Encounteract: A change in direction.
The impetus for starting Encounteract came about more than a year ago, when my partner Jacob and I discovered a shared interest in exploring online writing. At the beginning we decided just to roll with it and see if we could create something of value, drawing material from different aspects of our lives. Our interests were broad, our production was slow and our exact goals were hazy.
In over a year of writing and posting sporadically, always in short bursts of exuberance with absolutely no engagement in between, Encounteract- at least in it's online form - stagnated. But far from being abandoned, the impetus for it's creation remained a prominent feature of our discussions and plans. We still wanted to write and share work online. We still hankered after the insight, growth and collaborative opportunities that work of this nature offers.
Through the work and writing that I did do, I realised that my core writing, research and collaborative interests are all related to education. As a teacher, and also a human, I have recognised that I need a place to organise and refine my thoughts about education and its practices and to find more some purposeful definitions to live and work by. There is much that is terrifyingly wrong with the education that most children experience (in South Africa, but also everywhere) but there are also so many hopeful, potential approaches that could (and do!) make a positive difference. But this is a daunting landscape of ethics, assumptions, traditions and experiments. So many fanatical purveyors of sworn methods, best practices and lofty promises. So many naysayers, so many experts, so much self-doubt. Teaching itself is trial and error. It is a perpetual experiment and the conditions are always changing, even in the same class with the same kids. Even with the same brain, the way I look at things keeps changing.
So before I implode in the face of all this competing noise, I am re-purposing this site as a stomping ground for my thoughts, a nursery for my plans and - hopefully, not-too-eventually - a bountiful and ecological source of renewable wisdom for others.
I thought long and hard about changing the name 'Encounteract' to something more explicitly educationy or teacherish, but it has since grown on me and now I feel like it has its own work to do. So I am going to leave it be and trust that it will come into its own.
You are welcome to Encounteract!
In over a year of writing and posting sporadically, always in short bursts of exuberance with absolutely no engagement in between, Encounteract- at least in it's online form - stagnated. But far from being abandoned, the impetus for it's creation remained a prominent feature of our discussions and plans. We still wanted to write and share work online. We still hankered after the insight, growth and collaborative opportunities that work of this nature offers.
Through the work and writing that I did do, I realised that my core writing, research and collaborative interests are all related to education. As a teacher, and also a human, I have recognised that I need a place to organise and refine my thoughts about education and its practices and to find more some purposeful definitions to live and work by. There is much that is terrifyingly wrong with the education that most children experience (in South Africa, but also everywhere) but there are also so many hopeful, potential approaches that could (and do!) make a positive difference. But this is a daunting landscape of ethics, assumptions, traditions and experiments. So many fanatical purveyors of sworn methods, best practices and lofty promises. So many naysayers, so many experts, so much self-doubt. Teaching itself is trial and error. It is a perpetual experiment and the conditions are always changing, even in the same class with the same kids. Even with the same brain, the way I look at things keeps changing.
So before I implode in the face of all this competing noise, I am re-purposing this site as a stomping ground for my thoughts, a nursery for my plans and - hopefully, not-too-eventually - a bountiful and ecological source of renewable wisdom for others.
I thought long and hard about changing the name 'Encounteract' to something more explicitly educationy or teacherish, but it has since grown on me and now I feel like it has its own work to do. So I am going to leave it be and trust that it will come into its own.
You are welcome to Encounteract!