Invisible doctrine: the nightmare we don’t know we had

Future Learning Documentary

Every time I think about doctrine, order, power and authority, I would naturally play the “China” card, since we all know what the country has been through, thousands of years’ (still ongoing) centralization which is deeply rooted in education as well. However, I am not going to reflect on culture and policy today. Instead, I will take a retrospect journey back to my own teaching today. Have I ever realized that the key words of Foreign Language Educations are not only language but also education? Have I secretly criticize some other teachers who would do things differently or whose English proficiency is questionable? Have I even felt lucky when I got away from students’ questioning? Have I refused to use technology in classroom since technology has never been my thing and it would be too challenging and troublesome for me to go through it?

Unfortunately, I would have to say that I didn't do such a good job being a teacher. There is “traditional” idea in China that those who have better language proficiency would be better teachers. That’s why I decided to teach in the first place—people around me encouraged me to do so, since they kept saying: “why don't you do it? You majored in English!” So I did it. Since I majored in English in college and I also have a Master’s Degree in translation studies, I assumed that I would do well in the profession. That is the first doctrine I followed that I didn't know. Now I realized that the assumption was invalid at all. It’s natural to believe that a person who can speak a totally different language would teach the ability to others and she or he would be a good teacher. But actually, it is not.

Teachers have the power in classroom in China. When students misbehave in classrooms, like playing cellphones or iPads, they would be punished for that. Seldom would teachers talk about what students are doing with their electronic devices, let alone that teachers would encourage students to learn using such devices. Teachers would follow their own teaching plans, which is much easier for them to do; they wouldn't even want to share the plans with other teachers. Like bosses in classrooms, teachers are teaching from a distance far from students. That is the second doctrine that I didn't know before.

Above all, the biggest doctrine I followed but I didn't know is that education is a job. If it is a job to me, I would take the road which would spare me of all the troubles or difficulties on my side. That is the why I didn't use technology much in classroom, since it is hard to me, and more importantly, I followed the invisible doctrines. I always tell my students to open their eyes, their hearts and free themselves from ideological shackles. But I didn't practice what I preached. The video woke me up from dreams in which I followed all these invisible doctrines. I want my students to be free, but before that I need to free myself. There is no personal excuses for teachers to adopt one method over another just because the latter is inconvenient or new to them. Teachers are humans with personal preferences or strengths for sure, but such personal preferences can never be the reasons why we can stay in our comfort zones, neglect what would benefit students better and follow our own doctrines. The new era of foreign language education should be focused on the word “education”, for example, how we can help students acquire language skills using a wide variety of tools instead of cramming them with what we know about the languages.  Teachers who can feed students with the best organized grammatical rules and tips for examinations are not good teachers to me. The real good ones are those who would lead students through the learning process. Therefore, I am no longer a follower of the doctrines I had: I don't believe that someone who have better English levels can teach better and I don't think teachers should involve too many personal preferences in education. Teaching is education, no matter what subject we teach. As long as it is about education, we need to fight against doctrines built inside ourselves before we can teach students to fight against their own doctrines.