Structures and Situations

The university provides a structure for learning. Within it, learning situations arise, all of which are ambiguously related to structure. Indeed, the names we have for situations, like “class” or “task” or “exam,” are also names for the structures in which the situations arise. After all, a situation is a space of freedom within a structure. The structure of a class, which constructs the position of teacher and student, leaves open a space of possibilities, for both teachers and students, that are not determined in advance. This space is not always easy to navigate successfully. If we define “success” here as an outcome wherein learning takes place, it is easy to see how fraught the situation within any given structure can be. The class, construed as a situation, becomes a predicament for the teacher; construed as structure, it affords opportunities for learning that the teacher must exploit. (The student can choose to engage actively in this endeavor, of course; and the teacher may…