For some years now I’ve been involved in university teaching.
Once I didn’t think teaching could appeal to me: in the absence of a real or intellectual challenge to solve, I viewed it as a rather unstimulating activity that I would end up being bored with.
In reality, also thanks to (and above all because of) my curious disposition and readiness for experimentation, I discovered that teaching must be conducted with far more sense of responsibility than one might imagine, and that it can represent an unparalleled moment of engagement, growth and satisfaction for the teacher himself.
However, it’s necessary that the teacher is willing to step back from his elevated self-perception as “intellectual” or “professor,” in order to authentically put himself at the service of both the students and the content offered.
In my case, the most important formative opportunity was offered by the very path that led me to become an educator.
More than a linear process of acquiring specialist knowledge and academic reputation, it was a varied journey in which I tested myself in different arenas—scientific, corporate, personal—both inside and outside the university world. Over time I have acquired three elements that I regard as very important in delivering to students content and an experience that are truthful, namely:
- a solid scientific and cultural background
- experience of service in the professional world
- educational sensitivity and competence, to be continuously and progressively honed in practice
One can see how in the current system it is rare for these conditions to coexist in the same persons, primarily because academic, corporate, or purely educational careers today require total dedication of those who pursue them. One element above is privileged in each case, and except for exceptions, the others are neglected; moreover, there are few institutionalized opportunities for those who undertake multi-professional paths or horizontal careers.
The consequence is a failure to evolve the role of teacher, who if confined to that of conveyor of facts and judgments (in a repetitive way, year after year) risks cooling the passion and interest of the practitioners themselves, as well as, of course, that of the students for whom learning comes to feel like duty rather than pleasure.
I see an enormous, unexplored space of opportunity in the future of teaching, all the more in an age in which it is increasingly unlikely that merely possessing a wide range of facts and knowledge suffices to successfully manage one’s professional and life journey. The complexity and chaos of today’s world require especially the capacity to reflect on experience, to appropriately manage our emotions, and to nurture and renew relationships with others.
The more we learn to do this, the more our contribution will become not only more conscious and appropriate, but also more authentic and valuable.
It is therefore important to make learning as meaningful as possible for students, because it is in meaningfulness and purpose that motivation and original personalization of content are generated. To achieve this, teachers will be increasingly called upon to work in teams, so that degree programs and specializations do not remain mere clusters of loosely connected individual courses.
The opportunity is to evolve toward dynamic contexts in which students and teachers collaborate to define and experiment with new educational formats, new paths of meaning and awareness, new real-world experiences, and ultimately new potential to improve it. Without compromising fundamentals or specialisms.
Universities that will succeed most probably will be those that do not limit themselves to valuing their specialists, but that build their own original proposition of value and meaning, both inwardly and outwardly, freeing themselves from the self-referential and self-celebratory ivory tower model.
Unlike many companies, perhaps only a few universities are putting themselves to the test in jointly drafting their own ethical codes and value charters, or in providing their collaborators with adequate training in relational and managerial skills. It is also necessary to become more aware of the costs associated with researchers and teachers remaining exclusively within a department, laboratory, a discipline or a school of thought.
Failure to engage with different experiences and points of view can lead people to develop radical positions and arrogant attitudes (even inflicting psychological damage, primarily on their students), without the opportunity to understand on one hand the importance and on the other the normality of their profession.
In my view, this opening and evolution is necessary for all professions and cultures, toward a future society in which we will hopefully be more capable of understanding and esteeming each other. A context in which we will no longer feel the need to acquire the status of “professor” in order to feel respected and loved, but will do so because it is what gratifies us the most.
I believe that today, as never before, the world needs to valorize the contribution of its intellectuals and academics, who, precisely because they are sheltered in ivory towers, may fail to understand it fully, and thus to influence it in a substantial way without being instrumentalized.
In many cases those who work in schools and universities are driven by great idealistic vocation and personal sensitivity—two qualities that sometimes lead to a snobbish rejection or flight from the current state of the world. Sometimes, however, it is perhaps necessary to engage with the “lownesses” of reality in order to elevate oneself in an authentic way, tending to one’s own wounds and reconciling on equal footing with others and with what surrounds us.
Finally, I believe that in an age of omnipresent media that disorderly present us with every kind of image and opinion, there is a strong need for order and scientific rigor—something only those prepared to do so can bring. From this perspective, I hope that the future will see the multiplication of those academics able to transpose their scientific method in a way that is simple but rigorous toward the most pressing social and organizational problems, rather than confining their contribution to scientific publications and social causes of relevance.
Understanding the way of reasoning and operating in other worlds will help us to speak and act with more awareness and more ethics, as well as to understand in which ways and forms to propose knowledge that is useful, deployable and immediately testable.