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Critical reading
Critical reading
Critical reading is a form of skepticism that does not take a text at face value, but involves an examination of claims put forward in the text as well as implicit bias in the text's framing and selection of the information presented. The ability to read critically is an ability assumed to be present in scholars and to be learned in academic institutions.
"...a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. " John Steinbeck, The Winter of our Discontent
Levels of understanding
Understanding of Single words Single sentences (grammar) Text Compositions, rhetorics and genres Ideological influences
There are no simple relations between these levels. As the "hermeneutic circle" demonstrates, the understanding of single words depends on the understanding of the text as a whole (as well as the culture in which the text is produced) and vice versa: You cannot understand a text if you do not understand the words in the text. The critical reading of a given text thus implies a critical examination of the concepts used as well as of the soundness of the arguments and the value and relevance of the assumptions and the traditions on which the text is based. "Reading between the lines" is the ability to uncover implicit messages and bias.
Symptomatic reading
Thurston (1993, p. 638) introduces the concept of "symptomatic reading": "Symptomatic reading is used in literary criticism as a means of analysing the presence of ideology in literary texts. French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser develops the technique of symptomatic reading in Reading Capital"
Critical reading
Epistemological issues
Basically critical reading is related to epistemological issues. Hermeneutics (e.g., the version developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer) has demonstrated that the way we read and interpret texts is dependent on our "pre-understanding" and "prejudices". Human knowledge is always an interpretative clarification of the world, not a pure, interest-free theory. Hermeneutics may thus be understood as a theory about critical reading. This field was until recently associated with the humanities, not with science. This situation changed when Thomas Samuel Kuhn published his book (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which can be seen as an hermeneutic interpretation of the sciences because it conceives the scientists as governed by assumptions which are historically embedded and linguistically mediated activities organized around paradigms that direct the conceptualization and investigation of their studies. Scientific revolutions imply that one paradigm replaces another and introduces a new set of theories, approaches and definitions. According to Mallery; Hurwitz & Duffy (1992) the notion of a paradigm-centered scientific community is analogous to Gadamer's notion of a linguistically encoded social tradition. In this way hermeneutics challenge the positivist view that science can cumulate objective facts. Observations are always made on the background of theoretical assumptions: they are theory dependent. By conclusion is critical reading not just something that any scholar is able to do. The way we read is partly determined by the intellectual traditions, which have formed our beliefs and thinking. Generally we read papers within our own culture or tradition less critically compared to our reading of papers from other traditions or "paradigms".
A famous example
The psychologist Cyril Burt is known for his studies on the effect of heredity on intelligence. Shortly after he died, his studied of inheritance and intelligence came into disrepute after evidence emerged indicating he had falsified research data. Tucker's paper (1994) is illuminative on both how "critical reading" was performed in the discovery of the falsified data as well as in many famous psychologists "non-critical reading" of Burt's papers. Tucker shows that the recognized experts within the field of intelligence research blindly accepted Cyril Burt's research even though it was without scientific value and probably directly faked: They wanted to believe that IQ is hereditary and considered uncritically empirical claims supporting this view. This paper thus demonstrates how critical reading (and the opposite) may be related to beliefs as well as to interests and power structures.
Literature
Althusser, Louis & Balibar, Etienne (1970). Reading Capital. Translated by Ben Brewster. London: New Left Books. Bazerman, Charles (1994). The Informed Writer: Using Sources in the Disciplines. 5 edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. Brody, Roberta (2008). The Problem of Information Navet. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(7), 11241127. Eco, Umberto (1992). Interpretation and overinterpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ekegren, P. (1999). The Reading of Theoretical Texts. A Critique of Criticism in the Social Sciences. London: Routledge. (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought, 19). Halpern, D.F. (2003), Thought & Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, 4th ed., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. Kuhn, T. S. (1962, 1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Mallery, J. C.; Hurwitz, R. & Duffy, G. (1992). Hermeneutics. IN: Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence. Vol. 1-2. 2nd ed. Ed. by S.C. Shapiro (Vol 1, pp. 596-611). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Critical reading Riegelman, Richard K. (2004). Studying a Study and Testing a Test: How to Read the Medical Evidence. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Slife, Brent D. & Williams, R. N. (1995). What's behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ("A Consumers Guide to the Behavioral Sciences"). Thurston, John (1993). Symptomatic reading. IN: Encyclopedia of contemporary literary theory: Approaches, scholars, terms. Ed. by Irena R. Makaryk. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (P. 638). Tucker, William H. (1994). Facts and fiction in the discovery of Sir Cyril Burt's flaws. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 30, 335-347.
