Zuss notes

02.05.08

Inquiry and Interpretation – Questioning the nature and range of research approaches:

What motivates research inquiry, its epistemological and instutional frameworks of support?

Lakatos, Ginzburg, Alvesson & Skolberg (12-27)

How is "objectivity" established?

Grounded theory – (GT) a systematic qualitative research methodology in the social sciences emphasizing generation of theory from data in the process of conducting research. (sort of an apology to the natural scientists, a push for rigor through coding, statistics)
    critique: does not examine assumptions of how knowledge/data is generated (VALUE-FREE?)

Reflexivity – making thought the object of study itself

Empiricism – theory of knowledge emphasizing experience (especially sensory perception) and discounting innate ideas (prior knowledge?)
    dataistic – driven by that which seems to be measurable (EX: testing), inclined to believe in independent reality (outside of realm of human experience), discernable truth

Positivism – one truth, an independent reality, facts, objective knowledge – a method
    in contrast to EXISTENTIALISM, subjectivity, negation of meaning a priori – philosophical stance

Ontology – study of nature of existence, how we conceive of reality and the world’s workings
    Existentialist – modifier of ontology
    Positivist – "
    Marxist – "

Epistemology – study of nature of knowledge, emerges via ontology ("don’t quote me!")

Reasoning Processes
ABDUCTION – folk knowledge??? THINK DETECTIVE WORK - take generally accepted    
    facts and infer most likely explanation through generation of hypotheses
INDUCTION – take observed pheonema, trials and experiments, seek emergent patterns,        
    attempt to draw conclusions (BOTTOM-UP approach)
DEDUCTION – take prior theory/pattern and apply to related case (attempt to generalize)
    application of working models developed by predecessors (TOP-DOWN approach)

How research programs/approaches/strategies/paradigms change/shift
Lakatos re: scientific revolutions – theories tend to be self-sustaining, even when attacked,
    ancillary aspects live on (what kind of science are we practicing, and SO…?)
Kuhn (1962) – paradigm shifts aka scientific revolutions 

ALSO GET GOULD BOOK – the mismeasurement of man

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03.04.08
Hermeneutics and Education – Gallagher & making the familiar strange

Play is life’s work. Play is agency.

Agency and power: can you have agency when disempowered? Nelson says yes, giving the example of oppositional identity.

Gadamer: there is universality in experience
Habermas: instrumentality of power structures

CUNY as "demilitarized zone between segregated society and dominant society"

canticles of liebwitz – sci fi

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MY NOTES RE:
Hermeneutics and Education – Gallagher

 both are concerned with: reproduction, authority, conversation, objectivity, distortion, transformation
the term comes from the Greek work hermeneia, which refers to "the systematic exegesis of the poets"
Greeks believed in the educational value of poetry, not writing it, but interpreting it
it is "a theory, a philosophy, a view of reality, a methodology, an approach, a hope, a promise, an ideology… a slogan, a    
    battlecry… a field of study, a discipline" – 3
in its expanded notion of text, H reduces all forms of interpretation to one – problem of textualism – 6l
Gallagher argues that textualism should not form basis of philosophical H
conservative H (Betti and Hirsch) – we can grasp authors’ intentions and objective truth (wishful thinking)
moderate H (Gadamer and Ricoeur) – understanding necessarily colored by subjectivity, denies author privilege (optimistic)
    creative process
radical H (Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida and Foucault – deconstructionist, poststructuralist) – original meaning unattainable,
    it is play or dance, all versions are contingent and relative
critical H (Habermas, Apel – critical theory, Marx, Freud, Frankfurt school) – "means of penetrating false consciousness,
    discovering the ideological nature of belief systems, promoting distortion-free communication, liberating consensus" – 11
critical theory = "social and individual emancipation from political power and economic exploitation found in advanced class     systems" including communism as well as capitalism
aporiai = disputed questions
paideia = education

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03.11.08          
Researching Lived Experience – Van Manen
Hermeneutics and Education

"methodology" = LOGOS of THE WAY (Husserl)
what are the limits of empiricism? how "rational" should we be, what is most productive, what corresponds to our beliefs?
how do we describe transformative pedagody? what does it look like? what is held constant? how do we describe it? how can we know that we    
    practice it? what evidence can we provide? is evidence required?
"what do we have in common" is a phenomenological exercise – how is critical pedadgogy recognizable? defined?
not a series of qualifying questions a la natural sciences, not systematized and categorized……..
our sense of the world is always partial. by its very nature perspective blinds us to part of what is
for example:musician can play a set five nights in a row, each event will be singular and distinctive but qualitative commonality binds events as one

how does meaning come into existence? vs. interpretation which is a conscious process
phenomenology as a critique of epistemology, phenomenology is qualitative and descriptive NOT empirical
is philosophy a discipline removed from lived experience?

HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE ENGAGED IN TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY?

