Volume 10, Issue 2 of Taboo, The Journal of Culture and Education Now available for download
Appears that McGill is deep into Freire and Critical Pedagogy.
The Freire Archives and International Journal of Critical Pedagogy are publicly accessible, publications will be available in both hard copy and virtually through this website. Housed in the project are the papers of seminal scholars who have contributed to the evolution of Critical Pedagogy. In addition, the project will promote research in Critical Pedagogy and bring together both local and international educators and continue its development globally while highlighting its relevance with marginalized and indigenous peoples.
All kinds of big names here. Kincheloe and McLaren most prominent…
Kevin Kumashiro - Director, Center for Anti-Oppressive Education
04.02.08
went to a talk tonight.
the right has been so successful in part because their narratives make sense - for example, there may, in fact be enough money being spent on education, OVERALL… but WASTE prevents disrupts our efforts to provide quality education
fear of terrorism
65% spending on in-classroom expenses enjoys wide public support
major players
Tim Mooney - R consolutant favoring tax cuts
Patrick Burn - privatization
people vote their values; they don’t vote on the issues
notion of the “achievement gap” is a politically useful construction for the right we also need to be more strategic…. A MOVEMENT AWAY FROM CIVIL RIGHTS DISCOURSE because the civil rights movement is premised on an assimiliationist ideal
Carol Anderson - Eyes off the Prize
2002 Yale Review - Covering? title?
Derrick Bell - Eyes at the the Bottom of the Well Silent Covenant
Edublogs.org is great as an interactive class website. Students in my poetry class post their work to our class blog, read each others’ work and offer feedback. See them shed their exoskeletons & wax earnest. You’d never guess to see these tough li’l nuggets on the street. Maybe take a looksee… they swoon for comments!
We are a long long way off from anything even remotely resembling CoolCatTeacher’s rad Horizon Project, but one of these days… It is, after all, a post-Diigo life. Count me a convert, CoolCat.
social constructions of gender, race, class, sexuality are salient enough to impact the subjective experience of young teachers
the direction & extent to which they do is an unknown
school films throughout the last half century have been drawn to a hero narrative, in which an idealistic teacher, often a young white female teacher, embark on a tumultous, emotionally charged journey, similar to a coming-of-age story
these audiovisual texts may affect stakeholders’ mindframes: teachers, students, general public, parents, admins
there is a tradition stretching back a half century of these types of school films
teachers’ work is found narrowly challenging but ultimately rewarding and worth the effort
films do draw from basic truths of lived experience, uplifting and consumer friendly
authority challenged within the currently existing safe yet oppressive framework
great white hope teacher-marytr narrative serves interests of existing power structure (read: white middle-class values)
hegemonic portrayals of teaching life mislead, charismatic martyr types romanticize and belittle teaching life
scapegoat lesser teachers and avoid actual, structural critique, invoke culture of blame
potential to bias public to locate actualized change in savior figures decontextualized
one important component of becoming a teacher is the affective componenet, the identity development
retention, esp of second stage teachers, positively linked to sense of personal and professional congruence
retention is negatively impacted by unrealistic expectations, the gap between the imagined and the real
teacher ed reliance on methods and jargon are insufficient, do not address teachers’ subjective experience
critical identity construction and carving a space proceed from grappling with hegemony
unity of spheres, personal and professional, is healthy for individual, desirable for sociey, efficacious for policy
Major finds in the school 2.0 department. One example:
SourceForge.net is an dense compilation of open source software. High brow and high quality. Argumentative is an intuitive and powerful tool for argument mapping. Clean and familiar interface.
Spent time over this holiday weekend discussing the state of education, urban and otherwise, with future aunt-in-law. She is AP of a school on the north side of Chicago, an English teacher at heart, and her vision of the ideal classroom takes the breath away. I hope she will comment on this post clarifying her views and correcting my misconceptions.
But as I understand it, teachers’ work is to allow students to develop confidence of voice, the ability to conceive of and express new ideas. Teachers are advised to strategically release control, abdicate power to students as constituents, thus promoting a sense of collective responsibility and group membership.
All are of the Detroit Public School Book Repository. Scary. They kind of remind me of what I found when I opened the cabinets in my classroom my first year. Going into my fifth (on Thursday!), the worst I expect is a little book attrition. Hey, the summer help’s gotta read too, right?