External links
Lye, John (1997). CRITICAL READING: A GUIDE [1] What Is Critical Reading? [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. brocku. ca/ english/ jlye/ criticalreading. php [2] http:/ / www. criticalreading. com/ critical_reading. htm
Critical pedagogy
Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education described by Henry Giroux as an "educational movement, guided by passion and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take constructive action."[1] Based in Marxist theory, critical pedagogy draws on radical democracy, anarchism, feminism, and other movements that strive for what they describe as social justice. Critical pedagogue Ira Shor defines critical pedagogy as: "Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional clichs, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse." (Empowering Education, 129) Critical pedagogy includes relationships between teaching and learning. Its proponents claim that it is a continuous process of what they call "unlearning", "learning", and "relearning", "reflection", "evaluation", and the impact that these actions have on the students, in particular students whom they believe have been historically and continue to be disenfranchised by what they call "traditional schooling". Philosopher John Searle[2] suggests that, despite the "opaque prose" and lofty claims of Giroux, he interprets the goal of Giroux's form of critical pedagogy "to create political radicals," thus highlighting the contestable and antagonistic moral and political grounds of the ideals of citizenship and "public wisdom"; these varying moral perspectives of what is "right" are to be found in what John Dewey [3] has referred to as the tensions between traditional and progressive education.
Critical pedagogy
Background
Critical pedagogy was heavily influenced by the works of Paulo Freire, arguably the most celebrated critical educator. According to his writings, Freire heavily endorses students ability to think critically about their education situation; this way of thinking allows them to "recognize connections between their individual problems and experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded."[4] Realizing ones consciousness ("conscientization") is a needed first step of "praxis," which is defined as the power and know-how to take action against oppression while stressing the importance of liberating education. "Praxis involves engaging in a cycle of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory. Social transformation is the product of praxis at the collective level."[4] Postmodern, anti-racist, feminist, postcolonial, and queer theories all play a role in further explaining Freires ideas of critical pedagogy, shifting its main focus on social class to include issues pertaining to religion, military identification, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and age. Many contemporary critical pedagogues have embraced postmodern, anti-essentialist perspectives of the individual, of language, and of power, "while at the same time retaining the Freirean emphasis on critique, disrupting oppressive regimes of power/knowledge, and social change."[4] Contemporary critical educators, such as bell hooks and Peter McLaren, discuss in their criticisms the influence of many varied concerns, institutions, and social structures, "including globalization, the mass media, and race/spiritual relations," while citing reasons for resisting the possibilities to change.[4] Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg have created the Paulo and Nita Freire Project for International Critical Pedagogy at McGill University.[5] In line with Kincheloe and Steinberg's contributions to critical pedagogy, the project attempts to move the field to the next phase of its evolution. In this second phase critical pedagogy seeks to truly become a worldwide, decolonizing movement dedicated to listening to and learning from diverse discourses from peoples around the planet. Kincheloe and Steinberg also embrace Indigenous knowledges in education as a way to expand critical pedagogy and to question educational hegemony. In agreement with this perspective, Four Arrows, aka Don Trent Jacobs, challenges the anthropocentrism of critical pedagogy and writes that to achieve its transformative goals there are other differences between Western and Indigenous worldview that must be considered. <Kincheloe, J. & Steinberg, S. (2008)Indigenous Knowledges in Education: Complexities, Dangers, and Profound Benefits in Ed Denzin, N. Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies><Four Arrows (2011) Differing Worldviews: Two Scholars Argue Cooperatively about Justice Education (Sense)> Writing from outside the critical pedagogy camp, philosopher Stephen Hicks[6] describes the motives and practical application of "postmodern education" In education, postmodernism rejects the notion that the purpose of education is primarily to train a childs cognitive capacity for reason in order to produce an adult capable of functioning independently in the world. That view of education is replaced with the view that education is to take an essentially indeterminate being and give it a social identity. Educations method of molding is linguistic, and so the language to be used is that which will create a human being sensitive to its racial, sexual, and class identity. Our current social context, however, is characterized by oppression that benefits whites, males, and the rich at the expense of everyone else. That oppression in turn leads to an educational system that reflects only or primarily the interests of those in positions of power. To counteract that bias, educational practice must be recast totally. Postmodern education should emphasize works not in the canon; it should focus on the achievements of non-whites, females, and the poor; it should highlight the historical crimes of whites, males, and the rich; and it should teach students that sciences method has no better claim to yielding truth than any other method and, accordingly, that students should be equally receptive to alternative ways of knowing.
