1
Hannu L. T. Heikkinen
University of Jyväskylä
Becoming a Teacher -
Struggling for Recognition
A paper presented in ECER 2003, Hamburg, September 18th, 2003
ABSTRACT
Mentors of teacher education should be aware of the processes taking place among student teachers as they struggle to gain recognition as fully-fledged teachers. In this paper, I will discuss the struggle for recognition in teacher education by applying Axel Honneth's theory of recognition (Anerkennung) To illustrate the processes of recognition, I will introduce an autobiographical anecdote of the days of my own teaching practice in pre-service teacher education
Recognition, despite being an old philosophical issue, is a fresh view on teachers’ professional growth. To recognise is used here in two separate but closely related meanings. Firstly, the word is used to refer to perception and identification; we simply recognise something as something. Secondly, the word is used in the sense of acknowledging and honouring the status of the other; in other words, we recognise something worth something. In the context of teacher education, this means that you need to be recognised as a teacher and as a worthy teacher.
We can see the whole human life as a long struggle to be recognised as somebody and worth something. Recognition could even be called a vital human need. At the basic level, you need the feeling that you are taken care of and accepted as you are. You also need to be recognised as a free and autonomous citizen, which is called the second level of recognition. This kind of recognition means that one is recognised as a mature person with a mind of her own and a right to make legal contracts. In teacher education, this level is articulated in the diploma which gives the graduate a right to work as a recognised teacher in a certain society. The diploma is the most official authorisation to work as a teacher, the ultimate epitome of the second-level recognition of a person as an autonomous professional. There is still one more level of recognition, which is relevant in the context of professional education; you also need to be recognised based on the work that you have done, which shows your abilities and achievements. In teacher education, this level is achieved as the mentors and colleagues recognise your successful achievements at work.
Any professional education can be regarded as a fundamental struggle for recognition. To be recognised as somebody and worth something as a teacher is not an easy challenge. I suggest that teacher educators often focus on the second and third levels of recognition, whereas the primary level is often neglected. Teacher education, however, should practise what it preaches: the primary level of recognition should be taken into account in the everyday practices if and when it is regarded as a fundamental element of teachers’ work.
Hannu L. T. Heikkinen
PhD, development manager
Open University
40014 University of Jyväskylä
Finland
What is recognition?
Lately, there has been a growing interest in the theory of recognition among philosophers. To a large measure, this philosophical discussion has been inspired by Axel Honneth’s work, which has been perhaps the most ambitious attempt ever to put Hegel’s philosophy of recognition into practice. Known as the successor of Jurgen Habermas as the head of Social Institute of Frankfurt, Honneth made a remarkable contribution to the philosophical discussion by his book “The Struggle of Recognition” (1995; originally published as “Kampf um Anerkennung 1992).
Despite the fact that recognition lies at the core of the educational process, this topic has not been taken up widely by educational scientists. My colleague Rauno Huttunen and I have adapted the theory of recognition to educational practices from a general point of view (Huttunen & Heikkinen 2002). In this paper, I will focus on teacher education, especially on teaching practice. I suggest that the theory of recognition is useful to all teacher educators and helps them to understand what is happening to the young student teachers as they struggle to acquire the status of a professional teacher.
To start with, however, I take a closer look at the concept of recognition. In everyday speech, we may distinguish three separate meanings of the concept, and these three meanings can be found in many languages in slightly different variations. 1. Firstly, the word “recognition” has a meaning of acknowledging, which, depending on the context, means realising, admitting or confessing. “What we acknowledge – that is, realize, admit or confess – is our commitments, obligations or responsibilities, and our flaws, mistakes, sins or guilt in failing to meet these (Ikäheimo 2002b, 142).” In this meaning, we use the word so as to express that someone has made a mistake and admits it. In this paper, this is not the meaning discussed. This is also perhaps the most diffuse meaning in many languages.
There are two meanings of the word “recognition” that are relevant here. Firstly, we can use the word to refer to detection and identification; we simply recognise something as something. Secondly, we use the word to express “acknowledging and honouring the status of the other “, as Avishai Margalit (2001, 128) has put it (according to Ikäheimo 2002, 449). In this sense, we recognise something worth something.
These two meanings are closely interrelated; to recognise something as something is half-way towards recognising something worth something, and vice versa. These two meanings and their interconnectedness constitute the issue that has lately been discussed by philosophers, and this is also my point. This does not, however, require us to delve deeply into Hegel’s or any other remarkable philosophers’ work here, no matter how inspiring that would be. Instead, my purpose is to illustrate the processes of recognition in the everyday practices of teacher education through an autobiographical narrative and to use the philosophy of recognition as a framework for interpreting my experience.
