**Teachers - A Concept of Educational & Entrepreneurial Excellence by Prof. em. Dr. Jürgen Zimmer** ## 11\.1 Teachers & community development One of the most decisive teacher training reforms of recent history took place in Turkey during the 40's, with the setting up of village institutes. At that time the illiteracy rate in Turkey figured around 85%, agriculture was very backward and produced only poor harvests. The village institutes were facilities for community development and training centers, whose students came from the surrounding villages and also returned there after their studies. They became teachers and community developers in the course of a spartan, strenuous, but highly productive training program which gave them an abundance of agricultural and craft trade skills, and technical and medical knowledge in both theory and practice. Every village institute functioned as a company and was self-supporting. The teachers trained there moved to the villages, founded schools according to the same model, and sparked regional development. Many of them became pedagogical reformers of top quality. Even though the movement was broken off as a result of a change in government, it has left many cultural traces of good work. The village institute movement can be understood as a logical answer to the déformation professionelle of the teaching profession; instead of the teacher with white collar consciousness, now a teacher who can combine reflection with action: instead of teachers fleeing the land for the cities (a problem in postcolonial developing countries) a teacher who considers teaching in the rural community to mean participation in the development process; instead of a subject-bound lecturing teacher, one who works on projects with pupils and employs different kinds of knowledge in the process. For the pedagogues Ismail Hakki Tonguç and Education Minister Hasan Ali Yüce, the initiators of the village institute movement, teachers are community developers; for Shaul B. Robinsohn teachers are teachers. "All teachers are teachers" means that there is a common basis in all teaching professions, recommending an integration of teacher training in which educational theory and curricular as well as pedagogically relevant social aspects join with a more "clinical" training (in the sense of a theoretical reflected practice and practice-oriented theory). Professional biographies show that teachers are generally characterized by a more defensive than offensive personal history, and only in exceptional cases could be called risk-takers. Their consciousness of being employees of the state is rather a counter-productive model for students who want to grow up within a culture of entrepreneurship. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. For the school, what is important is selecting outstanding Thai and international teachers, highly qualified with regard to both expertise and pedagogical skills, who are eager to fully dedicate themselves to the whole project and in fact to no small degree bring along the basic qualifications for entrepreneurial behavior to the job themselves. These teachers do not only participate in an ongoing service training - the project itself is already continual advanced training. Whoever takes part here and contributes to developments, gains additional skills which cannot be acquired at any other teacher training facility. ## 11\.2 Masters as teachers Personalities and masters of their fields - the conductor, composer, choreographer, architect, writer, painter, sculptor, dancer, physicist, philosopher, engineer, chemist, politician, economist, psychologist, athlete, journalist, entrepreneur - all of them are important teachers from life off campus, who can offer unique stimuli and greatly supplement the work of the permanent teaching staff. These professionals are guests of the School for Life, who take pleasure in working together with talented young people of the school in special workshops with the goal of creating some common work or product, in short to leave their mark. The wide world comes to Thailand, taking something from the area and leaving something of value in return. The gift consists of knowledge and experience gained in other venues of the Global Village, and which can be of use here. ## [Concept](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/196/concept) Chapters - **[1. Little History School for Life Chiang Mai](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/210/1-little-history-school-for-life-chiang-mai)** - **[2. At First Sight](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/209/2-at-first-sight)** - **[3. Characteristics](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/208/3-characteristics)** - **[4. The Family Concept](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/207/4-the-family-concept)** - **[5. Kindergarten](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/206/5-kindergarten)** - **[6. Schooling and Deschooling](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/205/6-schooling-and-deschooling)** - **[7. Learning Through Life](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/204/7-learning-through-life)** - **[8. The Seven Centers of Excellence](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/203/8-the-seven-centers-of-excellence)** - **[9. Think Tank and Master Workshops](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/202/9-think-tank-and-master-workshops)** - **[10. The Setting](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/201/10-the-setting)** - **[11. Teachers](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/200/11-teachers)** - **[12. Guests](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/199/12-guests)** - **[13. Partners](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/198/13-partners)** - **[14. Transfer of innovation](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/197/14-transfer-of-innovation)** - **[15 ](https://phuketer.com/s/00000600/wiki/196/concept#15.-attachments)[Source PDF (external site)](https://school-for-life.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/SfL-Konzept-2003-2016_fin-1.pdf)** School for Life, 185/3 Moo 4, T. Pameing, Doi Saket District, 50220 Chiang Mai, Thailand Tel. +66 53 248194