Strangers in Strange Lands: Exploring Pathways to Becoming and Wellbeing

Abstract

How do industry practitioners become teachers—and how do students become industry practitioners? Bissell uses the metaphor of ‘strangers in strange lands’ to argue that deeper understanding of the practitioner–student encounter offers rich pedagogic potential. He believes aspiring teachers should become attuned to the historical conditioning of their own professional ‘becoming’ in order to comprehend how the past shapes their students. These ‘hermeneutic teachers’ liberate students and empower them to reimagine practice. Bissell advocates the creation of Becoming Spaces where teachers and students can explore becoming journeys and the implications for wellbeing. Teachers and students duly discover more about themselves—and become less strange to each other. For new teachers, the land of teaching becomes less mysterious; for their students, the distant lands of industry become havens of opportunity.