In the latter sense, to become recognised means that you are to be respected, acknowledged and appreciated by other people. That kind of recognition is often reduced to mere polite behaviour, part of the etiquette of speeches given on special days. Another interpretation of recognition, behaviouristically speaking, is what is called “positive feedback”, which is often intentionally used for educational purposes so as to encourage the person towards better achievements. Recognition is, however, something essentially more than mere polite words or manipulation by way of a positive response. Recognition is an essential element in the formation of a person's identity. In Charles Taylor’s words, to be recognised is “a vital human need" (Taylor 1992, 26; Anderson 1996, i). Everyone needs to be perceived, to be taken into account and to be appreciated by one’s significant others.
Recognitory processes are important elements of social interaction. You do not receive recognition for free, but must struggle for it among other people. Sometimes this struggle is a productive endeavour in a friendly environment, such as one’s family, positive publicity, an encouraging workplace or learning community, etc. If recognition is not achieved through positive human interaction, some people may seek it in negative ways. Even behind the most offensive and destructive actions, you might hear a desperate voice saying "Recognise me!", "Love me!", "Respect me as a human being!" The struggle for recognition can even become literally a bloody battle. Honneth (2001) used the terrorist attack of 11th September 2001 as an extreme example of negative struggle for recognition. Thus, the struggle for recognition may take place in any of the social situations ranging between a loving family and violent battle.
If somebody appreciates your work and cares for you, it is natural to take a recognitory attitude in return. In the best case, the reciprocal giving and getting of recognition leads to a sense of solidarity, which dialectically proceeds to a higher qualitative level. We call this a “positive circle of recognition” (Huttunen & Heikkinen 2002). The other way round, a lack of reciprocal recognition may lead to an atmosphere of indifference and disregard. In the worst instance, one may take mostly this negative side of recognition into use. A negative cycle of recognition of this kind often leads to a demoralising atmosphere at the workplace, which often results in exhaustion and burnout. This is why it is very important to understand the logics that create and sustain positive and negative cycles of recognition. As teacher educators, we should be aware or the mechanisms that lead to negative or positive cycles, so as to promote a supportive atmosphere in teacher education and at schools. The ideas of negative and positive circles of recognition are illustrated in figure 1.
Figure 1. Negative and positive circles of recognition (Huttunen & Heikkinen 2002).
One of the fundamental claims in Axel Honneth’s theory is that we achieve recognition at three hierarchical levels. According to him, the needs for friendship, care and love constitute the primary level of recognition. At this basic level, you need the feeling that you are taken care of and accepted as you are, “as such”. The first level of recognition is fundamental to children's growth, but it is of importance to everyone, regardless of age. At this level, one seeks recognition of one's existence in social interaction. Recognition at this level actually means that one has a right to exist as the kind of person one is. At this level, the individual achieves self-confidence(Selbstvertrauen).
We also need to be recognised as free and autonomous citizens, which is the second level of recognition. An individual needs to be recognised as a mature person who has a mind of her own and a right to make legal contracts, in other words, to be recognised as a legally and morally mature person. At this level, the individual achieves self-respect(Selbstachtung). This level of recognition in teacher education is articulated in the diploma, which gives the graduate a right to work as a recognised teacher in a certain society. The diploma is the most official authorisation to work as a teacher, the ultimate epitome of the second level recognition as an autonomous professional. Teacher education, from that viewpoint, sometimes becomes a struggle for better marks in the diploma. Too often, this view dominates the everyday life of both the students and the teacher trainers. What would be teacher education turned into competition?
You also need to be recognised for the work that you have done, your abilities and achievements. Honneth calls this third level of recognition self-esteem (Selbstschätzung). Self-esteem means that you see your work being acknowledged and recognised. Self-esteem is built up by others respecting your accomplishments. In teacher education, this level is achieved when the mentors and colleagues recognise your successful achievements at work. It is only through self-directed and autonomous work that one can exercise one’s freedom of will and autonomy in practice.
This struggle for recognition through one’s achievements is always part of the daily work of teachers as well as any other professionals. At its best, sharing recognition reciprocally becomes a positive flow experience. Sometimes, however, it also becomes an exhausting battle, which may even lead to burnout and frustration.
At the third level of recognition, the issue is the extent to which the value community appreciates the individual’s contributions; the value community could be the school, the political state or even the European Union. One of the most effective and widely used ways to indicate the third level of recognition is to give public acknowledgements. There are also some other forms of signalling such recognition of achievements, such as pension benefits, a company car, medals, a university auditorium named after you, etc. Through the recognition that you gain from your work, you are seen as "counting for something".
This three-level model of recognition is presented in figure 2. The corresponding forms of disrespect are illustrated, too. Insult against your physical integrity constitutes the first level of disrespect. Its most extreme form is physical abuse. Violation of physical integrity may lead to some permanent psychological damage, which interferes with the development of other practical self-relations. At the second level, the issue is the denial of social integrity, which means that you are not considered a mature personality. You are not treated as a person with freedom of will, as an end of itself. You are not considered as responsible for your actions, but merely a being that causally reacts to some stimuli. At the third level, disrespect means that your work and achievements are not recognised. We may see all of these processes of recognition and disrespect at work at schools and in teacher education.