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03.18.08
Researching Lived Experience

CARTESIAN (Descartes): genesis of positivisitic approach… there is objective, measurable, empirical truth – negates subjectivity
- premised on ontological split between the world of the mind and the world of the body
- aims to reach a place where we can know what is real and what is not (the possibility of FAITH)
- negation of sense-data, denial of other people, set aside context and disposition
- break world down, math-style, into component parts
- value-free "view from above"
- CERTAINTY

PHENOMENOLOGISTS speak of horizontal and peripheral perspectives, both experientially and perceptually
- the idea that the givenness of one’s world may be a mirage, may not be shared across people or across your own life
- attempts to eliminate suppositions, verges on ahistoricism – the view from above, the view from nowhere
- understanding of the thing, get to the core but still recognize the phenomenon
- identify the qualities & characteristics that exist within an example, with an aim at defining the phenomenon
- DESCRIPTIVE endeavor at root; once we describe a phenomenon, then we can STUDY it

• "pedagogy is not identical to observable action; rather, it resides in that which makes the action pedagogic in the first place" 146 (we see the emphasis on the INTENT, MOTIVATION, PURPOSE v. ACTION itself)

- premised on questioning the givens… but Jeremy raises the issue that the subject/object divide is a given of sorts
- similarly… Laura raises the question: do these various qualitative approaches function as closed systems (like quantitative & scientific method)
- mathematics, science can certainly hide behind the edifice of

READ BACHELARD from ERES; POETICS OF SPACE, DREAM-WORLD (philosophy of science)
READ HARDING – TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
SILVERMAN – ANALYZING TALK AND TEXT
HARD AND HEAVY
A & S 201-223 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

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04.01.08
A Thrice-Told Tale: Feminism, Postmodernism and Ethnographic Responsibility

QUESTIONS RAISED BY THIS TEXT
locus of authority (given language issues), limits of knowing another culture
what do different genres expose and obscure? to what end? how might genre-based writing be used
how does one’s perspective and sense of obligation change with a changed identity (wife of anthropologist to anthropologist herseself)
moral responsibility of accessible v. exclusive ways of writing

QUESTIONS IN FIELD OF ETHNOGRAPHY
what are the moral implications of building one’s academic career off another’s experience – parasitic? necessary evil?
to what extent should the researcher involve subjects in the writing process – co-authorship, approval, trust?

MY OTHER QUESTIONS
what is the relationship of ethnography to anthropology? – ethnography is an approach used in field of anthropology

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04.01.08
Post-Colonialist & Feminist Theory (WOLF)

the politics of representation…
post-________ has no chronological implication

Jakobson
discourse analysis refers to the power of language and its limits – COLLABORATIVE, INTEGRATIVE, REPRESENTATIVE
    discourse is talk v. Discourse is structures existing outside the mind – GEE
        discursive refers to such things as: sexual politics, nature/nurture (how did nature get shaped through language?) anything mediated by language
            non-discursive: sense data/stimuli (like Rachel giving birth)
pedagogy, classroom as highly discursive environments
discourse analysis is a useful tool for interpreting language (interview context, oral history, etc)

phatic – making contact
denotation – dictionary definitions, timeless meanings, outside of time/place, cartesian approach (disembodied)
connotation – changing and flexible meanings, as in slang (lived, acted)
poetic/aesthetic – styled, self-referential, language that draws attention to itself, self-conscious, fusion of form and content

monological – taking language derived from intermediary (research assistant)
polyphony – many voices (related to Bahktin)
polysemic –

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04.15.08           
The Struggle for Pedagogies: Critical and Feminist Discourses as Regimes of Truth (Jennifer Gore)

critical pedagogy
feminist pedagogy
what makes critical work distinctive?
all knowledge is partial

POWER
power is not given, people are not empowered, rather power is exercised, acted out, and it exists only in the context of oppositional forces

pastoral power – you become your own priest

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04.29.08
Critical Theory

final paper assignment: plan for proposed research… what theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches will guide my work… then either a review of the literature or actual original research

first generation: The New School (pre-war entire community of thinkers)
second generation: habermas, apple
third generation:

so i wonder, how are men of color and women of color received differently as scholars? i am in agreement that incorporation of disparate perspectives is highly desirable, but what is the role of most of us in the room? is our access to "indigenous" forms of knowledge limited by 

WHAT IS CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND HOW IS IT RELATED TO CRITICAL THEORY?

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05.06
Post-Modernism (PM), Post-Structuralism (and critical theory, feminism, discourse analysis)

- in what ways/to what extent is PM/PS useful for our research goals?
- in what ways is it generative? in what ways are they non-starters?

            post-modernism as a mood, fragmented – kitch?
            admission of failure of progressive social movements to resist

post-structuralism a stance, in that language is framing our reality (language not as reflection, but is constructive itself)
an ability to break through structur
- like phenomenology, PS calls for us to challenge that with which we most identify

                                            BUT… WHAT IS MEANT BY MODERN???