Critical pedagogy
Examples
History
During South African apartheid, legal racialization implemented by the regime drove members of the radical leftist Teachers' League of South Africa to employ critical pedagogy with a focus on nonracialism in Cape Town schools and prisons. Teachers collaborated loosely to subvert the racist curriculum and encourage critical examination of religious, military, political, and social circumstances in terms of spirit-friendly, humanist, and democratic ideologies. The efforts of such teachers are credited with having bolstered student resistance and activism.[7] Any analysis of critical pedagogy must begin with an examination of the work of Paulo Freire who is generally considered to be the inaugural philosopher of critical pedagogy." Freire seldom used the term "critical pedagogy" himself when describing this philosophy. His initial focus targeted adult literacy projects in Brazil and later was adapted to deal with a wide range of social and educational issues. Freires pedagogy revolved around an anti-authoritarian and interactive approach aimed to examine issues of relational power for students and workers.[8] The center of the curriculum used the fundamental goal based on social and political critiques of everyday life. Freires praxis required implementation of a range of educational practices and processes with the goal of creating not only a better learning environment, but also a better world. Freire himself maintained that this was not merely an educational technique but a way of living in our educative practice.[9]
Literature
Authors of critical pedagogy texts include not only Paulo Freire, as mentioned above, but also Michael Apple, Henry Giroux, Antonia Darder, bell hooks, Gloria Ladson Billings, Peter McLaren, Joe L. Kincheloe, Howard Zinn, Donaldo Macedo, Sandy Grande and others. Educationalists including Jonathan Kozol and Parker Palmer are sometimes included in this category. Other critical pedagogues known more for their anti-schooling, unschooling, or deschooling perspectives include Ivan Illich, John Holt, Ira Shor, John Taylor Gatto, and Matt Hern. Much of the work draws on anarchism, feminism, Marxism, Gyrgy Lukcs, Wilhelm Reich, postcolonialism, and the discourse theories of Edward Said, Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault. Radical Teacher is a magazine dedicated to critical pedagogy and issues of interest to critical educators. The Rouge Forum is an online organization led by people involved with critical pedagogy. Searle[10] argues that critical pedagogy's objections to the Western canon are misplaced and/or disingenuous: Precisely by inculcating a critical attitude, the "canon" served to demythologize the conventional pieties of the American bourgeoisie and provided the student with a perspective from which to critically analyze American culture and institutions. Ironically, the same tradition is now regarded as oppressive. The texts once served an unmasking function; now we are told that it is the texts which must be unmasked. Furthermore, bell hooks,[11] who is greatly influenced by Freire, points out the importance of engaged pedagogy and the responsibity that teachers as well as students must have in the classroom: Teachers must be aware of themselves as practitioners and as human beings if they wish to teach students in a non-threatening, anti-discriminatory way. Self-actualisation should be the goal of the teacher as well as the students.
Critical pedagogy a struggle for ownership of themselves. Shor states that students have previously been lulled into a sense of complacency by the circumstances of everyday life and through the processes of the classroom, they can begin to envision and strive for something different for themselves. Of course achieving such a goal isn't automatic nor easy, as Shor suggests that the role of the teacher is critical to this process. Students need to be helped by teachers to separate themselves from unconditional acceptance of the conditions of their own existence and once this separation is achieved, then students may be prepared for critical re-entry into an examination of everyday life. In a classroom environment that achieves such liberating intent, one of the potential outcomes is that the students themselves assume more responsibility for the class. Power is thus distributed amongst the group and the role of the teacher becomes much more mobile, not to mention more challenging. This encourages growth of each students intellectual character rather than a mere mimicry of the professorial style.[12]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Giroux, H. (October 27, 2010) "Lessons From Paulo Freire", Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 10/20/10. Searle, John. (1990) The Storm Over the University, The New York Review of Books, December 6, 1990. Dewey, John. (1938). Experience and Education. Critical Pedagogy on the Web (http:/ / mingo. info-science. uiowa. edu/ ~stevens/ critped/ page1. htm) The Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy (http:/ / freire. education. mcgill. ca/ )
[6] Hicks, Stephen R.C. (2004) Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Tempe, AZ: Scholargy Press, ISBN 1-59247-646-5, pp. 18-19. [7] Wieder, Alan (2003). Voices from Cape Town Classrooms: Oral Histories of Teachers Who Fought Apartheid. History of Schools and Schooling Series, vol. 39. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-6768-5. [8] McLaren, P. (2000). Paulo Freires Pedagogy of Possibility. In S. Steiner, H. Krank, P. McLaren, & R. Bahruth (Eds.), Freirean Pedagogy, Praxis and Possibilities: Projects for the New Millennium (pp. 1-22). New York & London: Falmer Press. [9] Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage (Clarke, P., Trans.). Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. [10] Searle, 1990 [11] http:/ / www. infed. org/ thinkers/ hooks. htm [12] Shor, I. (1980). Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Boston, Massachusetts: South End Press.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Portuguese: Pedagogia do Oprimido), written by educator Paulo Freire, proposes a pedagogy with a new relationship between teacher, student, and society. It was first published in Portuguese in 1968, and was translated and published in English in 1970.[1] The book is considered one of the foundational texts of critical pedagogy. Dedicated to what is called "the oppressed" and based on his own experience helping Brazilian adults to read and write, Freire includes a detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between what he calls "the colonizer" and "the colonized". In the book Freire calls traditional pedagogy the "banking model" because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge, like a piggybank. However, he argues for pedagogy to treat the learner as a co-creator of knowledge. According to Donaldo Macedo, a former colleague of Freire and University of Massachusetts Amherst professor, Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a revolutionary text, and people in totalitarian states risk punishment reading it;[2] Arizona's former Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne, objected to its use in classrooms.[3] The book has sold over 750,000 copies worldwide.[4]
