Education in 2022: the year of the soul

This is the time of year when my mind roams over the past year and, like a very amateur futurist, I try to discern what is important for 2022 both for me and those around me as well as for education. I wait expectantly for signs in the novels I am reading or the movies I am watching over the holiday period for the phrase that is written in normal text but I see it highlighted - or the unexpected conversation with a stranger that remains with me long after the conversation is over. I note the repeated messages and look for what resonates. This is personal reflection, but it is more. I look for the patterns and the weak signals that might point to something worth taking account of for the future. This is not so much a time of searching for particular answers but rather openness to what the world has to say to me.

I know this may all sound a little weird (hippyish) to some, but I don’t think it is. I have always known that the world can teach us (see Future of Education article by colleague Urs Cunningham). I experienced it many times as I wrote my doctoral thesis. I would become stuck having come to the end of my own analytical capabilities, thinking and imagination. And I would simply open myself to the world and, in its own time, not my own, it would speak to me and my thinking would be able to move forward. From the introduction to my thesis:

I remember times when I felt blocked in my writing and analysis of the research data and I turned back to literature to set my mind free, as it were, and each time, it seemed that I just happened to read the exact right book, with perhaps only one phrase that jumped off the page and added to my understanding and I was released from my inertia and off running again.

I am incredibly grateful that the world speaks to me, because it holds such a fund of wisdom and knows infinitely more than I do. I shudder to think what life and educational leadership would be like if I had only my own wisdom to rely on.

So what do I think is important for 2022?

I came across a poem on Facebook titled “How brave you are” (by Leyla Aylin) which really spoke to me. Here is the beginning of it:

How brave you are for slowing down. For not finishing that to do list.

How courageous you are for not crossing that finish line, because your body said “enough”.

How fearless you are for choosing the quiet of your soul over those voices driving you always towards more.

How bold, how rebellious –

you, out there,

honouring your own natural rhythm,

going against the culture’s breakneck speed.

The poem goes on to talk about how in today’s culture we tend to make heroes of those who are hungry with ambition and “relentlessly doing, producing always more”. I know that it is a treadmill that is hard to get off (see my Blog Post). The poet encourages us not to strive for “more than what the soul truly needs” and not to force or push but “to surrender to each moment as it opens”, “nurturing something deep and subtle and needed”. She encourages us to be brave enough to “cease all doing, even for a second, and sit with the ache in our hearts”. The paradox is that when we cease our incessant doing, “we discover what it is we absolutely must do, and what instead can fall away.” And finally we “hear the call towards what serves our soul, and what then will serve the world. Nothing more, nothing less”.

Biesta (2017) describes this as existing in and with the world in a grown-up way, that is as subject. Being “subject” is a very difficult concept to describe but includes being able to live in the world without having to occupy the centre of it. It is about each individual’s contribution - where, “I encounter freedom as the very thing that only I can do … and no-one can do in my place”. This resonates with “hearing the call towards our soul. Nothing more, nothing less”. Biesta argued that opening up the space “where the student might appear as subject”, is the work of teachers and teaching and “when teaching has an interest in and orientation towards the subject-ness of another human being, it operates in an altogether different way” (see my Article).

I think 2022 is the year of the soul.

In a world that is unkind, marked by divisiveness and rampant inequality, inequity and violence, including in education, we need a new way forward. David De Cremer in a book about Artificial Intelligence suggested that what will keep us safe in the future from the risks that have been well articulated in relation to AI, is to acknowledge that though humans have a body and mind, there is also a soul.  He said, “AI will never have “a soul” and it cannot replace human leadership that lets people be creative and have different perspectives”. He suggested that we can use machines for good, “if we are clear about what our human identity is and the value we want to create for a humane society”.

2022 needs us to stop talking and decide once and for all what is important to us as human beings and then going for that. We have been playing around with these ideas in education for years. It is now time to decide, announce it and do it. I am sure I will write more about this in the future.

As for me - my prayer for 2022 is that I will answer the final exhortation of the poet:

 A hero is simply someone brave.

So come, be softly brave.

Be a new, quieter kind of hero.

Few may applaud, it’s true, but your soul certainly will. 

In 2022: 

I will try to be more present, allowing every moment to open and unfold, enjoying husband, grandchildren, children, friends and colleagues. Not wishing time away because life is always somewhere on the horizon.

I will try not to be driven by a need to continually prove myself by being productive. I will focus instead on bringing the contribution that only I can bring and no-one can bring in my stead. I will leave the rest to others.

I will try to live in a “grown up way” where I am content with not being at the centre of the world, thus freeing me up to truly encourage others to find their unique contribution and be brave enough to bring that to the world.

I will try to write regularly because writing brings me such joy and helps me to make sense of a complex world. Hopefully it will help others too.

I will bury my hands in the soil more (I read the other day that there are antidepressant microbes in soil), forage for food, enjoy eating as much home grown produce as possible and be creative in cooking – things I love.

I will keep counting carbohydrates and living reasonably sugar free.

I will keep fit by biking and walking and try (hmmm) to maintain it over the cold winter months; and to take time to enjoy the beauty of nature as I do so.

I will try to live an undivided life which recognises that body, soul and mind are inextricably intertwined and interdependent and I will keep promoting a view of education that is holistic and transformative.

Here’s to 2022 and a transformed world as we embrace all of what it means to be human including our souls.