- academics (even European thinkers in 60s and 70s) would not call themselves PM – b/c it gives credence to modernity

APOLITICAL STANCE = POLITICIZED STANCE (PARTISAN)

Ionesco? Joyce? e e cummings?                                READ DERRIDA & article on critical ethnography

Look into
The Post-Modern Condition by ?
Stanley Fish

digital ethnography defined… or at least it’s a start

Embedded Video

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: youtube, video, multimedia, kansas, digital-ethnography

Technology Interns

My List: A Collection on “tech interns” (web2.0,school2.0,iTP) | Diigo

PoetrySpace: we will not be silenced!

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.

school 2.0

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.

Here’s a simple example:

nice white teacher lady

Does anyone else lose it watching this?

And as much as the recent spate of teacher-savior films make my skin all bumpy, I can’t help but bop my head when Gangsta’s Paradise comes on.

Bookroom nightmares to the Nth power

Here’s a little photo montage via Scott McLeod of Dangerously Irrelevant via Will Richardson of Weblogg-ed.

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?

what I actually read this summer

Phillip Roth – The Plot Against America
Michael Chabon – The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Alice Munro – Open Secrets
Ian McEwan – Enduring Love
Charles Dickens – Hard Times
Frederick Douglass – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Henry Adams – The Education of Henry Adams (first five chapters)
Louis Wirth – The Ghetto
Jack London – John Barleycorn
Calvin Trillin – Tepper Isn’t Coming Out
Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things
Benjamin Kunkel – Indecision

how i’m aimless

I plan to enter a doctoral program in Urban Education Policy in Fall
2007. I will study part-time while continuing to teach high school English. I
have taught in the same public alternative/transfer school since I entered the
profession four years ago through the NYC Teaching Fellows program.

Throughout the next five to ten years I will be actively
engaged in study, teaching, and research directed at improving urban education.
Using the forum of aimlessmiss, I plan to record my thoughts and
experiences in hopes that the practice of writing will assist me in documenting
the development of my ideas.

For those unfamiliar with the latest NYC DOE lingo, the "aim" is an integral part of any satisfactory lesson plan. It should appear in the upper left-hand corner of the board, printed legibly. Pretty handwriting goes a long way toward earning a positive reputation.

The aim is essentially the goal for the class period. Each literacy coach I’ve had insists on a different formula for writing the aim. Some say it must be an open-ended question, others prefer the gerund expression, and still others just prefer whatever aim they come up with. I use the gerund/infinitive expression model, though I generally keep the same one for the length of the unit, and I alternately label it the "goal" or the "focus." (Here’s an example: to analyze Tennessee Williams’ use of literary elements in A Streetcar Named Desire. Brilliant, huh.)   

My academic and professional interests are varied – surely I
have ideas and biases, which is to say I approach this project with 26 years of
life experience – but I do not at this time seek to advance any particular agenda.

whose shackles? whose cage?

 

My question to readers:

To what extent is the character development, of the individual as well as the group, reflective of historical memory? If history is largely defined by and for the victors at the expense of validating victims’ experiences, what role do outsiders have in making judgments and casting blame?

This afternoon I read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I’ve also almost finished The Ghetto by Louis Wirth. The Wirth book is a sociological study that examines how the physical
and social space of the ghetto influenced the development of
specifically *Jewish* characteristics over the last century, give or
take.

Douglass vividly depicts the psychologically crippling effects of having one’s humanity denied under slavery. The negative impact of slavery on the black family is well-documented. Many of the African American students I have taught (to distinguish among the *black*-skinned; here I exclude immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean) look back to life in the pre-emancipation and pre-Civil Rights eras to explain away the condition in which they find themselves today. Many guilt-susceptible liberals also indulge this theory. Certainly there is truth here, but I think its easier to blame the past than to fess up to a less flattering present.

On an unrelated note, another popular scapegoat among kids in Brooklyn is the CIA, also known in the circles I frequent as "the man," for allegedly having intentionally introduced crack to the inner cities for the purpose of keeping black folks down.

Yesterday I watched an interview with James McWhorter on one of those CUNY public television segments with remarkably low production value. A linguistics professor at Berkeley, McWhorter is best known as the author of Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America.  Which I found repetitive and rather poorly written. But anyway, McWhorter asserts that most of the troubles of black Americans are traceable to their own learned helplessness, much more so than to any structural legacies of slavery, segregation, or even the racism that is so salient in contemporary America. McWhorter can get away with blaming the victims; he’s black (very light-skinned, I might add, like cafe au lait). What about the pig mentally challenged?

Is it, as Peter Gomes claims in the introduction to the Signet Classic edition of The Narrative, because:

Race is the continuing moral dilemma of America, and the inheritance of slavery its ineradicable moral stain. The further we are removed from the circumstances of legal slavery and legal and social racial segregation, and the more eager we are to move beyond that inheritance and on to other issues, the more persistent that awful legacy becomes…
The problem of race in America is a tragedy of Greek, even biblical, proportions, where indeed the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, and beyond.

Is race singularly taboo in American culture, more so than religion or class? Why do we get so uncomfortable around it?