Becoming an authentic teacher in higher education

I believe that there are many different and often contradictory ways of being a good teacher. ... Becoming a good teacher involves understanding oneself and from that understanding, building a personal ideal of practice. In other words, becoming a good teacher means becoming an authentic teacher, true to one's Self (Cranton, 2001, p. viii)

There are many similarities between Patricia Cranton's book, Becoming an authentic teacher in higher education and Parker Palmer's The courage to teach (see Issues of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 5, No. 9, October 1999). The need for self-discovery by the teacher to answer the question "who is the self that teaches?" is a major theme of The courage to teach.

In advancing the theme of discovery of the self as a teacher, both Palmer and Cranton make the point that teaching is more that technique. Palmer says that "good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher" (p.10). Cranton says that

Teaching is not a technical skill - it is not something we do in a certain environment with a certain set of machines or tools. Teaching is communicative - involving a knowledge of others and social norms - and emancipatory - involving increased self-understanding. It centers on relationships and therefore involves us fully as persons (p. 50).

However, while both books have similar themes and use narrative to help individuals in the process of discovering who they are as individuals and teachers, Cranton's book might be seen as more practical for the teacher who wishes to take this journey of self-discovery towards being an authentic teacher. Cranton offers some inventories and "worksheets" to help the teacher examine who they are as people outside of teaching and how these personal characteristics are brought into the classroom. It is not a separation of roles - the personal and the professional - but the integration of those roles that make the authentic teacher. Cranton encourages teachers to be themselves, rather than to be what others expect of them. She is not suggesting the abandonment of good teaching principles, but that, through an ongoing process of reflection and transformation, the true self will emerge in the classroom.

Cranton has written extensively on transformative learning and the principles of transformative learning come through strongly in this book. "Transformative learning involves examining assumptions and beliefs that have been uncritically assimilated. Many such assumptions are not articulated or conscious, we simply act on them because we have always done so" (p. 104). Our teaching practice is often based on 'the way it has always been done' without articulation or valid justification. Perhaps contributing to this, sadly, is "that professional development for teachers is often viewed as the acquisition of new techniques or skills. finding the 'right way' of doing things" (p. 105). Cranton returns to her point that teaching is not about a technical skill, "it is communicative in nature rather than instrumental" (p.105) and that professional development is not mainly about learning these skills. Teaching "is about how we relate to students, challenging the social norms surrounding teaching, critically reflecting on our work, and learning who we are as authentic teachers" (p. 105).

Cranton's book is relatively short and easy to read. She does elaborate on what she sees as the characteristics of 'the good teacher' (supported by the literature on teaching and learning). However, in Cranton's description of a practical path to self-discovery, there is reassurance for teachers, and new ones in particular, that they do not need to be some one other than their true self in the classroom.

• Cranton, P. (2001). Becoming an authentic teacher in higher education. Malabar, FL: Krieger.
• Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.