An education expert from Charles Sturt University (CSU) will reach for examples from the past and present to help explain some of the challenges for modern Australian education, particularly the concept of ‘praxis’, or morally committed action, in school education in a public lecture in Albury, NSW.Professor of Education, Stephen Kemmis, from CSU’s Faculty of Education will explore these concepts in the 2012 Bob Meyenn Annual Lecture at CSU in Albury-Wodonga on Tuesday 24 April.
Professor Kemmis said education has two purposes, “To promote the good for each person and the good for humankind. It aims to help people to live well in a world worth living in.
“Although we ordinarily think of schooling as giving people an education, schools can be non-educational or even anti-educational.
“The elaborate machinery of schooling – increasingly specified state and national curricula, teaching methods and standards, examinations and assessments – sometimes threatens to overwhelm the educational work of schools and teachers.”
But Professor Kemmis believes teachers strive to find the ‘sweetness’ of educational encounters as they work to meet the increasingly elaborate demands of schooling. “They know the ‘sweetness’ of those moments as the tennis player knows when she has found the ‘sweet spot’ in the tennis racquet,” he said.
This public lecture will explore ancient and contemporary understandings of the concept of ‘praxis’ that help to explain what that educational ‘sweet spot’ is; ideas of praxis as morally committed action, or as ‘history-making action’.
"I will aim to tell a story about the struggle for praxis in education, from Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) to Professor Bob Meyenn himself."
This year’s Bob Meyenn Lecture, titled ‘Contemporary schooling and the struggle for education’, will be presented at 7pm at CSU in Albury-Wodonga. Light savoury refreshments will be served at 6pm in the nearby Gums Café, with sweets and coffee following the lecture. Participants are encouraged to discuss the issues raised in the lecture.
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