Summary
Translated into several languages, most editions of Pedagogy of the Oppressed contain at least one introduction/foreword, a preface, and four chapters. The first chapter explores how oppression has been justified and how it is overcome through a mutual process between the "oppressor" and the "oppressed" (oppressorsoppressed distinction). Examining how the balance of power between the colonizer and the colonized remains relatively stable, Freire admits that the powerless in society can be frightened of freedom. He writes, "Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion". (47) According to Freire, freedom will be the result of praxis informed action when a balance between theory and practice is achieved. The second chapter examines the "banking" approach to education a metaphor used by Freire that suggests students are considered empty bank accounts that should remain open to deposits made by the teacher. Freire rejects the "banking" approach, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers. In addition, he argues the banking approach stimulates oppressive attitudes and practices in society. Instead, Freire advocates for a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that considers people incomplete. According to Freire, this "authentic" approach to education must allow people to be aware of their incompleteness and strive to be more fully human. This attempt to use education as a means of consciously shaping the person and the society is called conscientization, a term first coined by Freire in this book.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed The third chapter developed the use of the term limit situation with regards to dimensions of human praxis. This is in line with the Alvaro Viera Pinto's use of the word/idea in his "Consciencia Realidad Nacional" which Freire contends is "using the concept without the pessimistic character originally found in Jaspers" (Note 15, Chapter 3) in reference to Karl Jaspers's notion of 'Grenzsituationen'. The last chapter proposes dialogics as an instrument to free the colonized, through the use of cooperation, unity, organization and cultural synthesis (overcoming problems in society to liberate human beings). This is in contrast to antidialogics which use conquest, manipulation, cultural invasion, and the concept of divide and rule. Freire suggests that populist dialogue is a necessity to revolution; that impeding dialogue dehumanizes and supports the status quo. This is but one example of the dichotomies Freire identifies in the book. Others include the student-teacher dichotomy and the colonizer-colonized dichotomy. In his article for the conservative-leaning City Journal, Sol Stern[5] notes that Pedagogy of the Oppressed ignores the traditional touchstones of Western education (e.g., Rousseau, John Dewey, or Maria Montessori) and contains virtually none of the information typically found in traditional teacher education (e.g., no discussion of curriculum, testing, or age-appropriate learning). To the contrary, Freire rejects traditional education as "official knowledge" that intends to oppress.
Spread
Since the publication of the English edition in 1970, Pedagogy of the Oppressed has achieved "near-iconic status" in America's teacher-training programs, according to Sol Stern. A 2003 study looking at the curricula of 16 schools of education, 14 of them among the top in the country, found that Pedagogy of the Oppressed was one of the most frequently assigned texts in their philosophy of education courses. Such course assignments are a large part of the reason the book has sold almost 1 million copies, which is a remarkable number for a book in the education field.[5]
Influences
The work was strongly influenced by Frantz Fanon and Karl Marx. One of Freire's dictums is that: "there neither is, nor has ever been, an educational practice in zero space-timeneutral in the sense of being committed only to preponderantly abstract, intangible ideas." According to later critics, heirs to Freire's ideas have taken it to mean that since all education is political, "leftist math teachers who care about the oppressed have a right, indeed a duty, to use a pedagogy that, in Freire's words, "does not conceal in fact, which proclaims its own political character".[6] During the South African anti-apartheid struggle, ad-hoc copies of Pedagogy of the Oppressed were distributed underground as part of the "ideological weaponry" of various revolutionary groups like the Black Consciousness Movement. In the 1970s and 1980s the book was banned and kept clandestine.[7]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] http:/ / www. pedagogyoftheoppressed. com/ about/ Freire 2006, p.16 http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2011/ 01/ 17/ opinion/ 17mon2. html?emc=eta1 Publisher's Foreword in Freire, Paulo (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, p. 9. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xfFXFD414ioC& printsec=frontcover& dq=pedagogy+ of+ the+ oppressed& hl=fi& ei=iMVbTInnCtvNjAfk84jyAw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q& f=false) [5] Stern, Sol. "Pedagogy of the Oppressor" (http:/ / www. city-journal. org/ 2009/ 19_2_freirian-pedagogy. html), City Journal, Spring 2009, Vol. 19, no. 2 [6] Stern, Sol. "'The Ed Schools' Latestand WorstHumbug" (http:/ / www. city-journal. org/ html/ 16_3_ed_school. html), City Journal, Spring 2006, Vol. 16, No. 3. [7] Archie Dick (2010) "Librarians and Readers in the South African Anti-Apartheid Struggle", public lecture given in Tampere Main Library, August 19, 2010; see also (http:/ / willmedia. will. uiuc. edu/ ramgen/ CAS/ cas2007-01-30. rv)
Bibliography
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2007. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary ed. New York: Continuum, 2006. Rich Gibson, The Frozen Dialectics of Paulo Freire (http://www.pipeline.com/~rougeforum/freirecriticaledu. htm), in NeoLiberalism and Education Reform, Hampton Press, 2006.
External links
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (http://marxists.anu.edu.au/subject/education/freire/pedagogy/ index.htm) A detailed chapter by chapter summary (http://www.comminit.com/en/node/27123).