Dimension ofpersonality / needs and emotions / moral responsibility / traits and abilities
Forms of recognition / primary relationships -
love, friendship / legal relations
-
rights / community of value
-
solidarity
Practical
relation to self / basic
self-confidence / self-respect / self-esteem
Forms of
disrespect / abuse and
rape / denial of rights, exclusion / denigration,
insult
Threatened component of personality / physical
integrity / social
integrity / honour
dignity
Figure 2. Intersubjective relations of recognition (modified from Honneth 1992, 211 and 1995, 129)
Education as a struggle for recognition
To put it briefly, the teacher’s basic task is to recognise. Teaching is connected with all the three levels of recognition mentioned above. Firstly, teachers care for the pupils more or less; secondly, they recognise their students as free and autonomous persons or not; and thirdly, their professional duty is to evaluate the pupil’s work on a given dimension. These phenomena are at the core of teacher education as well: teacher educators care for the student teachers more or less, they regard them as adults or not, and they recognise their work as teachers at some level.
Let us start from the interconnectedness of recognition and teachers’ work in general. Educational work involves many different processes of recognition. Think about some of your own educators: your parents, grandparents, nannies, teachers or any other “significant others”, the people who brought you up in childhood. In the first sense of recognition, these people have remarkably contributed to your identity formation and your personal need to recognise yourself as something and somebody, such as a child of God, a link in the chain of generations, a citizen of the nation-state or something else.
In this sense of recognition, the educator is the one whose task is to help children to build up their identities in interaction with them and society, to ask, together with them, who they really are and what their place and task in this world are, and to give some more or less tentative instructions on how to seek for answers to these endless questions. The recognitory processes, from this point of view, help you to achieve your personal and collective identity. This is how you grasp the understanding of yourself and your social world. In other words, the first meaning of recognition is that you recognise yourself as somebody in the social interaction with your educators.
In the second sense of recognition, your teachers have assessed and evaluated your work and behaviour. In other words, your teachers have recognised you worth something. In this sense, the teacher is a representative of society and the nation-state, a political actor and a member of the community. The teacher is expected to represent the common values that constitute the moral code of the community.
Let us view teacher education from the perspective of recognition more closely. To be recognised as a teacher is not an easy challenge. Teacher education can be regarded as a fundamental struggle for recognition. The main aim of the young student teacher is to achieve recognition as a professional teacher. In other words, you struggle on so as to be recognised as a teacher and as a worthy teacher. There are many alternative ways to become recognised as a worthy teacher, and the struggle for being recognised as such is a long, sometimes endless journey. In the following autobiographical anecdote, I relate some memories of teacher education about twenty years ago. 2.
Life is like a running race. School is the start line.
I knew well that you had to earn good marks so as to enter university and to get a good job. You did your best. The entrance exam into the teacher education programme was essentially the same; you had to make an ultimate effort again. In the test interview, you had to charm the interviewees within fifteen minutes and to make an impression. And teacher education itself, that was the same again. You had to prove you would become a good teacher for this country.
I could have become anything else except a teacher. I could have become something my father and mother would have been more proud of. But I chose teaching for the very reason that I was so tired of achieving and competing. I looked forward to something else than the hard world, some human warmth and taking care of other people - and being cared for.
But I could not escape the world even in teacher education. It turned out to be the same again: being effective, showing up your skills, running and competing. And I almost gave up and thought: this world just happens to work like that. You have to show what you are capable of. You have to compete.
After all, is there a difference between being something and being worth something? To become a teacher is to become a worthy teacher? To become any professional is to prove oneself worth one’s job title. The need to be recognised as something and worth something is built up in our everyday life.
Thus, I had to resume my bloody battle again. The hardest battle to become recognised as a teacher was the final teaching practice at the university’s teacher training school, where one’s mark for teaching skills was to be definitively established. No wonder there was a fierce fight for the best marks. We all knew that the mark for teaching skills would open or close any doors for us in the future. Naturally, everybody tried to get a good mark, and some people used any means available to them. The competition for good marks revealed some very unexpected and unpleasant features in my classmates - and myself.
Before the final practice period, I had built up an illusion about myself being outside any competition. My guiding star was the idea that I was an adult person who would produce a professional piece of work regardless of the other people present: my mentors and classmates. I thought it was not the real me to be evaluated and ranked as a teacher, but only a kind of shell. I told myself the institution called teacher education department was not capable of distinguishing the best teachers. I thought the most relevant judges to say how good or poor teacher I was would be my future pupils and their parents. I told myself I was completely outside competition. But I was wrong. I was not outside, but running all the time, in my own way. Part of my competing was to deny the fact that I was competing.