Exploring Disconnectedness
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Locating myself within reflexive inquiry to analyze my experiences of disconnectedness in the practice of teaching adults incorporate
Assisting teachers to build self-resiliency, confidence, and empowerment through professional efficacy proofs to be an essential tool in preparing personal skills in achieving 21st-century global workforce. While working on different educational backgrounds here and abroad, I have witnessed an increased number of teachers leaving the teaching profession due to job dissatisfaction or desire to pursue other professions. From my tacit understanding of the teaching profession, the actual demand for teaching different groups has become significantly stressful as teachers must meet accountability mandates and instill hope in the learning process. However, the teaching profession has witnessed an increased number of students with bipolar disorder. Professional teachers must embody the required caliber of educational confidence, discipline, human integrity, and student empowerment. Teachers who are ready to serve the community must have an adequate contagious enthusiasm and overcome teaching and learning challenges to demonstrate patients, interest, courage, and confidence to the students. To be a future reliable teacher, one must understand the need to demonstrate the highest level of connectedness with students and society. Viewing personal pathology characteristics from a contemporary teaching perspective, professional teachers need to be fully informed about connectedness to the immediate students and communities they serve. Professionally, teachers need to be highly informed about the impact of attrition on students and communities. In this paper, I will look at teacher, social, and cognitive presence from the personal experience perspective I come through as a teacher in virtual learning and equally explore the application of the same with fellow teachers.
Before locating my experience and disconnectedness in my teaching practice, it is very wise to explore personal pathology in relation to teachers, cognitive and social presence in teaching practices. Teacher presence in the classroom is designed to facilitate and ensure the actual direction of social and cognitive aspects to achieve personal attributes and educational worthiness. A good indicator of teaching presence occurs when teachers communicate subject objectives and course instructions to facilitate proper learning and ensure coherent learning outcomes (Ciarocco et al., 2016). Cognitive presence revolves around actual construction and confirmation of educational meaning by ensuring reflection of learning discourse. Many cognitive presence indicators attract events such as examining the subject, exploring the construction of meaning, and offering a suitable resolution for learners to apply knowledge outside classrooms. Equally, social presence involves actual participation in the congruent subject and others’ human sense as real people. Therefore, if I imagine the disappearance of cognitive, social, and teacher presence, I equally think of premature disconnectedness in my teaching practice of teaching adults to incorporate.
To provide enough clarity throughout this reflexive inquiry, the following key terms: reflexive inquiry, informed praxis, and career learning, are critical in understanding self-informed praxis. Butler (2019) defines reflexive inquiry as a gradual learning process rooted in individual self-awareness, situational understanding, personal perception, and a social location to the central problem. Arguably, it is the process in which professionals, either individual or collective, often question their level of “self” or “other” understanding and proximal ways that push individuals towards specific actions leading to the enactment of hybridized self-believe. From a coaching perspective, reflexive inquiry helps individuals think of their situation more analytically, view things in new directions, and develop self-perspectives towards a specific action. Ciarocco et al. (2016) defined self informs praxis as the process of doing the action—that involves practical reasoning about what is right, wise, and proper to do in a given situation. Self informs praxis combines technical understanding in life experience and actions that serve the better professional world. However, career learning is rooted in professional construction theory and work-based theory.
Because of defined characteristics of personal pathology, the level of teachers’ discipline, respect, and professional ethics models the student’s understanding based on the training’s background and the ultimate goal to be achieved. Investing in the teacher’s training approach, especially in a rooted cultural environment, has long-term individual sustainability implications in pursuing self-understanding and individual actions in mixed-race backgrounds (Moore, 2012). My training participation in consulting firm attracts the spirit of personal pathology characterized by maladaptive behavior, detachment, antagonism, and human disinhibition. Despite having qualified and skilled trainers, their little understanding of African culture and race interconnection brings the perception that Africans are granted as less fortunate in white societies. From the situational analysis, white trainees have a high level of distrust in the back community, especially in race workplaces. From my personal experience in this training program, the Affirmative Actions policies and economic empowerment of black people grasped massive distrust from white professionals who often view it as reverse discrimination.
