Lessons on the Hoof: Learning About Teacher Education Through Horse-Riding

Abstract

Experienced teachers and teacher educators often find it difficult to change their practice without some significant and meaningful experience to provide a new perspective. In this chapter I reflect on the impact that learning to ride a horse meant for my practice as a teacher educator. By choosing something that was so unfamiliar to me, the process was ‘a visceral rather than an intellectual route into critical reflection’ (Brookfield SD, Becoming a critically reflective teacher. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, p 50, 1995). I signed up for weekly riding lessons with experienced instructors and regularly recorded my reflections, thoughts, and feelings about learning to ride in a professional journal. I shared my journey as a neophyte with my student teachers and critical friends. Their comments, insights, and responses added considerably to my examination of teacher education practices. I used the generative potential of my horse riding experiences to reflect as an embodied learner on the commonplace, subtle, and lived experience of being a learner. As an experienced teacher I found that I had forgotten the angst, self-doubt, bravado, satisfaction, thrill, and despair that can accompany learning. Horse riding brought forth such feelings regularly. Comparing my horse riding skills with an expert’s was a less threatening route to authentic discussions about the skilful, complex nature of teaching which experienced teachers are wont to make look effortless. Other themes that emerged were the importance of learners’ perspectives in the teaching-learning process and the importance of feedback to improve our practice. Learning to ride a horse and using this as a basis of a self-study taught me a great deal more than I originally signed up for.