Tension in Teaching

When I think of the word ‘tension’, I immediately think of stress and doubt. I recall moments in the classroom, like awkward silences, not being able to answer questions, and fumbling through my words. So generally, the connotation of the word is of a negative nature.

In Ted Aoki’s book, Curriculum in a New Key: The Collected Works of Ted T. Aoki (2004) there is a chapter titled “Teaching as Indwelling Between Two Curriculum Worlds” (p. 159). Aoki speaks about the tension between curriculum-as-plan and curriculum-as-lived-experience. The former describes curriculum as dictated by someone else, given to educators to teach to a specific group of students. For example, the BC curriculum provides teachers with the core and curricular competencies for each grade and subject. And the latter describes what happens to curriculum when teachers and students begin to engage with it in the classroom. Once this content is brought to the class, the personalities of the teacher and student begin to alter it – folding the content experience with the nuances of people and their daily lives.

Aoki does not argue that one is better than the other, but that the two live in a state of tension. Those who plan the curriculum cannot recognize each individual teacher who implements it, or the individual students who learn it. Still, it provides guidance for our planning, and it becomes our responsibility to fit the plans to the needs of our students. Throughout the article, Aoki speaks about a ‘Miss O’ and this excerpt describes her understanding of tension:

“Miss O understands that this tensionality in her pedagogical situation is a mode of being a teacher, a mode that could be oppressive and depressive, marked by despair and hopelessness, and at other times, challenging and stimulating, evoking hopefulness for venturing forth.” (p. 162)

This view has helped me to begin reframing how I see tension. I’ve always strived to avoid and prevent tension, or ease it once it occurs. In reality, there is inherent tension in the field that we’re in, as we balance curricular demands with the needs of our students and our own ways of teaching. I think becoming comfortable with tension is a powerful skill and that this understanding of tension is transferable. It does not only apply to the negotiation of curriculum but to the small, awkward, moments of the classroom environment. Being mindful of tense moments and understanding that those moments are teaching you something, can perhaps make them more bearable – or even welcomed.