Chalk Dust and Algorithm: Being a Teacher in the Age of Google and AI

Who is a teacher and what makes a teacher?

What does it mean to be a teacher today?

A teacher becomes and is made by the dynamic confluence of cultural, technological and philosophical shifts. Defying singularity and uniformity, the role of the teacher has taken many forms: the guide, the mentor, the co-learner, the storyteller, the disciplinarian, and the community elder, across cultures and history. The present inflection point of AI has raised this discussion to another level.

Makeup of a contemporary teacher

A collective dominant image of a teacher is that of a sage on a platform with chalk in hand, standing in front of a students seated in rows. The goal is to instil knowledge from a set uniform curriculum. This image is rooted in industrial age: standardised, efficient, and orderly. It aims to prepare learners for exams and also for the factory floors and bureaucratic offices of the time. It trains them to endure the monotony of routine work and the boredom following it. This model persisted for most of the 20th century even as the societies changed gradually.

The cultural baggage of this image is huge and as the cracks emerge, there is a struggle to grapple with emerging reality and discover newer roles of a teacher.

The advent of the internet created initial challenges when it came to the role of the teacher as a gatekeeper of knowledge with monopoly over information. A subtle democratisation of knowledge set in. Many alternatives to the teacher emerged: online encyclopaedias, video tutorials, online forums, and eventually Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The teacher became one among many sources of knowledge. The power dynamics changed. This has led to a crisis of identity. This crisis has occurred as the industrial model has not loosened its hold.

There is no linearity in the process of grasping the changing contours of role of a teacher. While there has not been a full recovery from this identity crisis, currently, the teacher is already pushed and stands at another cusp of transformation: the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

Often, the discussion on the role of a teacher is grounded in fear: will AI replace the teacher?

Instead of a fear-driven discussion, a holistic exploration for the re-imagination of teacher is in order.

Teacher, the edu-tainer

The democratisation of information and breaking of hierarchy between the teacher and learner is accompanied by another worrying shift in the perceived role of a teacher. What holds the attention of learners in a classroom? What sustains their engagement and interest? The idea of entertainment enters the field of education with Peter Catalanotto, an American illustrator, coining the term 'edutainment' in the 1990s. Collins dictionary defines edutainment as the presentation of informative or educational material in an entertaining style.

The teacher is now expected to be an entertainer.

The industrial model persists in the structure of classrooms with the teacher on the stage while the profusion and easy access to information eases the burden on learners. They are aware that there are many other sources which will give the same information. The engagement then is sustained through gamification of the learning process. Though traditional games have been part of classroom teaching and learning processes, gamification is directly supported by technology, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

The element of fun gets introduced through the element of entertainment and the teacher, along with their many other roles, is to entertain the learners in the classroom to keep them engaged, motivated and interested.

Beyond the traditional industrial model

Despite the presence of the industrial model of teaching and its consequent influence in the making of a teacher, there also were attempts to free a teacher from it. Two significant thoughts on teachers merit attention: one by Paulo Friere and the other by Ivan Illich.

Paulo Friere, an influential Brazilian philosopher of education aimed to eradicate illiteracy in colonised countries. He worked to help people with his philosophy and critical pedagogy. His book Pedagogy of Oppressed (1970) critiques the ‘banking model’ of education in which students are perceived as empty vessels and passive recipients of knowledge. He recommended a dialogical approach, emphasized on mutual learning and critical consciousness. Freire believed that education should be a practice of freedom, enabling students to question and transform their realities.

Indeed, the availability of information beyond the institution of schools has been a challenge for teachers. Presenting his views in Deschooling Society (1971), Ivan Illich, an Austrian philosopher, observed that over-reliance on formal schooling hampers the innate human capacity to learn. Criticising mass schooling, Illich suggested the idea of ‘learning webs’ or informal networks where individuals make and learn in groups based on shared interest and formed by voluntary relationships. The idea is based on peer-to-peer learning.

These positions are not anti-teacher. These are simply calls to reclaim teaching as a human and ethical act. These are learning acts aimed to make learners inquire, ask questions and let learning be driven by learners.

Closer home, exploring the role of teachers in the ancient Hindu education system in India indicates different types of teachers. An upadhyay provides information, adhyapak imparts knowledge, acharya teaches skills, pandit offers insight, drishta offers foresight, and guru bestows wisdom. A comprehensive approach to education is thus designed in this hierarchical structure, blending information dissemination with character building and spiritual guidance.

Reclaiming the teacher

What are teachers navigating today? They are navigating the influence of AI and Google on students and classroom processes: students' immersion in the virtual world, anxiety, attention deficit, information overload, and growing emotional need. Amidst the interconnectedness and profusion of information, teachers are expected to spot the silent struggles, ask the unasked questions, and create safe spaces to fail. They are therapists, content creators, and tech troubleshooters…and they still need to finish the syllabus.

Drawing on the varieties of roles of teacher from history and from across cultures, three roles of a teacher emerge at present:

• curator: to help students to make sense of overwhelming information by providing direction, context, and care;
• connector: to help students to link knowledge with lived experience, values, and inter-disciplinary insights; and
• cultivator: to nurture confidence, curiosity, and empathy.

These are skills no machine can authentically replicate.

Dr. Vandana Talegaonkar is associate professor, School of Liberties and Education, Navrachana University, Vadodara (Gujarat). Talegaonkar is contributing editor, Development News Network (DNN), Gujarat.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.