What's next?

I will use this space over the coming weeks to explore in words some of the ideas which I hope to develop in the next year (maybe more). I'll try to describe the area I wish to focus on in general now, and then explore further specific elements of it in future posts.

I also feel that already, just 3 months after starting to write in this (virtual) space, my aims are changing rapidly - casting the very title of this blog into question. This was brought home by a recent post by Geoffrey Edwards on his blog paradoxes and consequences describing his feelings when entering the job market, and how his approach to career moves, etc has changed in the intervening years. Geoffrey suggests that what happens as one emerges from the pre-defined path of school and undergraduate education is more a result of 'who you are' than your 'pedigree' or personal history, and that worrying about the future is unnecessary - events will take place, connections will be made and life unfolds. I think that this very closely reflects my own feeling, and perhaps the title of this blog suggests a sense of worry about the future which doesn't entirely characterise my personal approach! Always interesting to hear how others feel/felt when at this stage of finding direction.

Another of Geoffrey's blogs, From Othodoxy to Paradoxy, is also particularly interesting for me because it also picks up on the theme of paradox - an idea which seems to have cropped up increasingly regularly in my own reading, to the extent that it is shaping the direction I want to take in future research and thinking. Geoffrey presents paradox (or paradoxy) in opposition to the orthodox (orthdoxy); as an alternative approach to the status quo. The twin interests that have developed from my undergraduate work are the way in which we conceptualise nature and society (generally in dualistic opposition), and the (currently slow-moving) transition towards sustainability. At present I'm considering some research examining how the structure of higher education institutions affects the dominant view of nature as separate from society, and whether these dominant modes of thought (encouraged by educational institutions?) are hindering social change for sustainability.

In order to explore some of these ideas, I hope to post here in the future some thoughts about the way educational institutions are divided into disciplines and the potential of interdisciplinary study, the field of critical pedagogy - which I have recently started exploring, and other themes which will lay the groundwork in this area - as they come to me.

Reappearance

Although this page has been quiet for over two months, my life has been anything but.. however, final exams are done now and graduation a few weeks away. I've shooting for further study next year, to give me the chance to carry on reading and writing about the issues I'm interested in, and on an even more personal level, to clarify my own sense of purpose and direction in life. The question that needs answering: how do I find a way of living that does the least harm, does the most good, and gives me the opportunity to fulfill my potential? I didn't mention that question on my recent applications for postgrad study, but in my own way, answering that question is part of why I've chosen that option. The element of that decision which feels least comfortable just now is the choice to stay within the educational system, so often criticised for producing dry intellectuals cut off from reality. How to avoid becoming one of those? I hope that part of the answer lies in my choice to approach any further education in a critical manner, in a way which does not simply accept education for education's sake. To be continued..

introduction

I'll graduate in 3 months so now, for the first time, I have to start making some real decisions. Just to recap what's happened so far:
birth - rapid development - school - some more school - a bit more school - travelling the world - university and an undergraduate degree
... so at this stage I'm remarkably similar to thousands of other people my age. But now my choices about the future really are mine. Think of the events described above as progress up a tree - to start with we all follow the same track - up the trunk of the tree. Now we've hit the spot where the branches separate out. So now there may be three or four choices of branch which we could follow, but we must remember that each of these larger branches will subdivide and subdivide and subdivide.
So this is space for me to explore all these potential futures.