they preached, got into action, getting active and engaging with the communities of their times.
Confucius for example, traveled all over ancient China in spreading his ideas as well as showing the arts of living to his disciples.
Many great scholars were also great travelers. One of the reasons I think they travel so much to different places was because they wanted to get out of their little boxes, the comfort zone, and to experience life and broaden their knowledge horizons.
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