Teaching in the Borderlands

Dr Anne Looney delivered a keynote on Teaching in the Borderlands at the Irish Primary Principals Network Annual Conference in Citywest on 26th January last. The conference, one of the largest in the Irish education calendar, was told by Dr Looney that current commentary on a so-called 'crisis' in teacher recruitment and retention had the potential to change the discourse on teaching as a profession. She urged the attendees to mind their language when it comes to talk about teachers and teaching! She told the delegates;

One of the defining features of a professional is that they work at the borders. Medical professionals work at the border between health and illness, and even between life and death. Lawyers, at the border between right and wrong, or between justice and injustice. Teachers? At the border between ignorance and knowledge perhaps, but also at the border between the past and the future. Because so much of our professional work is with children and young people there is an expectation that we will prepare them for the future, even if it is uncertain, while at the same time handing on the wisdom of the past.