Paulo Freire
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Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire
Born
September 19, 1921 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil May 2, 1997 (aged75) So Paulo, So Paulo, Brazil Brazilian Educator, author Theories of education Jean-Paul Sartre, Erich Fromm, Louis Althusser, Herbert Marcuse, Karl Marx, Ivan Illich, Mao Zedong, Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, Emmanuel Mounier Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux, Joe L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, Antonia Darder, Augusto Boal, James D. Kirylo
Died
Influenced
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire, Ph.D (pron.: /frri/, Portuguese:[pawlu feii]; September 19, 1921 May 2, 1997) was a Brazilian educator, philosopher, and influential theorist of critical pedagogy. He is best known for his influential work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which is considered one of the foundation texts of the critical pedagogy movement.[1][2][3]
Biography
Freire was born September 19, 1921 to a middle class family in Recife, Brazil. Freire became familiar with poverty and hunger during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1931, the family moved to the less expensive city of Jaboato dos Guararapes, and in 1933 his father died. In school, he ended up four grades behind, and his social life revolved around playing pick up football with other poor children, from whom he learned a great deal. These experiences would shape his concerns for the poor and would help to construct his particular educational viewpoint. Freire stated that poverty and hunger severely affected his ability to learn. This influenced his decision to dedicate his life to improving the lives of the poor: I didn't understand anything because of my hunger. I wasn't dumb. It wasn't lack of interest. My social condition didn't allow me to have an education. Experience showed me once again the relationship between social class and knowledge" (Freire as quoted in Stevens, 2002) .[4] Eventually his family's misfortunes turned around and their prospects improved.
Paulo Freire Freire enrolled at Law School at the University of Recife in 1943. He also studied philosophy, more specifically phenomenology, and the psychology of language. Although admitted to the legal bar, he never actually practiced law but instead worked as a teacher in secondary schools teaching Portuguese. In 1944, he married Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira, a fellow teacher. The two worked together and had five children. In 1946, Freire was appointed Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Social Service in the state of Pernambuco. Working primarily among the illiterate poor, Freire began to embrace a non-orthodox form of what could be considered[5] liberation theology. In Brazil at that time, literacy was a requirement for voting in presidential elections. In 1961, he was appointed director of the Department of Cultural Extension of Recife University, and in 1962 he had the first opportunity for significant application of his theories, when 300 sugarcane workers were taught to read and write in just 45 days. In response to this experiment, the Brazilian government approved the creation of thousands of cultural circles across the country. In 1964, a military coup put an end to that effort. Freire was imprisoned as a traitor for 70 days. After a brief exile in Bolivia, Freire worked in Chile for five years for the Christian Democratic Agrarian Reform Movement and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In 1967, Freire published his first book, Education as the Practice of Freedom. He followed this with his most famous book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, first published in Portuguese in 1968. On the strength of reception of his work, Freire was offered a visiting professorship at Harvard University in 1969. The next year, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was published in both Spanish and English, vastly expanding its reach. Because of political feuds between Freire, a Christian socialist, and successive authoritarian military dictatorships, the book wasn't published in Brazil until 1974, when General Ernesto Geisel became the then dictator president beginning the process of a slow and controlled political liberalisation. After a year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Freire moved to Geneva, Switzerland to work as a special education advisor to the World Council of Churches. During this time Freire acted as an advisor on education reform in former Portuguese colonies in Africa, particularly Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. In 1979, he was able to return to Brazil, and moved back in 1980. Freire joined the Workers' Party (PT) in the city of So Paulo, and acted as a supervisor for its adult literacy project from 1980 to 1986. When the PT prevailed in the municipal elections in 1988, Freire was appointed Secretary of Education for So Paulo. In 1986, his wife Elza died. People close to him felt that he given up after the loss of his wife and worried that he might die. A friend came to him and reminded him that he had promised his wife that he would serve on the doctoral thesis committee for his wife's best friend, Maria Arajo. Freire agreed. Maria had lost her husband. In the process, Freire and Arajo fell in love. Freire married Maria Arajo Freire, who continues with her own educational work. She brought a lot of energy back to his life. Freire died of heart failure on May 2, 1997 in So Paulo.
