Reply To: General Discussion

I’m Ramon Torrent

Hi all,

You have provided plenty of food for thought. I do not want to add to it, or try to digest and metabolize all the food you have provided. But it can be useful if I provide two ideas, seemingly contradictory at first, that can help framing your reflection.

ON THE CRITICISM OF CURRENT APPROACHES, NOT ONLY IN TEACHING PRACTICES BUT ALSO ON THE APPROACH TO THEIR DISCUSSION (THE APPROACH IN MAINSTREAM ACADEMIC AMD CONSULTANCY LITERATURE), I THINK WE MUST BE VERY RADICAL. We must abandon the idea of a necessary correspondence (what I call in one of the HAQAA Policy Briefs that I’ve authored “the biunivocal relationship”) between teaching and learning (in whatever order). You say, Basiru, “Therefore it is apparent that each process – i.e. teaching and learning- is a sine qua non to the other”. Respectfully, I disagree: Learning is something you/we must have certainly done (and continue to do) all your life in order to be a good teacher. But learners do not learn only as a result of a teaching activity; they (we !!!) learn and have learned (much more !!!) by many other ways, and mainly by our individual effort: we have learned, first of all, because we wanted to learn. The only absolutely sine qua non condition for learning is wanting to learn.

BUT, FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HE REFORM, WE MUST BE VERY WISE AND NEVER INTEND TO FIRE A “SILVER BULLET” THAT WILL SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS AT ONCE. The HE system as it stands has not fallen out of the blue. It serves powerful interests and there are powerful entrenched interests that will fight reform. Therefore, as in many other policy areas, we must
– value each step, however small, in the right reformist direction;
– we must build a strategy that brings together and gives sense and good direction to these small steps: and
– we must build majorities as large as possible to overcome resistance to change.

I WOULD SAY THAT WE MUST BE VERY RADICAL IN THE IDEOLOGICAL BATTLE WHILE BEING VERY WISE AND PATIENT IN THE REFORM PROCESS … BUT MOVING ALWAYS STEADILY FORWARD.