Kohtaaminen- opettajuuden ydin?

Abstract

TM Jari Wihersaari käsittelee ammattikasvatustieteen väitöstutkimuksessaan kohtaamista ja sen rakentumista opettajuuden ydintapahtumana.

Kohtaamisesta ja sen tarpeesta eri muodoissaan ja yhteiskunnan eri alueilla käydään keskustelua. Toisen ihmisen kokonaisvaltainen kohtaaminen liittyy sekä kasvatuksen maailmaan että muihin sellaisiin tieteenaloihin, joissa ihminen on keskeisessä asemassa. Tutkimus käsittelee kohtaamista opettajuuden maailmassa.

Opettajuuteen kiinteästi liitetyn kohtaamis-käsitteen avaamattomuus johtuu osin siitä, että kasvatukseen muualta kuin kasvatuksen ytimestä tulevat tekijät johtavat asioita pois sen ytimestä. Opetus ja kasvatus nähdään toistaan erillisinä ja tämä painotus saa aikaan teknisen ja taloudellisen ajattelun liiallisen painotuksen.

Tutkimuksen filosofinen lähestymistapa antaa kohtaamisesta ja dialogista käydylle keskustelulle käsitteellistä selkeyttä, jota tutkimuksessa tarvitaan yhteisen keskustelupohjan rakentamisessa. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään kohtaamisen ja dialogiin käsitteitä ja nostetaan esiin niihin liittyviä ongelmia ja lopuksi muodostetaan niistä kohtaamiseen liittyvä kokonaisnäkemys.

Tutkimuksen mukaan dialogia voidaan pitää kohtaamisen edellytyksenä. Dialogin käyttö on voimakkaasti yleistynyt erityisesti kasvatustieteellisessä tutkimuksessa, mutta itse dialogista ei ole ollut selkiytynyttä käsitystä. Dialogista on etsitty ratkaisua kasvatuksellisen kohtaamisen ongelmaan, mutta sitä on käytetty myös ratkaisuna verkkopedagogiikan haasteisiin, yritysmaailman kehityskeskusteluihin sekä mentorointiin.

Tutkimuksen mukaan dialogin ja kohtaamisen suhde riippuu siitä, mitä ymmärrämme dialogilla. Eri dialogisuusteoreetikoiden ja dialogisuusfilosofien dialogit soveltuvat eri tarkoituksiin. Dialogien erot liittyvät kohtaavien etäisyyteen, lukumäärään sekä kohtaamisen ontologiaan. Buberilaisen Minä-Sinä- kohtaamisen dialoginen malli vastaa parhaiten aidolle kohtaamiselle asetettuja vaatimuksia.

Dialogi voidaan nähdä sekä kasvatuksen että opetuksen ytimenä, kun se ymmärretään siten, että kasvatussuhde luo edellytyksiä opettamisen onnistumiselle. Sen kautta voidaan tavoitella onnistuneesti kasvatuksen päämäärää. Kasvatus on keskeinen osa elämää ja ihmiseksi tulemista.

Kohtaamisen ja dialogin päämäärä on niissä itsessään. Kun kohtaamiselle luo oikeat edellytykset, se voi toteutua omilla ehdoillaan. Dialogin opettelu ei ole tekniikan tai uusien didaktisten keinojen opettelua. Tutkimus osoittaa, että aitoon kohtaamiseen pyrkivää dialogia on mahdollista valmistella pohtimalla oman kasvatusajattelunsa perusteita ja sen lähtökohtia.

Encounter- The essence of teachership?

Studying an encounter is, despite its seemingly self evident nature, a topical subject. The gist of education and teaching is encountering each other, which is based on one´s own experience. In my thesis, I´m trying to find the experience of an encounter with the help of the best applicable method. I?m trying to get into the experience, to reveal what an encounter really is and what the essence of an encounter is. There was a need to find a point of view which could clarify an encounter and its structure. Teaching and education are joined together in an encounter in which it is a question of the educator and the one being educated being in an ontological relationship. On the basis of research, encountering can be regarded as a constitutive factor of being a teacher. The analysis of the concept of an encounter helps us to understand what the starting point of genuine communicative competence is. In the thesis, a teacher´s relationship to the world is examined from a dialogue philosophical point of view. The main questions of this thesis are: 1. What can be understood as a genuine encounter? 2. On what kind of dialogue can an encounter be constructed?

In my thesis I implement the central principles of philosophical methodology and discuss fundamental problems in an encounter and the use and contents of the concepts related to it. I explain concepts related to the subject matter and raise problems connected to them and in the end I form an overall view relating to an encounter. Philosophical research gives clarity to the discussion of an encounter and a dialogue, which is needed in the thesis to build a common basis of discussion. Especially phenomenological philosophy has presented issues connected to encountering a human being. There is an on-going debate in different fields of society about encountering people and about its need in its different forms. To encounter another person comprehensively is connected to both the world of education and to other scientific fields where an individual is in a central position. The use of the concept of an encounter in abundance reflects its significance and the difficulties in defining it. The thesis deals with encounters between teachers and students. In this context, being a teacher has been defined from a psychological and collective viewpoint, not from the point of view of education. The development arising from education itself has to be looked into from the viewpoint of education. Only action on the basis of which teaching and education improves can be regarded as the development of education. It is a prerequisite in education for the educator to have a strong view on the goals of education.

The fact that the concept of an encounter closely related to being a teacher hasn´t been opened up, is partly due to the fact that the factors outside the essence of education lead us away from the essence. Teaching and education are seen separate from each other and consequently, there is too much emphasis on technical and economic thinking. To understand encounters between individuals, one has to have genuine understanding of humanity and its basic factors. I call the thinking arising from education the world of educating teachers to be teachers to differentiate it from the worlds of business life and globalization. I look into encountering and the fundamental problems in it from the viewpoint of education.

There is an abundant use of a dialogue in the field of education and it hasn´t been analysed enough. The concept has had a range of different meanings, although those discussing don´t always identify it. In my thesis, I look into the use of a dialogue in research literature and in the views of different philosophers and theorists. The use of a dialogue has become more and more common especially in pedagogical research, but there hasn?t been a clear idea about the concept of a dialogue itself. A dialogue has been used to solve the problem of an educational encounter, but it has also been used as a solution to the challenges of net pedagogy, the development discussions of the business world and mentoring. According to research, the relationship between a dialogue and an encounter depends on what we understand by a dialogue. The dialogues of different dialogue theorists and dialogue philosophers apply to different purposes. The use of a dialogue in net pedagogy and in working life arises from different points of view and from different targets. The differences between dialogues have something to do with the distance between those who encounter each other and with the number of people encountering each other and with the ontology of an encounter. The dialogical model of a Buberian I ´ Thou -encounter best meets the requirements for a genuine encounter. The encounter in Buber´s dialogue is the ideal of a genuine encounter, to which one has to aspire but which cannot be controlled. In a dialogue genuine encountering just takes place, one can be open to it but it cannot be forced.

A dialogue can be seen as the essence of education and teaching when it is understood in the way that it is the relationship between the educator and the student which makes successful teaching possible. Through it the objective of education can be successfully pursued. Education is a central part of life and a central part of becoming a human being. The objective of an encounter and a dialogue is in themselves. If you create the right conditions for an encounter, it can be realized on its own terms. Learning a dialogue is not the same as learning a new technique or new didactic means. This thesis shows that genuine encountering is possible to pursue by pondering the basis and starting points of one´s own pedagogical thinking.