Exploration of students’ thoughts about their right to freedom of education: “Terrified to love this way of learning, its idea of being free”

In this reflective paper, I respond to Dr. Matusov’s (2020) eloquent philosophical exploration of “students’ right to freedom of education. In doing so, I pursue a narrative inquiry (Bruner, 1987; Clandinin, Murphy, Huber, & Orr, 2010; Clandinin, 2013; Hong, Falter, & Fecho, 2017) to explore my students’ self-generated meanings of their educational freedom in our teacher education classroom. I wonder whether freedom of education can be presented as a transcendental concept of self-examination and taught as the student’s right for it without a critical deconstruction of the tentious and fictitious materiality of freedom. Also, I wonder what my students think when they are provoked to claim their right to freedom of education. This reflection reveals that students’ right of freedom is not necessarily about their own self-examination, freedom is a creative force of self-expression. More specifically, freedom is the self-conscious act of discovery of itself (i.e., freedom) in everything my students do as a part of their classroom learning and education. All in all, freedom does not have any meaning at all since meaning emerges in the act of freedom itself, or rather in the creative act of being free

Teaching teacher candidates about social transformations through arts and place: “wait, but what does it have to do with me as a teacher?”

In this creative and reflective inquiry, I explore the pedagogical significance of arts as a place-based praxis of social transformations in a Canadian teacher education program with a focus on my students’ learning experience. The research features their pedagogical becoming (Gouzouasis, Irwin, Miles, & Gordon, 2013) which includes the aesthetic development of their self-concept as future teachers and the critical development of their authorial agency (Matusov, 2011; Matusov et al., 2016;). The research question was, in fact, posed by some of the students themselves, who did not understand or did not want to understand, why they were compelled to take this course by the program requirement and to consider themselves as artists. They asked, “What does it have to do with me as a teacher?” Then, they stated that education and art are two different domains of knowledge that should not be mixed at all. Hence, they did not want to do anything with art in any form or shape in their education. I explore their question through a constructionist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006, 2008) and conclude with the pedagogical recommendations and suggestions for future research

Co-constructing a learner-centered, democratic syllabus with teacher candidates: A poetic rendering of students’ meaning making experiences.

Abstract In this arts-based research study, the creative concept of a co-constructed, learner-centered, and democratic syllabus (marino, 1997; Matusov & Marjanovic-Shane, 2017; Ricci, 2012; Richmond, 2016; Shor, 1996) is creatively and critically examined through a poetic inquiry that focuses on its pedagogical significance in one of the Canadian teacher education programs. Specifically, the author aims to understand what this pedagogical significance means to her students-teacher candidates. The research question is: What does this syllabus-making experience mean to teacher candidates? The study reveals that the pedagogical significance of co-constructed syllabus is embodied in students’ changing self-perceptions as the active and critical knowledge creators, rather than the passive and immutable consumers of the provincial curriculum. Specifically, co-construction embodies diverse learning experiences, as the students struggle to understand why they have to co-construct their syllabus and what this pedagogy actually means to them. The study demonstrates that co-construction actively, enthusiastically, passionately, and energetically generates students’ engagement. Also, the co-constructed syllabus has an unstructured structure with multiple entry possibilities for learning. Keywords: democratic teaching, learner-centered syllabus, co-construction, arts-based researc

Searching for a dialogic pedagogy with more-than-the-human beings in a teacher education classroom: “I make my way to the sun...”

In this reflective poetic narrative inquiry, I explore a possibility, or rather a search, for dialogic pedagogy with a focus on more-than-human beings in my teacher education classroom. I am curious to learn from my students’ lived experience with my experimental and environmental dialogic activity and ask: What does a dialogue with more-than-human others mean to teacher candidates? My inquiry reveals that these dialogues emerge from the unique, ontological place of being as the poetic and reflective encounter with nature. Yet the concept of nature remains a mystery that resists definitions. More specifically, students’ notes reveal two main themes of their experiences and generative meanings: their new ways of seeing and peacefulness. These new ways of seeing are about their intentional attention to the natural world and its diverse communities as more-than-human beings and speaking subjects. In these peaceful encounters, teacher candidates transform their taken-for-granted view or perception of nature as an object to nature as a miracle (Evernden, 1985). Consequently, almost all students experience their encounters as a peaceful and free learning process that enhances their sense of well-being in the classroom

The University of Students: A place for joint self-education

In this article, we explain, explore, and problematize the formation, organization, leadership, and daily educational life of the first (to our knowledge) international democratic university of students (UniS) in the 21st century. UniS is run by the students, for the students, and with the students for their diverse purposes, desires, interests, and needs. A student is anyone who freely chooses to study something for whatever reason. Everyone can become a student at any time without any high school credits, fees, bureaucracy, tests, or any other form of human suffering. But what exactly is UniS? Why students? What if…? How can one visualize UniS, which is “so vague, so bizarre, so unnecessary to me!”  What are its philosophical principles? Who are we? What does the University of Students look like? In the spirit of curiosity, wonder, leisure, fun, freedom, and love for learning, we invite the reader to attend and connect with two working edu-clubs of UniS: a movie club “Schooling Around the World and Time” and an “Educationalist Club.” In addition, we discuss some of the main issues, limitations, and challenges, including the civilization of the necessities, colonization of the human spirit by the economy, a lack of genuine leisure, and toxification of the human by foisted education. The open-ended, poetic conclusion lets the readers form their own interpretations, ideas, questions, and answers about UniS. What is the future of UniS? And only time will tell, 10, 100 years later or 100 light-years from now

A/R/TOGRAPHY OF LIFE LEARNING: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON CHILDREN’S LIVED EXPERIENCE AND ECO-CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY OF CHILDHOOD BEFORE THE ADVENT OF COMPULSORY SCHOOLING IN TIBET

In this paper, I describe and explore a cultural and historical context of children's lived experience prior to the advent of compulsory schooling in Tibet. Specifically, I focus on how children had been learning without schools, and what these life learning experiences meant to them. In doing so, I engage unschooling (Holt, 1972, 1974, 1976 1983; Holt & Farenga, 2003; Ricci, 2012) as my culturally responsive theoretical framework in order to acknowledge and recognize the historical significance of these unique learning contexts. In addition, I choose a/r/tography (Irwin, 2004; Leavy, 2012) as my methodological framework in order to respect and acknowledge the arts-based cultural heritage of local communities. Therefore, I celebrate the success and challenges of local children’s life learning experiences, as well as promote an eco-cultural understanding of how these historical learning experiences can inform educational policy, teachers, and the general public. This multi-modal arts-based study found that children's ways of life learning included creative playfulness, gender equal games, intergenerational learning; and the overall context of subsistence as eco-cultural sustainability. Through these ways of life learning, children have experienced their existential happiness in childhood and ontological freedom, as well as developed a sense of eco-cultural sustainability