A guy who does what I do (faculty development) wrote this on a listserve I read today:
Our indigenous people in NZ (the Maori) have a particular word 'ako' that incorporates the concept of teaching and learning as one idea.
It is regarded as poor treatment of the student to ask a question that the 'elder' knows the answer to.
The T&L process is deeply embedded in dialogue, story telling and narrative.
The written word is not as highly regarded.
There is further a set of attitudes and values around the concept of authority, age and leadership that I don't feel qualified to comment on...There are huge issues in NZ with some international students who see teaching and learning as a "teacher tells, student listens and learns, student regurgitates content".
This reminded me of our talks about Socrates. So many of you mentioned that you didn't like him because of his asking leading questions, of having hidden, pre-decided answers. The Maori would not think of this as Ako.
Do you think our culture is more like the culture of the Maoris or more like the "foreigners"? What would you think of a teacher asking you a question that the teacher did not know the answer to?
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