Locating my disconnectedness, especially from the Muslim lady from Nigeria, Africans’ pride and respect for their culture has been brainwashed by the white counterparts. In this situation, the shyness and the soft nature of her speech mirror the role of white supremacy in damaging the African self-believe. From a practical aspect and extraordinarily the naïve to frequently engage other black ladies in the group pose trainer lack of self-awareness and understanding of other groups’ interest in the racial setting. From my personal view, I understood the role of social location and its effects on achieving the mixed-race objective. However, the physical disconnectedness, especially the inability to achieve a direct approach with my trainer, made me appear isolated in personal engagement and desire for in-person communication (Palmer, 2010). The trainer should have demonstrated more resiliency and professional confidence in accommodating all people of different assent, racial background, and professional levels from praxis understanding.
In any situation that requires a high level of human understanding in terms of self-awareness and human perception of others, it is often wise to combine intellectual, spiritual, and emotional aspects to achieve a common goal. The facilitator’s ability to focus on the intellectual aspect of learning appeared the greatest domain of my disconnectedness experience (Palmer, 2010). From my understanding, any trainer must assume the role of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects, especially in racial backgrounds. However, the training program’s situation and nature could have warranted the trainer to understand the actual discomfort experienced by her trainees and take appropriate actions in restoring the learner’s faith and confidence. From self informs praxis understanding, the trainer should have changed her experience on the understanding racial background of trainees and adapt teaching strategies appropriate to all trainees and not regarded email treads, which kept creating barriers (Palmer, 2010). Spiritually, the trainer could have understood the importance of inclusion given 20% of the blacks and 80% of other groups in the training programs.
The teachers’ cognitive and social presence in training should not reflect personal pathology, especially in situations composed of different races. Palmer (1998) argues that good teaching seeks to explore the identity and integrity of teachers. My disconnectedness based on the trainer’s cultural connection calls for professional considerations in selection panels and understanding the effects of personal pathology on the transfer of the knowledge. Self-awareness on understanding self-identity could have acted as the trainer’s turning point on overcoming connection barriers and successfully achieving transfer of learning and knowledge.
The impact of teacher professionalism and self-identify is highly costly both educationally and economically. A robust teaching experience is directly connected to the learner’s retention of the content and possible healthy interactions to achieve a common goal (Palmer, 2010). In my opinion, the decision to approach the other trainer and share my experience with a lady trainer from Nigeria was based on teaching disconnectedness and lack of self-awareness based on racial groups in the consulting firm training. From my personal view, the administration should have given her notice and quickly replace her with another trainer who understands the importance of racial relations. She described her personal experiences with feelings, especially when articulating email threads instead of an in-person approach in solving the problems arising in training.
As I studied the trend with Indian teachers and professionalism, it became clear that perhaps, some individuals should not be given opportunities to serve the public, especially in a racial setting. Suppose a person is given the opportunity in high controlled teaching experiments. In that case, one must demonstrate a high level of resiliency and commitment, rather than focusing on racial groups, which could split people into distinct groups based on racial background. To get the core of the teacher’s perspective on gender and the role of professional ethics, I wanted to understand what was on male teacher’s hearts and minds when engaging white males more than other groups in the training programs. Providing a self-guided reflection on second trainer disconnection, I could provide insights to help the teacher make gradual changes towards further personal and professional commitments.
I wanted to conduct exploratory research with a sequential instrument to examine what perception trainers might discover concerning racial background attractiveness. My approach to explaining my situation was to rediscover what would come up from the Indian Male trainer in his first-hand account of Nigerian trainer based on confidence, efficacy, and resiliency. Just professionally as required, the Indian SAP expert explained his thoughts but based on my level of professionalism, and I did expect to experience disconnectedness. Based on the definition of self informs praxis, any professional should rediscover his/her experience and take appropriate actions to correct the state of disconnectedness (Palmer, 2003). In embracing disconnectedness, the Indian trainer freed himself from personal pathology that was forming the basis for his failures. However, the trainer could quickly discover disconnectedness with his trainees and make necessary changes to overcome the annoying condition. In the process, the trainer could manifest connectedness using his experience to offer an intellectual perspective in achieving positive results (Palmer, 1997). Unlike the first trainer from Nigeria, India’s second trainer could achieve greater efficacy and set more grounded work by targeting the actual learners under his control. In my understanding, to figure out if the second trainer changed the situation and environment to accommodate his trainees, he used critical self-reflection to improve the level of connection and effectively relate his experience with the profession.