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Theoretical contributions
"There is no such thing as a neutral education process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of generations into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." Richard Shaull, drawing on Paulo Freire[6] Paulo Freire contributed a philosophy of education that came not only from the more classical approaches stemming from Plato, but also from modern Marxist and anti-colonialist thinkers. In fact, in many ways his Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) may be best read as an extension of, or reply to, Frantz Fanons The Wretched of the Earth (1961), which emphasized the need to provide native populations with an education which was simultaneously new and
Paulo Freire modern (rather than traditional) and anti-colonial (not simply an extension of the culture of the colonizer). In Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), Freire, reprising the Oppressorsoppressed distinction, differentiates between the two positions in an unjust society, the oppressor and the oppressed. Freire makes no direct reference to his most direct influence for the distinction, which stems back at least as far as Hegel in 1802, and has since been reprised by many authors including Engels, Marx, Lenin, Gramsci, Simone Weil and others. Freire champions that education should allow the oppressed to regain their sense of humanity, in turn overcoming their condition. Nevertheless, he also acknowledges that in order for this to occur, the oppressed individual must play a role in their liberation. As he states: No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption (Freire, 1970, p. 54).[7] Likewise, the oppressors must also be willing to rethink their way of life and to examine their own role in the oppression if true liberation is to occur; "those who authentically commit themselves to the people must re-examine themselves constantly" (Freire, 1970, p.60). Freire believed education to be a political act that could not be divorced from pedagogy. Freire defined this as a main tenet of critical pedagogy. Teachers and students must be made aware of the "politics" that surround education. The way students are taught and what they are taught serves a political agenda. Teachers, themselves, have political notions they bring into the classroom (Kincheloe, 2008).[8] Freire believed that "education makes sense because women and men learn that through learning they can make and remake themselves, because women and men are able to take responsibility for themselves as beings capable of knowing of knowing that they know and knowing that they don't" (Freire, 2004, p.15)[9]
12
Student-teacher dualism
More challenging is Freire's strong aversion to the teacher-student dichotomy. This dichotomy is admitted in Rousseau and constrained in Dewey, but Freire comes close to insisting that it be completely abolished.
Culture of silence
According to Freire, the system of dominant social relations creates a culture of silence that instills a negative, silenced and suppressed self-image into the oppressed. The learner must develop a critical consciousness in order to recognize that this culture of silence is created to oppress.[11] Also, a culture of silence can cause the "dominated individuals [to] lose the means by which to critically respond to the culture that is forced on them by a dominant culture."[12] Social domination of race and class are interleaved into the conventional educational system, through
Paulo Freire which the culture of silence eliminates the "paths of thought that lead to a language of critique[13]
13
Global impact
Freire's major exponents in North America are Peter McLaren, Donaldo Macedo, Joe L. Kincheloe, Ira Shor, and Henry Giroux. One of McLaren's edited texts, Paulo Freire: A Critical Encounter, expounds upon Freire's impact in the field of critical education. McLaren has also provided a comparative study concerning Paulo Freire and the Argentinian revolutionary icon Che Guevara. Freire's work has also influenced the so-called "radical math" movement in the United States, which emphasizes social justice issues and critical pedagogy as components of mathematical curricula [14] In 1991, the Paulo Freire Institute [15] was established in So Paulo to extend and elaborate upon his theories of popular education. The Institute now has projects in many countries and is currently headquartered at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies where it actively maintains the Freire archives. The director is Dr. Carlos Torres, a UCLA professor and author of Freirean books including La praxis educativa de Paulo Freire (1978). Since the publication of the English edition in 1970, Pedagogy of the Oppressed has achieved near-iconic status in America's teacher-training programs, according to Sol Stern, a social commentator critical of the entry of Freire's Marxist-inspired teachings into the mainstream curriculum. Connections of Freire's non-dual theory and pedagogy has also recently been made with eastern philosophical traditions such as the Advaita Vedanta[16] In 1999 PAULO a National Training Organisation, named in honour of Friere was established in the United Kingdom. This agency was approved by the New Labour Government to represent some 300,000 community based education practitioners working across the UK. PAULO was given formal responsibility for setting the occupational training standards for people working in this field. The Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference is held each spring and is guided by the theory and practice of these two liberatory practitioners. The Conference networks a wide variety of people with interests in Freire and Augusto Boalliberatory education and theatre, community organizing, community-based analysis, TIE, race/gender/class/sexual orientation/geography analysis, performance/performance art, comparative education models, etc. The Paulo and Nita Freire Project for International Critical Pedagogy has been founded at McGill University. Here Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg have worked to create a dialogical forum for critical scholars around the world to promote research and re-create a Freirean pedagogy in a multinational domain. In 2012 a group of educators in Western Massachusetts received permission [17] from the state to found the Paolo Freire Social Justice Charter School [18] in Holyoke, MA, which is set to open in September 2013. Freire's chief critic in the US is Dr Rich Gibson. "Paulo Freire and Revolutionary Pedagogy for Social Justice." http:/ /richgibson.com/freirecriticaledu.htm At his death, Freire was working on a book of ecopedagogy, a platform of work carried on by many of the Freire Institutes and Freirean Associations around the world today. It has been influential in helping to develop planetary education projects such as the Earth Charter as well as countless international grassroots campaigns per the spirit of Freirean popular education generally.
