Group Writing #4

Vanessa Marcotte, Myles Ettinger, Isabella Xia, Julia Bologna

Department of Education, McGill University

EDEC 260: Philosophical Foundations

Professor Jason Lister

November 6th, 2020

 Group Writing 4

Paul Fairfield’s article discusses listening and the important role it plays in education

of others as well as the self. He writes how communication is a two-way street equally

involving speaking along with listening. Throughout the article, he emphasizes that listening

is not secondary to speaking. The conflicting notion of the phrase ‘listen and learn’ is

examined with the example of students' participation or perceived engagement grades being

evaluated by the act of speaking. Listening is described as a transactional agreement and one

who does not engage in listening in such a matter can be identified as a bad listener. The role

of trust in listening is then explained as one might refrain from listening if they do not believe

what the other person has to say is truthful, meaningful or valuable. True listening is also

explained as being compromised if one believes their ideas or beliefs are being challenged.

The concepts presented in Fairfield’s article are important to consider as

communication is vital to education; however, problems may arise when considering the role

of power in a classroom. More specifically, if we consider the concepts of authenticity

presented by Bialystok and Kukar where one might refrain from being authentic to entertain

the ideas of the person in power (teacher or administration for example), one might similarly

refrain from listening in order to prepare a line of questioning or challenges to ideas

presented to them by someone holding a certain degree of power as they might face

consequences for not concurring. This being said, it is important as teachers to acknowledge

the inevitable position we have over our students yet still create an environment accepting of

all ideas and arguments assuming they are substantiated with reliable explanations and/or

evidence.

Our group agrees with the concept the author discusses although we think that

listening may be even more important than speaking. We have come to this consensus

because before communication, ears are the first human organ to be used (assuming you are
not born deaf). Most of the information we receive while maturing is through listening. We

first begin to make sense of the world through our ears as well as our other senses which were

not mentioned in the article. A deaf person may make sense of the world through a

combination of touch and sight. These senses are an equally valuable part of listening

because without them, our whole understanding of the world would drastically change. For

example, we may hear our teacher speaking but without seeing him we will lose vital body

language cues (and meaning) that he may be transmitting. Moreover, although listening is

one of the most important senses, if not used correctly, it can be considered as “bad

listening”. Indeed, as it is an act of faith and trust, if for example someone does not agree

with someone else’s ideas and interest, they may lack listening to them and that is when

listening becomes an act of disinterest. That is why our team believes that even though

listening is essential in a classroom, if it is not applied correctly, it is useless. Thus, we agree

with Fairfield although we put listening at a higher value.