Relational Teaching – start of a journey

After over two decades of conversations, debriefs and shared insights on working with people, my wife and I agreed on one thing more than any others – when working with people, relationship is crucial in making things (im)possible. Now, we have decided to join forces and start offering our shared expertise to help educators in recognising, fleshing out and building this important aspect.

Anna’s extensive expertise as a counselling psychologist, working with some of the most challenging clients in a range of environments, and my own deep understanding of teachers’ work and challenges make for a sound mix of experience and insight.

What we offer is something unique. Two professionals simultaneously working together and bringing insights from each other’s field, all with a unique conceptual understanding of teaching work.  We write more about our work here, please (A psychologist and a teacher walk into a bar…).

On our website, you can also see the outline of our conceptual understanding of teaching – the PCRK model. We build upon Shulman’s seminal PCK model of teaching as a combination of pedagogical (P), the ‘how’, and content (C), the ‘what’, knowledge. We include relational (R), the ‘who’, knowledge in imagining teachers’ work. This is a very early development and we use it to convey in a simple, accessible way that work we do lies mostly in the relational domain.

We look forward to developing this model with researchers and educators in this area. If you or someone you know is interested in working with us on the model please do let them know of it and how they could get in touch with us.

Personally, while embryonic this is a step towards a new orientation in my professional career – working with fellow teachers. I have been doing this work in parts, formally and informally, for many years (and percolating it probably just as long). It’s time to act on it more strongly and this is just one step in this direction.

Or as an ad once said “you will never never know if you never never go”.

Comments, connections very welcome here or via social media:

Twitter: @relationalteach
Facebook: @relationalteaching
Email: info@relationalteaching.com.au
Website/blog: relationalteaching.com.au

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