Paulo Freire
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Recognition
King Baudouin International Development Prize 1980. Paulo Freire was the very first person to receive this prize. He was nominated for the prize by Dr. Mathew Zachariah, Professor of Education at the University of Calgary. Prize for Outstanding Christian Educators with his wife Elza UNESCO 1986 Prize for Education for Peace Honorary Doctorate, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1996, along with Augusto Boal, during their residency at the Second Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference in Omaha. An independent public high school in Holyoke, Massachusetts, called the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School, won state approval on 28 February 2012. and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012.[19] Honorary Degree from Claremont Graduate University, 1992
Bibliography
Freire wrote and co-wrote over 20 books on education, pedagogy and related themes.[20]
Notes
[1] "The New Observer" (http:/ / www. justinwyllie. net/ essays/ pedagogy_oppressed. pdf). Justinwyllie.net. . Retrieved 2012-11-12. [2] "Why Paulo Freires Pedagogy of the Oppressed is just as relevant today as ever | Sima Barmania | Independent Uncategorized Blogs" (http:/ / blogs. independent. co. uk/ 2011/ 10/ 26/ why-paulo-freires-pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-is-just-as-relevant-today-as-ever/ ). Blogs.independent.co.uk. 2011-10-26. . Retrieved 2012-11-12. [3] "Paulo Freire and informal education" (http:/ / www. infed. org/ thinkers/ et-freir. htm). Infed.org. 2012-05-29. . Retrieved 2012-11-12. [4] Stevens, C. (2002). Critical Pedagogy on the Web (http:/ / mingo. info-science. uiowa. edu/ ~stevens/ critped/ page1. htm). Retrieved July 18, 2008 [5] Peter Lownd, " Freire's Life and Work (http:/ / www. paulofreireinstitute. org/ PF-life_and_work_by_Peter. html)", Paulo Freire Institute. [6] Gramsci, Freire, and Adult Education: Possibilities for Transformative Action, by Peter Mayo, Macmillan, 1999, ISBN 1-85649-614-7, pg 5 [7] Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. [8] Kincheloe, J.L. (2008). Critical Pedagogy Primer, 2nd Ed. New York: Peter Lang. [9] Freire, P. (2004). Pedagogy of Indignation. Boulder: Colorado, Paradigm. [10] Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=gZq6NB6R-P8C) [11] "Marxist education:Education by Freire" (http:/ / tx. cpusa. org/ school/ classics/ freire. htm). Tx.cpusa.org. . Retrieved 2012-11-12. [12] "Paulo Freire" (http:/ / www. education. miami. edu/ ep/ contemporaryed/ Paulo_Freire/ paulo_freire. html). Education.miami.edu. . Retrieved 2012-11-12. [13] (Giroux, 2001, p. 80) (A Presentation by) John Cortez Fordham University. "Culture, Power and Transformation in the Work of Paulo Freire by Henry A. Giroux" (http:/ / faculty. fordham. edu/ kpking/ classes/ uege5102-pres-and-newmedia/ Giroux-John-Cortez-Presentation. pdf). . [14] http:/ / www. radicalmath. org/ [15] http:/ / www. paulofreireinstitute. org/ [16] Bharath Sriraman, " "On the Origins of Social Justice: Darwin, Freire, Marx and Vivekananda" (http:/ / www. math. umt. edu/ TMME/ Monograph1/ ), The Mathematics Enthusiast, Monograph 1, 2007 [17] http:/ / www. bostonglobe. com/ metro/ 2012/ 02/ 28/ state-approves-four-new-charter-schools/ vJSYRGhkz9rgEBqwaPMyGI/ story. html [18] http:/ / paulofreirecharterschool. org/ [19] Hampshire Gazette (http:/ / dailyhampshiregazette. com/ 2012/ 02/ 29/ holyoke-charter-school-gets-green-light-from-state-1) [20] "bibliography Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (http:/ / www. pedagogyoftheoppressed. com/ bibliography/ ). Pedagogyoftheoppressed.com. . Retrieved 2012-11-12.
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References
Mann, Bernhard, The Pedagogical and Political Concepts of Mahatma Gandhi and Paulo Freire. In: Clauen, B. (Ed.) International Studies in Political Socialization and ion. Bd. 8. Hamburg 1996. ISBN 3-926952-97-0 Aronowitz, Stanley (1993). Paulo Freire's radical democratic humanism (http://books.google.it/ books?id=RwGmEa69ORYC). In P. McLaren & P. Leonard. (Eds.), Paulo Freire: A critical encounter (pp.9-) Kincheloe, Joe L. (2008). Critical Pedagogy. 2nd Ed. New York: Peter Lang.
