Zierer, K. (2023). The Socratic Oath for Teachers

^{Header image: The death of Socrates (Jacques-Louis David, 1787)}

Teacher’s Oath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teacher’s_Oath

In 1993, the German educator Hartmut von Hentig designed the Socratic Oath, which is supposed to be a set of professional guidelines for educators, teachers and paedagogues. In 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic effected some dramatic changes in the world and in the education system, the German educator Klaus Zierer published a renewal of the Socratic Oath, which is based on the research of the educator John Hattie and has not only a theoretical approach but also an empirical base.

mutatis mutandis – “with things changed that should be changed” or “once the necessary changes have been made”
O tempora, o mores – “Oh, the times! Oh, the customs!” [Cicero]

As a teacher, I commit myself to directing all my feelings, thoughts, and actions in my profession towards the well-being of the children entrusted to my care.

To the children, I commit myself

to challenge and encourage each child according to his or her potential and level of development,
not to leave any child behind or write them off, no matter what the reasons are,
to take the failure of the children entrusted to me over and over again as an occasion for new ways of teaching,
to see mistakes as an opportunity, not a flaw,
to set challenges in the educational process so that under- and overstraining do not occur,
to seek, pick up, and awaken motivations,
to enter into dialogue again and again, to give and receive feedback, to ask questions, and to listen,
to assign subjects a serving function in the educational process,
to address and stimulate all areas of the personality,
to inspire confidence in the world and in oneself and to make it visible on a daily basis,
to understand and shape the classroom and the school as a welcoming place,
to provide an atmosphere and relationship that is respectful, free of fear, and educationally effective, and
to stand up for the physical, mental, and spiritual integrity of the children entrusted to me.

To the parents, I commit myself

to communicate on an equal footing and to establish an educational partnership,
to understand the educational process of the children as a common task,
not only to be prepared to talk to them on a regular basis but also to actively seek contact with them, and
to take their assessments of the children’s educational success and progress seriously and to combine them with their own views.

To my colleagues, I commit myself

to share my experiences in education and teaching and to use them as a basis for collegial professionalization,
to share and reflect together on the mistakes made every day,
to reflect back on successful moments in school and give mutual recognition, and
to allow everyone to have their own individual perspective on school and teaching while working towards a shared vision.

To the educational public, I commit myself

to accept the education mission and to implement it at all times,
not only to impart knowledge and skills but to focus on and promote all areas of the personality,
to subordinate all subjects to the well-being of the child and thus to the educational mission,
to be loyal, but not blindly so, to official requirements,
to implement everything that is in the best interests of the child and to reject everything that is contrary to the best interests of the child,
to critically question and, if necessary, publicly accuse and reject any interests and demands on schools and teaching that are not primarily in the best interests of the child, and
to give a voice in public discourse to children and their right to education.

To society, I commit myself

to see respect for the dignity of the human being as the basis and goal of school and teaching,
to teach the principles of our democracy and to defend them in school and in the classroom,
to see school as a place for the reproduction and innovation of social values,
to use my pedagogical freedom to place current issues at the centre of the school day, and
to be not only reactive but also proactive towards the further development of our society.

To myself, I commit

to justify my actions at all times, to discuss them critically and constructively, and to reflect on them conscientiously,
to regularly develop my professional, pedagogical, and didactic competencies,
to regularly reflect on my professional attitudes, and
to always perform my function as a role model to the best of my knowledge and belief.

I confirm what has been said by my willingness to be measured at all times against the standards that emanate from this commitment.

Of course, self-commitment alone does not make for good teaching and does not create educational success on its own. This requires more, for example a certain level of equipment, a certain level of financial security, and much more still. Above all, however, it requires the activity of the learners. For education is and remains essentially an intrapersonal process, a process for which the individual is responsible. In other words, education does not mean what has been made of me but what I have made of my life.
The remarkable thing is that most of the teachers we once had disappear into thin air, whereas a handful manage to be remembered positively for a lifetime.

Good work is characterised by ’3 Es’: excellence, engagement, and ethics. A successful worker knows what they are doing, cares about it, and can give reasons for what they are doing.
It is one of the most persistent myths in the discussion of educational science that a successful teacher is one who possesses a particularly high level of teacher subject matter knowledge.

The first phase at the universities is dominated by subject matter competence while hardly addressing pedagogical and didactic competence, and the interconnectedness of these areas of competence is not addressed at all.
The second phase, the first years of professional life, is dominated by pedagogical and didactic competence while at the same time relying on the subject matter competence acquired at university, and here, too, there is hardly any networking.
In the third phase, that is, until retirement, things become ‘autodidactic’: Everyone is the architect of their own fortune, and teacher training culminates in – or degenerates into – boundless freedom.
Professional teacher training should look different.

In an attempt to summarise the vast body of research on effective teaching and learning, I would like to formulate the following ten mindframes:

1) I am an evaluator of my impact on student learning.
2) I see assessment as informing my impact and next steps.
3) I collaborate with my peers and my students about my conceptions of progress and my impact.
4) I am a change agent and believe that all students can improve.
5) I strive for challenges and not merely to ‘do my best’.
6) I give and help students understand feedback, and I interpret and act on feedback given to me.
7) I engage as much in dialogue as in monologue.
8) I explicitly inform students about what successful impact looks like from the outset.
9) I build relationships and trust so that learning can occur in a place where it is safe to make mistakes and learn from others.
10) I focus on learning and the language of learning.

…what describes the professional biographical task is not being a teacher as a result of having become a teacher but remaining a teacher.

Technology in general and digitalisation as a technical manifestation in particular enable people to shift their boundaries. They lead to a dissolution of human boundaries. Günther Anders calls this shift a ‘Promethean gap’: The distance between humans and the world of products they have created is becoming ever greater. He draws three conclusions from this: ‘that we are not equal to the perfection of our products; that we produce more than we can imagine and be responsible for; and that we believe that what we can do, we are also allowed to do, no: should, no: have to do’.
- Digitalisation is not an alternative to humanistically guided pedagogical practice but demands its continuation, even its radicalisation.
- Digital education must also be directed towards creating the conditions for us to be the authors of our own lives.

The Oath (click to expand)+