The Questioning Conscience

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace, and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect.

     The truth is that I was taking the time to reflect upon my previous thoughts, particularly with regards to the student experience of higher / post-secondary education. Whilst the development of skills is equally as important as research, I wanted to focus on my own experience, or what I have value most about higher education. In my view higher education is about the exploration of ideas, what is written about the topics that you are interested in, how we interrogate, add, speak, or give meaning to the research that we have explored. This process involves the freedom of thought, the freedom to be able to think about topics without any limits. If we put a limit on thinking, or the thought process, we cannot introspect at the level of the unknown. Or at the point where we become curious. Curiosity, questioning, and this sense of wonder, are some parts of the process, that come under the idea of freedom of thought. What I have found is that for the freedom to think about anything that you believe is worthy of more thought and value, is not as easy as it sounds. You need to fight for what you believe is worthy of more thought. Provide evidence. Back your thoughts up with what others have to say about the topic that you believe in.

     When all is said and done, lets face it, there are so many worthy causes to think about about. But to be successful at anything you have to find a focus. Something that ignites your passion, worthy of more thought. It might even be something novel, new, or an addition to the field that deserves attention. To be able to even arrive at the point, also requires freedom of thought, or what we can also call academic freedom. 

    I am concerned about the freedom of thought, academic freedom as well, because I find that this is also under attack. Not everyone will understand the value of thought. Part of the reason is because the endeavour of research is a lengthy process. It's production, how it will benefit or have an effect upon society are not seen immediately. It is also a slow process. I also think that research needs to be put into practice. Find practical uses for research. This is one of the reasons why I started publishing my thoughts, to share what I had learned, or to offer value at some level to the field of teaching and learning. There are other ways to reach an audience who would be interested in your work. Here we can think about the need for giving students opportunities as student researchers, or as student educators. 

     Even if we do try to speed up how society reaps the rewards of research, the quality, the introspection, and thought process requires time. We have to be careful that we don't think of research as a manufacturing process of ideas. This is where my concern shifts to the idea of human consciousness. Human consciousness deserves to be protected. The ability to continue to question deserves protection. As we live in result orientated societies, I continue to believe in the value if ideas, freedom of thought, academic freedom not only for the purposes of propelling higher education or post - secondary education, but at all levels from Pre-K and beyond. Freedom of thought is also necessary at the level of the self. Human beings must be able to continue to possess the ability to think freely, weather it is for daily living, life goals, working, studying, and learning. 

"Knowledge is seen as a key human resource ... the quality of a country's education and research or knowledge production becomes a yardstick for it's success within a global economy. ... Academic freedom is implicit to the health of the nation as a questioning conscience; to lose it would threaten civilized society. It is a mechanism for plurality of criticism that should be welcomed."  (Locker, 2009)

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :)

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on April 6th, 2018. 
​Reference: 
​Locker, P. (2009). Conclusion. The Learning Landscape. In Les Bell, Mike Neary, Howard Stevenson Views with Endless Possibilities. The Future of Higher Education. Policy, Pedagogy and the Student Experience. (139-147). London: Continuum International Publishing Group. ​
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