Overseas Visitor and Defining Your Ed Philosophy

 Many Ontario public school students and staff will return to school this week after their scheduled March Break. I had a relaxing few days off (napping, eating, scrapbooking and fitting in a few appointments for parents and pets). I also attended Toronto Comic Con with my daughter, but at the risk of disappointing my friend Doug Peterson, who always enjoys seeing my cosplay, I wanted to focus this week's blog post on a visit that occurred that busy concert week prior to March Break. (Doug, don't worry - I'll slip in a photo of the two of us at the end!)

On Tuesday, March 7, I had the pleasure of meeting with Professor Yoshimi Uesugi. She teaches at Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan. It was part of her goal, while in Canada, to visit several Canadian public schools to see how media education is transmitted. Her "tour guide" for the Toronto portion of her trek was Neil Andersen, the president of the Association for Media Literacy. Dr. Uesugi arrived at a very busy time for me and for my school. I had just returned from the Global Media Education Summit in Vancouver, British Columbia and my school was ramping up for its first in-person concert since 2019. We met after school on Tuesday so we could chat and I could show her around the school building.

I think Neil might have prepped me for this visit by mentioning that I might want to "describe my educational philosophy". Now, that's a tall order! How can you capture all the nuances of your beliefs in a few, pithy statements? Scots College defines an educational philosophy as 

a statement (or set of statements) that identifies and clarifies the beliefs, values and understandings of an individual or group with respect to education.

As I showed Yoshimi around, I listened to what I said and my mind's eye looked at what I pointed out. That helped me mentally articulate, at least to myself, what my teaching approach is about.

• I like to have fun while learning and try to get the students to have fun too. (JOY)
• I like using prompts, themes or units that are interesting and authentic to explore. (CREATIVITY)
• I like giving the students a say in what and how they learn. (AGENCY)
• When it comes to media, I try to avoid labeling certain texts as "bad" or "good" and prefer examining them as "interesting". (CRITICAL THINKING)

The last nugget specifically aligns with the guiding principles of the Association for Media Literacy. This group isn't about fear-mongering; the goal is growing critical, thoughtful understanding.

It was an interesting experience to walk around the school after most of the students had left (but not all - Eco Club was still together) to examine "what the walls said". I liked strolling with both Neil and Yoshimi because together we noticed overt examples of media (like the student-made cereal boxes, stereotype-busting poems, food drive posters, and kindergarten analysis of positive race representation in picture books) and less-explicit examples (like the lack of corporate advertising, the framed painting of Canadian Confederation, and the choice of artists reflected in the student samples as they tried to mimic particular styles). 

I was particularly delighted to see "indirect evidence of my handiwork". When we peeked in on the Eco Club, they were busy talking about their school promotion campaign to improve the proper sorting of organics, recycling, and garbage. They had created slide decks but they realized that a large portion of their target audience were not strong readers, so they debated the most effective way to close this gap. Later, we heard that the Grade 8s suggested that the team use We Video (a tool licensed by the board on the TDSB Virtual Library that the students learned to use last year during a collaborative unit I co-taught them with their French teacher) to synch audio with the slides. The Grade 8s in Eco Club then taught the Grade 6s how to use We Video and the results were on the virtual announcements the very next day. My teaching made a difference and students actually applied the skills they learned in a different context. (I hope TDSB will remember this as they debate whether to continue funding elementary teacher-librarians.)

Just to ensure I was actually understanding educational philosophy correctly, I looked it up online and found this image (which comes from a YouTube video by TOP LET Reviewer):

If I had to explain what camp my philosophy fits, I'd be hard pressed to confine it to a single one; I'd hope that it includes bits of each of these seven categories (essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, existentialism, behaviorism, constructivism, and reconstructionism). As long as schooling leads to safe, healthy, happy lifelong learners who, in the words of the TDSB mission statement, 

[To enable all students to] reach high levels of achievement and well-being and to acquire the knowledge, skills and values they need to become responsible, contributing members of a democratic and sustainable society.

then we will have succeeded. If that means dressing up as Power and her pet Meowy from the manga / anime Chainsaw Man at Toronto Comic Con, then so be it!