Our radically changing world is characterized by advancements in information and communication for wise to synthesis reality. Conversely, communication is the core aspect of training, which must be achieved by trainees experiencing disconnectedness (Palmer, 1997). However, based on the trainee or student’s profile, the administration should have struggled to hire professional trainers who understand the need to embrace the culture and engage all the participants based on social-cultural backgrounds. In additional frameworks in relation to professionalism, the specific cultural endorsement should put every trainer on the path to achieve training objectives based on the trainees’ cultural background (Palmer, 1997). The enlightened degree of disconnectedness should be accompanied by a training action plan that helps restore the trainee’s confidence.
The trainee’s age does not appear to be a significant factor in the evident level of disconnectedness in most of the training programs. However, it is not the young generation or cultural setting that contributes to a high level of disconnectedness experienced in racial setting institutions (Moore, 2012). From life experience, the trainer should be the driving force and often pay attention to trainees’ cultural backgrounds regardless of race or age factor. Every trainer must critically understand the level of disconnectedness concerning personal pathology to ensure continuity of any training program (Moore, 2012). My understanding of loyalty versus professionalism should guide my professionalism in overcoming training barriers that are primarily accelerated by cultural heritages. My experience with the first trainer, especially the level of disconnectedness and failure to understand the effect of personal pathology in training programs, reminds me of the need to articulate the level of trainees and the cultural setting’s effect in achieving common training grounds.
Training is the deliberate activity of assisting trainees in developing understanding and skills. In most cases, training occurs in multiple ways, and a wide range of mechanisms is typically employed to achieve a common training goal. The training programs must incorporate teacher, student, and content interaction to establish enabling environment that supports learning activities (Cunha, 2006). However, I mean the most active process of content interpretation and trainer-trainee interaction in achieving learning objectives by interaction. In my situation in which trainers could not understand the nature of training background in terms of race relations, recognizing black professionalism in terms of experience and skills should come as contemporary issues that need to be addressed based on the target audience (Cunha, 2006). The case of the Nigerian trainer proved antagonism in my training experience. The level of softness, shyness, and adaptation of the West African accent impacted the transfer of knowledge as there was limited in-person interactions. A good trainer must demonstrate a high level of learner engagement and interactions through virtual communication and active or direct communication.
Holding my objective on my experience and value, the professional trainer must not fall on the trainees’ distrust approach and often seek the training strategy to rediscover their way to the active learning process. Timid and shyness should not form the basis of disconnectedness, especially for highly skilled and qualified trainers (Butler, 2019). Every trainer must identify his/her identity and integrity in balancing teacher’s victuals and values that define professionalism. Based on the class’s nature—that is, the best trainer must focus on achieving the training objective in terms of the race composition.
In sum, Self-awareness on understanding self-identity could have acted as the trainer’s turning point on overcoming connection barriers and successfully achieving transfer of learning and knowledge. Suppose a person is given the opportunity in high controlled teaching experiments. In that case, one must demonstrate a high level of resiliency and commitment, rather than focusing on racial groups, splitting people into distinct groups based on racial background. The specific cultural endorsement should put every trainer on the path to achieve training objectives based on the trainees’ cultural background. Every trainer must critically understand the level of disconnectedness concerning personal pathology to ensure continuity of any training program. Every trainer could quickly discover disconnectedness with his trainees and make necessary changes to overcome the annoying condition. In the process, the trainer could manifest connectedness using his experience to offer an intellectual perspective in achieving positive results. A good trainer must demonstrate a high level of learner engagement and interactions through virtual communication and active or direct communication.
References
Butler, T. J. (2019). “Remember who you are” – The journey home: A perspective on integrity through the writings of Parker J. Palmer. Transforming the Heart of Practice, 207-213. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15250-5_24
Ciarocco, N. J., Dinella, L. M., Hatchard, C. J., & Valosin, J. (2016). Integrating Professional Development across the Curriculum: An Effectiveness Study. The teaching of Psychology, 43(2), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628316636217
Cunha, E. (2006). Pathology as a factor of personal identity in forensic anthropology. Forensic Anthropology and Medicine, 333-358. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-099-7_14
Moore, A. (2012). Teaching and Learning: Pedagogy, curriculum, and culture. Routledge.
Palmer, P. J. (1997). The heart of a teacher’s identity and integrity in teaching. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 29(6), 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091389709602343
Palmer, P. J. (2003). Teaching with heart and soul. Journal of Teacher Education, 54(5), 376-385. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487103257359.
Palmer, P.J. (2010) Good Talk about Teaching. Improving Teaching through Conversation and Community. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.1993.9938466