Kincheloe - Meet Me behand the Curtain: The Struggle for a Critical Postmodern Action Research

Kincheloe positions critical action research as "the (logical) educational extension of a postmodern critical social theory" (p. 74). Action research is seen as the logical vehicle for educators to investigate the power structures that come to play in educational setting. Kincheloe's argument differentiates between traditional noncritical action research and critical action research. Noncritical action research does not recognize the political nature of education and in fact actively rejects the notion that teachers need to be concerned with the politics of education (Elliott's argument). This stance is seen as actually harmful. Kincheloe states, "this uncritical-action-research orientation is quite dangerous as it fosters severely limited views of teaching and the educational process in the name of innovation and democratic pedagogy. It covertly upholds the status quo, as it is unable to analyze the dominant forces that constrict teacher insight and school policy" (p. 82). The distinction Kincheloe articulates between critical and uncritical action research is very enlightening for me. Having worked in traditional school settings (i.e. noncritical) I have been involved in the action research type of projects in which teachers basically verify instructional strategies that are introduced via staff development programs. These efforts have all been top down and have denied the critical expertise of teachers. I was also very interested in Kincheloe comments concerning teacher education programs (as in his other article). Many programs over the years have produced teachers who are noncritical and possibly go through their entire careers upholding the status quo as staff development programs do not offer the type of educational experiences that would lead to a critical analysis of educational practice.

Knowing Ourselves as Instructors

• I really liked this piece. I liked the issues discussed and the focus of some of the strategies teachers have found to be helpful in dealing with the issues they face in the social justice coursework they take on.
• Yes, knowing ourselves seems to be a necessity for helping our students know themsleves. Education is not thoroughly focused on this as a primary goal however. How many college students do you know who really haven't got a clue as to what they are good at, enjoy, want to make a possible life work, etc.? Did you know these things back then? If you did what factors helped you in your process of self-awareness? My experience is that we send some kids out the door at the end of grade 12 without any self-awareness about really basic live issues. How can we expect these students to embrace social justice issues when they are somewhat lost as to who they are themselves. I guess this is more fallout from our banking model of education.
• Anyway, some points to ponder in class: Teacher self-knowledge and self-awareness, the complexity of identity politics, the process of developing awareness about oppression, dominant identities & targeted identities (in most of us), historical & experential complexity of social identity, blindspots of privelege.

Gore - The Struggle for Pedagogies

I agree with Gore that it is iron educators are more concerned with feminism than instructional practice and Women’s Studies departments which “approaches feminist pedagogy as strategy, technique, methodology” (p. 31) are more concerned with instructional practice than feminism. Gore suggests this may be because ‘feminism is already central’ to the Women’s Studies department discussion whereas in education feminism is ‘still a struggle’. One of the fallouts of this separation of thought between these groups is that knowledge is not transferred from one group to another. For example feminist pedagogy as constructed in Women’s Studies departments does not recognize “what women teachers have accomplished within mass public education” (p22). As Taubman points out, these writers are not versed in educational theorists and so claim instructional practices that may already be widely known and employed as a result of the work of educators (ex. Collaborative and/or interactive instructional practices). The lack of attention to educational theorists may be because “many of the writers in this group (Women’s Studies) view schools and colleges as having alienated them/denied their experience/silenced them; that is, perhaps they personally experienced schooling as patriarchal and thus now reject Educational thought” (p. 22). No doubt they did experience education as patriarchal. Education IS patriarchal in our patriarchal society.
I think there is a pecking order in education that is partly the result of the lack of recognition given to the accomplishments of educators. In education those with the least professional status are the educators in elementary classrooms, next are the middle and high school educators, and finally college level educators sit at the top of the educational spectrum. Actually, I was not aware of active discrimination on the part of women’s colleges “that discourage bright students’ interests in childhood or adolescent education” (p.23). I am not totally surprised. It is a sad comment however. Not only is our field held in active disdain by some segments of the general public but we also discriminate among ourselves to some extent.

Kincheloe - Critical Pedagogy Primer

Kincheloe provides a great primer on critical pedagogy in this text. My understanding of what is meant by critical pedagogy has deepened through the reading of this text. I think a concept as abstract as this needs to be supported through the reading of multiple texts and dialogue with others. Kincheloe provides lots of ideas for critical reflection such as:

• critical pedagogy as the 'study of power inscriptions" (p. 4). I like this vocabulary.
• Teacher education programs have shaped us all. Unfortunately, many of these programs have not prepared educators to critically assess schools and schooling and to ask the types of questions that will lead to discussions of equity, social justice, and inclusion. her education seems to be more about 'best practice', management, - the delivery of instruction. This has certainly been my experience. This makes me wonder how much energy has been expended on quieting discenting voices in teacher education programs over the years (and today?).
• The idea that teachers should be wary of schools' as they work to regulate and indoctrinate is not, in my experience, part of teacher education programs.
• Schooling is not neutral. Neutrality is actually support of the status quo. (p. 11)
• Critical pedagogy is concerned with those who are suffering. It requires social action on the part of suffering people. This is a struggle. "Such a struggl engages the lived suffering that comes out of oppression while it studies its consequences in the realm of knowledge production" (p13).
• The idea of the world as "unjust by design" (p25).
• Positivism as an underpinning concept of repression, control, elitism.

There is so much more. The discussion will be very interesting.

