Archetypal Agent: Teaching and Being

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Sykes, Jessica H.

• The ever-changing nature of pedagogy requires a teacher to equip themselves with various hats throughout the day. Historically, teaching ability was thought of as innate rather than acquired, and little attention was given to the inner life and experiences of the teacher; much can be gleaned from a teacher’s inner landscape. A teacher embodies that of a learner, counsellor, and disciplinarian, sometimes all within the same minute. Explored through an analytic- psychological lens, inquiry into the archetypal energies of teachers’ takes place through reflexive, Art-based practices. Archetypes are primordial images that exist within the collective unconscious. Awakening to the archetypal nature of education and life reveals the culturally constructed myths and habitually engrained conducts rooted in norms of the past. Explored are the origins of cultural myths, specific to education, and how they are perpetuated. Archetypal awareness can help awaken us to these mythic ways of being and invite the unfolding of deeper meaning and seeing within the teaching vocation, the world at large, and our place within. The following Arts-based research paper resembles a patchwork quilt that fastens the interwoven nature of teaching and being in the classroom and beyond.

• Date created

  2020-04-08

• Subjects / Keywords

  • myth, education, archetype, persona, teacher presence, edusemiotics, Jungian psychology, analytic psychology, teleological, teacher identity, vocation, poetic inquiry, arts-based research

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-xxm0-st98

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International