A multifaceted personality

Sundaram S

I started working in schools after a career spanning 17 years as an engineer and manager. It took me a lot of time to get over the impulses born out of my background of quantification and control.

One of my earliest initiatives as a principal was to work on a framework for teacher assessment. As my understanding of issues involved in school education deepened, this framework went through several modifications. I slowly realized that an ideal teacher needed to play more than 25 different roles, all important to varying degrees. Each of these roles also needed a lot of ground-level observations to be meaningful and fair.

The advice I received from my managements and fellow principals was that 25 parameters were too many, too time consuming and should ideally be reduced to 10. But 10 parameters, though administratively convenient, are too few to do justice to the work of a teacher.

Most principals instinctively realize the almost impossible task of a fair and just evaluation of a teacher’s work. Hence either it is not done formally at all or done in a totally non-transparent manner. It is used more for punitive reasons than for teacher development.

But with the increasing commercialization of school education many newspapers and magazines are getting into the lucrative business of ranking schools. It is a pity that all these rankings are done purely on unauthenticated data and perceptions without a single visit to a school or class observation. Most parents seem to like the idea. Unfortunately, many principals have also started playing this “game” since it gives them “publicity” and managements like it. Obviously for the organization doing these “surveys” it is good money.

Hence I thought I should share the multiple roles that a teacher has to play on a day-to-day basis so that parents and managements can appreciate the true worth of a teacher.

Subject expert: Understand the concepts, skills and information content in the subject. Understand the continuity in the above from the lower classes to the higher classes. Understand the relationship of the subject with other subjects and with life outside school.

Pedagogy expert: Concepts, skills and information need different kinds of pedagogy. Concepts have to be understood, skills have to be practiced and information has to be remembered. Each subject has a different mix of the above and the mix can change according to class level.

Expositor/communicator: In every class, the teacher has to transform into an actor, stand-up comedian, magician and take on many such roles to sustain the interest of the students in the topic for the day. She needs enormous energy reserves for talking and being on her feet for more than six hours on a typical day.

Curriculum/education expert: Along with any subject content there are many values and life-skills that also need to be imbibed. She also has to have a broad idea of the purpose of education and the role of schools, parents and society. She has to understand the relevance of her subject from the perspective of education.

Child psychologist/special educator: Ultimately she teaches children. Even students in high school are emotionally not mature enough to think like adults. The reason some children learn and others don’t is hidden in a haze of socio-cultural and economic reasons. She also has to be a special educator with an understanding of students with learning disabilities arising from physical, mental or emotional reasons.

Friend/caregiver/nurse/parent: At its core, the education of a child is the result of an intense interpersonal relationship. It would never succeed without an environment of love, friendship and care in the classroom. At various times she has to play the role of a parent, nurse, friend and caregiver to a wide range of students.

Syllabus expert/question paper setter: The school or the examination board has strict guidelines in terms of the minimum knowledge and skills to be taught and assessed. She has to ensure adherence to these while teaching and framing question papers.

Evaluator/assessor: True assessment of a student incorporates almost every activity he/she is involved in and how he/she interacts and reacts. The teacher is expected to informally observe more than 40 students in the classroom, playground and during breaks. This is in addition to the formal assessments done by her in the classroom.

Trainer/referee/judge/arbitrator/cheerleader: A classroom is home to a lot of interpersonal issues and differences of opinions which could create conflicts that could hinder learning. The teacher has to be an expert arbitrator to allow differences to be aired but ensure at the same time that the classroom environment promotes learning. This role extends beyond the classroom where the teacher is expected to know the rules and other details related to various activities.

Action researcher: The classroom gives rise to many ‘aha’ moments of understanding the working of children’s minds. An observant teacher will internalize this understanding and improve her competence.

IT expert: Today more and more classrooms are getting loaded with technology and teachers have to use technology to do many of their teaching and administrative works. With the kind of infrastructure we have in schools currently, handling technology takes a lot of patience and ‘jugaad’ expertise.

Planner/event manager/cashier/accountant/administrator: Apart from teaching, she has to manage school events which happen throughout the year. A teacher needs skills like planning, documenting and follow up to do these effectively. Managing crowds is an essential skill.

Documenter/record keeper/report writer: Apart from teaching, she needs to collect and make sense of a lot of data and write reports on the progress of students. Writing reports to capture the strengths and weaknesses of large numbers of students is no easy task.

Professional colleague/interpersonal expert/team player: The staff room can be an uncomfortable area for many teachers. In the name of friendship and team play there may be many requests to cross professional boundaries. A teacher needs a lot of tact to negotiate her way without compromising professional ethics.

Family counsellor: The family plays an important role in the education of its children. The socio-economic-emotional environment in the family affects children’s ability to learn. Mostly families are not aware of their own vital role in the education of their children. The teacher has to educate and guide families on these issues.

Public relations officer: A teacher frequently meets parents and colleagues from others schools and members of the society who raise a lot of queries about the school and the quality of education. She has to be extremely tactful in answering them keeping in mind that in such situations she ‘represents’ the school. She also needs to communicate perceptions about the school to the school authorities with the hope of corrective actions being taken.

Confidante: The school in India is a flat organization with very few levels of hierarchy. Hence for “keeping in touch” many principals rely on some teachers to be their confidantes (which at times may border on unprofessional behaviour) Here again a teacher requires a lot of tact to negotiate her way without compromising professional ethics.

Reader/education professional/continuous self-learner: Today’s world is changing so fast that the objectives and content of school education and the expectations of parents and students are also changing rapidly. She has to keep track of these changes, make sense and internalize them. This is best done by reading widely and by interacting with professional colleagues online or offline.

Finally in spite of all her efforts, she will find that the expectations of the management, parents and students are beyond what she can deliver. In such a situation teachers need to develop a philosophy akin to that of the Bhagavad Gita of doing what she can to the best of her ability and not worry too much about the various comments. She has to become a realized soul.

A Teacher takes a Hand, opens a Mind and touches a Heart.–Anonymous

Sundaram started his school career, lasting 24 years, with the Rishi Valley School. He has worked as a Principal, Teacher Trainer and Educational Consultant in several schools in India. His areas of interest are primary mathematics, school leadership, and quality in education. He conducts workshops for teachers of primary and middle School on the theme of “Understanding Primary Math for Effective Teaching”. He can be reached at sundaram48@yahoo.com.