Freire - Prom Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Freire's direct (and somewhat painful) analysis of the 'banking system of education' inspires critical reflection of one's own practice as a teacher. I say 'painful' because I see my experience as a teacher impacted by my own participation in a k-12 (and beyond) education based on the banking system. Teachers sometimes fall back on the familarity of their experience as students when choosing instructional practices. I see this tendency not only in past practice but also in the teacher education programs I have participated in. Freire tells us that educators often do not perceive the ideological intent of the educational practices intent on "indoctrinating them (students) to adapt to the world of oppression" (p. 62). I think this is true. Freire goes on to state, "unfortunately, those who espouse the cause of liberation are themselves surrounded and influenced by the climate which generates the banking concept, and often do not perceive its true significance or its dehumanizing power. Paradoxically, then, they utilize this same instrument of alienation in what they consider an effort to liberate" (p. 62). It is only possible to realize the reality of this educational oppression through critical reflection. Critical reflection enables one to recognize the concepts underlying the idea that students are empty vessels to be filled. The concept of teacher as all knowing sage and student as ignorant participant is probably the most basic concept in this model of education. This idea relegates learners to a passive, powerless, noncreative position. Certainly from this stance the Freire's notion of praxis, "the action and reflection of men upon their world in order to transform it" (p. 62), is impossible.
Freire suggests problem-posing education as a liberatory form of education which "strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality" (p. 64). The interaction between teacher and student is transformed into that of a learning community. The teacher presents ideas and through dialogue transformation occurs. "He [the teacher] does not regard cognizable objects as his private property, but as the object of reflection by himself and the students. In this way, the problem-posig educator constantly re-forms his reflections in the reflectin of the students. The students - no longer docile listeners - are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher" (p. 64). In the banking system communication is one way (teacher to student). Problem posing education requires dialogue "as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality" (p66). It is the work of problem-posing education to provide a context in which learners think critically and through this reflection are transformed.
I very much liked Freire's comparison of these two approaches to education as transformation (problem-posing education) and resignation (banking model). It is through the hightened consciousness developed through problem-posing education that learners perceive their lives as "historical reality susceptible of transformation" (p. 76). While problem-posing education is hopeful the banking system is fatalistic. Problem-posing education provides the opportunity for learners to shape the future through the transformation of their own thinking. It is empowering, creative, interesting, and motivating to view education and our role as educators in this light.

hooks - Teaching to Transgress

• I really enjoyed reading hooks thoughts on Freire. Her personal connections are very powerful and convey her own sense of 'transformation' via Freire's pedagogy.
• hooks insights on the work of Freire provides another lens from which to view his work. I was particularly interested in her perspective on his work given her feminist commitment. hooks reflects on the difficulty of engaging in critique of Freire's work while conveying the immense regard she has for the important and liberating aspect of his work. hooks states, "the binary opposition that is so much embedded in Westwern thought and language makes it nearly impossible to project a complex response" (p49). (This is an interesting idea. I wonder how this binary characteristic is manifested in our language and thought.)
• hooks explains it was his very work which impacted her initial questions regarding "racism, sexism, class exploitation, and the kind of domestic colonization that takes place in the United States, I felt myself to be deeply identified with the marginalized peasants he speaks about". Yet at the same time Freire's work is criticized as sexist by feminists. It seems that regardless of this 'flaw' hooks is so profoundly affected in her thought and action by Freire's work that she is able to look beyond and learn from the liberatory aspect of his work. hooks states, "to have work that promotes one's liberation is such a powerful gift that it does not matter so much if the gift is flawed" (p50).
• I found it interesting to read hooks assessment of feminism as a bourgeois feminist perspective that did not resinate with black women. Instead, for hooks, Freire's work on oppression contained a more powerful message that spoke to her experience growing up in a world of poverty and discrimination. Her comparison of black women educators who saw themselves as "having a liberatory mission to educate" and Freire's message of liberation is a new thought for me. hooks realized the subject position in Freire's writing as a validating and empowering concept.

Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction

Some terms I would like to define and discuss in class: substantialist mode of thought, substantialist atomism, habitus

• The problem of the transmission of power and privileges - Bourdieu contends that power and privilege are a matter of hereditary transmission and that the educational system supports this practice through the 'reproduction of the structure of class relations'. The educational system is able to do this in its role as a transmitter of the cultural heritage of a society. So those who 'hold the code' are able to accumulate symbolic wealth. In other words this is how the rich get richer and the poor are forever left out since one is only able to accumulate symbolic wealth if one possesses the 'instruments of appropriation'.
• Bourdieu believes that cultural capital is distrubuted along class lines. This results in the reproduction of class relations in a society.
• Linguistic and cultural competence, as defined by the dominant culture, are prerequisits to success in an educational system which 'puts into practice pedagogic action, requiring familiarity with the dominant culture'. Linguistic and cultural familiarity is transmitted by the family primarily. Hence, children in families outside the dominant culture are automatically denied access to the 'instruments of appropriation' if the educational system does not make the linguistic and cultural tools explicit. Finally, this cycle results in 'a monopoly' of educational success for those groups of people who are members of the dominant culture.

• So the educational system has lots of rationals for the failure of certain groups or individuals. Rarely does one hear Bourdieu's type of reasoning as standards are discussed or as test scores are made public. Educators themselves don't seem to raise these types of issues as they analyze student achievement data. It seems that educators take their cue from society and look past social justice issues and focus instead on practice, programs, materials, buildings, leadership, etc. for answers.