The meaning of pedagogy

Yes, the Ancient Greeks used tablets!

Following on from my recent posts on praxis and the meaning of education, here are a few thoughts on pedagogy. If you ask someone what a pedagogue is, they are likely to reply 'a teacher'. One fairly limited definition of the word pedagogue is: a school teacher. Another less kind definition suggests that pedagogues are people who instruct in a dogmatic or pedantic manner. We seem to have many views on the nature of pedagogy and how it is conducted. Unfortunately, these often lead to confusion. To gain a clear understanding of pedagogy, we first need to examine the origin - the etymology - of the word.

The word pedagogy has its roots in Ancient Greece. Rich families in Ancient Greece would have many servants (often slaves), one of whom would be specifically tasked to look after the children. Often these slaves would lead or escort the children to the place of education. The Greek word for child (usually a boy) is pais (the stem of this is 'paid'), and leader is agogus - so a paid-agogus or pedagogue was literally a leader of children. Later, the word pedagogue became synonymous with the teaching of our young. Taken in this context, we would probably all agree that pedagogy is about children's education. And yet this confines us to a very limited understanding of what pedagogy is, or has the potential to become.

If we take the principle of 'leading or guiding someone to education' (which in my last post I identified as deriving from the Latin word educere - 'to draw out from within), then we open up a whole new world of possibilities for learning. It's a well known aphorism - teachers teach, but educators reach - and also a principle that is at the very heart of true pedagogy. True pedagogy is far more than someone instructing. Pedagogy is leading people to a place where they can learn for themselves. It is about creating environments and situations where people can draw out from within themselves, and hone the abilities they already have, to create their own knowledge, interpret the world in their own unique ways, and ultimately realise their full potential as human beings. It's certainly not about absolutes, but is more likely to be about uncertainties. Good pedagogy is about guiding students to learning. It's about posing challenges, asking the right questions, and presenting relevant problems for learners to explore, answer and solve. True pedagogy is where educators transport their students to a place where they will be amazed by the wonders of the world they live within.

As one ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once said: 'Wisdom begins in wonder.'

Photo from Wikimedia Commons


The meaning of pedagogy by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.