I joined the Master in Higher Education program of KUSOED in August 2022. Taking classes as a student after a gap of fifteen years was a unique experience. Today, I happened to land in a folder containing seventeen reflective notes on each class of the course, Continuous Professional Development. Going through them not only made me nostalgic about those three-hour classes from 6 pm to 9 pm but also gave me the satisfaction that I had grasped a great opportunity for continuing education seven years after graduating with a PhD. I found the reflections to mark my diligence as a scholar and felt like sharing the first and the seventeenth here.
18 August 2022
The three-hour session went smoothly, in general, with all the scheduled activities done. It started with a ‘two-word’ introduction of oneself, proceeded with a couple of other self-probing activities and ended with a good ‘counselling’ on the necessity and nature of assignments. Some parts were a bit hitchy for me personally because of a power outage three times in my residence on the Manahara corridor. I must have missed the discussions for about half an hour, but (I hope) I could connect to the key in no time. The most memorable section involved the presentations on individual professional journeys, which everyone who managed to do did excellently.
I felt my learning instincts to have revived and stayed intact. Being at the ‘receiving end’ was like realizing the positions and experiences of my own students while I would be facilitating online classes. It was the same device, same technology, and same screen, but a different role. I felt that my presence was acknowledged and my contribution appreciated. I spoke three times: to introduce myself as ‘holistic Hem,’ to present my professional journey in a single metaphorical slide carrying the theme ‘holistic’; and to comment on the professor’s “Musings …” on a tape recorder. I felt that all these opportunities were consolatory and embellishing.
I was thinking about how I could participate and contribute, in the same degree as I would expect my students to do so. In my own signature model, “Post-Class Reflection,” it was mandatory for the students to answer this question: “How did I participate and contribute?” Thus, while making sense of the activities being administered by the professor, I was also making sense of my role as a participant-contributor because, in fact, all participants were expected to be active and complementary. And I was also thinking at the outset how other participants, especially those unfamiliar with the ‘reflective model’ popularized at KUSEd, would perceive the seemingly mundane approach of calling out names and making folks speak and write about themselves. But, in no time, I realized that every adult had the potential to become a delightful child when they got an opportunity to line up, raise hands, and compete for a chance to speak their hearts and heads. Then I was thinking that someone would certainly opt to go out midway at that hour, and a few did. The three-hour sitting would take a toll on the oldies’ attention amid several priorities, I was thinking. But the majority remained intact till the professor wrapped it up.
Talking about oneself is not as easy as it appears, especially if you believe you are a seasoned professional. It is challenging to separate the professional aspects from the personal, and more challenging to mix them. From the last two sessions of this Master program, I have tried to check at what point I would realize my ‘student self’ come back alive. It has not happened yet. I have found myself a humble participant, a modest collaborator, and an enthusiastic contributor. It is our program and our responsibility to make it as meaningful and productive as possible. My main learning is that the professor was extremely mindful of his role as a facilitator, co-creator, and co-learner – the essence of the classes in a continuing education program.
22 January 2023
I have begun to value the myriad of things I have done and come across till I turned half-century last month. Twenty-two years in a single geography, which is my tenure at KU’s main campus, would have vegetated me if I were not born curious, fidgety, and unable to appreciate stagnation. This realization of a ‘progressive’ temperament has led me to work on currere. My participation in the CPD class this evening was dedicated to tracing the minute details of my academic and professional pursuits ever since I was aware of the value of education and mentorship.
My ongoing project for this class, tentatively titled “From a nonchalant attendee to a passionate performer: A currere on professional development,” promises to peek into all the critical exposures I got in my journey as a student and a teacher of English. Like other colleagues this evening, I had to report my progress with the culminating paper on professional development. So, I quickly outlined my presentation in the Hattiban office and fine-tuned it in my Manahara residence before I was called to speak. There was so much explored in a short time, yet I felt only the tip of the iceberg was at hand.
A revelation: if a single, unheroically lived ongoing life like mine can have so much to yield surprises, how much is there on earth with billions of lives of vicissitudes? The gradually suspending realization of my own currere journey prepares me to run into even more intriguing, complicated yet meaningful sagas from other people. I am drawn towards currere even more intensely now. I am sure my cohort, which comprises folks from multiple disciplines, would produce wonderful narratives if they took an interest in currere and did in fact engage themselves to re-experience their experiences.
Just to reveal a little, which I also did in my presentation this evening, I would start my paper with five events in sequence, crafting the aspect of ‘regression.’ These are: (i) participating in the district-wide meet of Junior Red Cross Circle in 1987, (ii) attending the 1998 NELTA Conference at Little Angels’ School, (iii) meeting a principal of a plus-two college in Lalitpur in the summer of 2000, (iv) facing the first interview at Kathmandu University, and (v) running away from and rejoining KU in August 2000. Each of these cases has had a profound impact on my commitment to education and professional development in the ensuing years. A reflection on the third event, for instance, would explain why I decided not to become a ‘helmet teacher’ along the streets of Kathmandu but to try a full-time job at Kathmandu University in Dhulikhel, which meant leaving the metropolis and what it had on offer in those days. I freshly remember the principal who taught me what professionalism was not and why not to expect favour from folks in leadership who cannot teach life-enhancing values.
The more I study and reflect currere, the deeper it takes me into understanding life and learning. The moment I began to read Mary Aswell Doll’s The Mythopoetics of Currere recently, I realized that studying and developing a passion for literature was the most profound decision of my life, and if I had ever thought of it as a wrong field of study, it must have been in the most thoughtless state of my mind. I now feel like re-living the days of reading Henry Miller, Rousseau, Freud and Derrida; re-attending the classes of Prof. Padma Devkota and Prof. Arun Gupto; re-sipping the coffee at Unique Cafe in Anam Nagar with Dr. Dharma Adhikary chatting about Nepali media; and re-journeying to and re-staying in Goa with the young, vibrant team of Dr. Meenakshi Raman at BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus. Because I cannot re-experience all these and other crucial moments, currere allows me to envision a future that has their ramifications, where I can sense my partly eventful past.