Teaching leadership

Abstract

Looking back at my education, at what I like to cherish from those years, what then comes to mind is the way some teachers were as a person, more than what they taught. I hardly remember the content of their lessons, but I do recall them telling stories, being compassionate or reflective. Of course I can also recall the boring lessons, the many days that passed in routine, the many teachers hardly present to their classes.
In retrospect, one can observe that the long and boring lessons probably shaped my competencies more than the few inspiring moments. We get used to people functioning on a lower level than they might. We get used to not addressing each other in our highest aspirations and competencies. Long ago, we accepted to live with moderate solutions and compromise. As Hämäläinen & Saarinen recently observed, most human interactions are subdued, by the system of holding back, by a behaviour of re-straint more than by a behaviour of inspiration and aspiration [Hämäläinen & Saarinen 2004].
This paper explores education and teaching as a means to catalyse competencies of students and pro-fessionals. Society puts many challenges to professionals. This paper describes some of these chal-lenges, on the level of society, human interaction and self-image. Students need to develop profes-sional competencies in all three realms. Most courses still have a focus on discipline based knowledge and skills, and a staff that has its major competence in specialist knowledge. But the new requirements for higher education as developed in the EU do also elaborate these three competencies. The paper ends with some reflections on the role of teachers as an element in the systems of learning.