Article | The Happy Teacher: A critical examination of the joys of OBTL in higher education | Cecilia RODÉHN | 2020
Nina El Laban-Devauton
05 August, 2024
Germany
Object-based teaching and learning (OBTL) has enjoyed a growing success in higher education over the last decades throughout Europe and beyond. Praised for being “fun”, using OBTL would be the promise of happiness, and ultimately well-being, for teachers and students alike. Building on Ahmed’s notion of happiness as social and cultural practice, Rodéhn however suggests we stop and think about the mechanisms behind this innovative method of teaching. She offers an alternative reason why OBTL truly is revolutionary.
Uppsala University, founded in 1477, is the oldest university in Sweden and as such, has collected an impressive treasure of objects over the centuries. Lecturers from subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, Law, History, Art History, Theology, Pharmacognosy, Geology, Pedagogy or Archaeology, are taking advantage of this particular resource and practising OBTL with their students. In 2014-2015, 17 Uppsala teachers took part in a qualitative study about the effects of OBTL on their well-being and the perceived quality of their teaching.
While the study provides evidence that teaching with objects makes teachers happy – they describe their OBTL experiences as “fun”, in contrast to teaching in lecture halls especially –, Rodéhn warns against approximating OBTL with happiness for higher education teachers. Indeed, organising object-based sessions costs more time than the “inexpensive option” of a traditional lecture and thus goes against the requirements of the currently dominating “neoliberal university”. The latter matches the expectations of the capitalist market in focusing on an efficient preparation of the students for the world of work, rather than on sharpening their critical thinking. In such an institution, time is one of the main criteria for teaching decisions and the main obstacle to OBTL. Teachers making the choice of OBTL, Rodéhn argues, are not merely seeking happiness. On the one hand, they are refusing capitalist diktats for the commodification of knowledge and optimisation of their teaching time. On the other hand, they are creating a space for emotions, social bonding and collaboration at university, going against injunctions of “pure rationality” and competitiveness. In making time for dialogue, OBTL contributes to slowing down the pace of higher education. OBTL is the stepping stone to a better university, says Rodéhn. How can we resist this call to action?
Link to source
Rodéhn, Cecilia. “The Happy Teacher: A critical examination of the joys of object-based learning and teaching in higher education”. In: In: Kador, Thomas & Chatterjee, Helen J. Object-Based Learning and Well-Being, Exploring Material Connections, Routledge (2020), pp. 140-156.