Further reading
Coben, Diana (1998), Radical heroes. Gramsci, Freire and the Politics of Adult Education, New York: Garland Press. Darder, Antonia (2002), Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love, Boulder: Westview. Elias, John (1994), Paulo Freire: Pedagogue of Liberation, Florida: Krieger. Ernest, Paul; Greer, Brian; Sriraman,Bharath(eds.), "Critical Issues in Mathematics Education", The Mathematics Enthusiast: Monograph Series in Mathematics Education, Information Age Publishing; Charolotte, NC, ISBN 978-1-60752-039-9 Freire, Paulo (1997) "Mentoring the mentor: a critical dialogue with Paulo Freire", Counterpoints: Studies in the Postmodern Theory of Education, Vol 60, 1997, ISBN 0-8204-3798-0 Gadotti, Moacir (1994), Reading Paulo Freire. His Life and Work, Albany: SUNY Press. Gibson, Rich (2004), "The Promethean Literacy." Unpublished dissertation online. McLaren, Peter (2000) Che Guevara, Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Revolution, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. McLaren, Peter and Leonard, Peter (eds.) (1993), Paulo Freire: A Critical Encounter, London and New York: Routledge. McLaren, Peter and Lankshear, Colin (eds.) (1994), Politics of Liberation. Paths from Freire, London and New York: Routledge. Mayo, Peter (1999), Gramsci, Freire and Adult Education. Possibilities for Transformative Action, London and New York: Zed Books. Mayo, Peter (2004, 2008), Liberating Praxis. Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger; Rotterdam and Taipei: Sense. Morrow, Raymond A. and Torres, Carlos .A. (2002), Reading Freire and Habermas. Critical pedagogy and Transformative Social Change, New York and London: Teachers College Press. OCadiz, Maria del Pilar, Wong, Pia L. and Torres, Carlos A. (1997), Education and Democracy. Paulo Freire, Social Movements and Educational Reform in So Paulo, Boulder: Westview Press. Roberts, Peter (2000), Education, Literacy, and Humanization Exploring the Work of Paulo Freire, Westport, Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey. Rossatto, Cesar A. (2005), Engaging Paulo Freire's Pedagogy Of Possibility: From Blind To Transformative Optimism, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Sriraman, Bharath (2007), On the origins of social justice: Darwin, Freire, Marx and Vivekananda, The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, Monograph 1, pp.1-6, University of Montana Press. Taylor, Paul V. (1993), The Texts of Paulo Freire, Buckingham: Open University Press. Torres, Carlos A and Noguera, Pedro (eds.) (2008), Social Justice Education For Teachers. Paulo Freire and the Possible Dream, Rotterdam and Taipei: Sense.
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External links
Digital Library Paulo Freire (Pt-Br) (http://www.paulofreire.ufpb.br/) Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (http://marxists.anu.edu.au/subject/education/freire/pedagogy/ index.htm) PopEd Toolkit - Exercises/Links inspired by Freire's work (http://www.poped.org/) Interview with Maria Arajo Freire on her marriage to Paulo Freire (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_qa3965/is_200004/ai_n8881236/) Interview excerpt with Paulo Freire on liberation theology and Marx (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=1Wz5y2V1af0) A dialogue with Paulo Freire and Ira Shor (1988) (http://brechtforum.org/node/1683)
John Dewey
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John Dewey
John Dewey
Dewey in 1902 Born October 20, 1859 Burlington, Vermont June 1, 1952 (aged92) New York 20th-century philosophy Western Philosophy Pragmatism
Died
Maininterests Philosophy of education, Epistemology, Journalism, Ethics Notableideas [1] Reflective Thinking American Association of University Professors Inquiry into Moscow show trials about Trotsky Educational progressivism
John Dewey (/dui/; October 20, 1859 June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology. He was a major representative of progressive education and liberalism.[2][3] Although Dewey is known best for his publications concerning education, he also wrote about many other topics, including experience, nature, art, logic, inquiry, democracy, and ethics. In his advocacy of democracy, Dewey considered two fundamental elementsschools and civil societyas being major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality. Dewey asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but also by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by effective communication among citizens, experts, and politicians, with the latter being accountable for the policies they adopt.
John Dewey
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John Dewey
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Functional psychology
At University of Michigan, Dewey published his first two books, Psychology (1887), and Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding (1888), both of which expressed Dewey's early commitment to British neo-Hegelianism. In Psychology, Dewey attempted a synthesis between idealism and experimental science.[15] While still professor of philosophy at Michigan, Dewey and his junior colleagues, James Hayden Tufts and George Herbert Mead, together with his student James Rowland Angell, all influenced strongly by the recent publication of William James' Principles of Psychology (1890), began to reformulate psychology, emphasizing the social environment on the activity of mind and behaviour rather than the physiological psychology of Wundt and his followers. By 1894, Dewey had joined Tufts, with whom he would later write Ethics (1908), at the recently founded University of Chicago and invited Mead and Angell to follow him, the four men forming the basis of the so-called "Chicago group" of psychology. Their new style of psychology, later dubbed functional psychology, had a practical emphasis on action and application. In Dewey's article "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" which appeared in Psychological Review in 1896, he reasons against the traditional stimulus-response understanding of the reflex arc in favor of a "circular" account in which what serves as "stimulus" and what as "response" depends on how one considers the situation, and defends the unitary nature of the sensory motor circuit. While he does not deny the existence of stimulus, sensation, and response, he disagreed that they were separate, juxtaposed events happening like links in a chain. He developed the idea that there is a coordination by which the stimulation is enriched by the results of previous experiences. The response is modulated by sensorial experience. Dewey was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1899.
John Dewey
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In 1984, the American Psychological Association announced that Lillian Moller Gilbreth (18781972) had become the first psychologist to be commemorated on a United States postage stamp. However, psychologists Gary Brucato Jr. and John D. Hogan later made the case that this distinction actually belonged to John Dewey, who had been celebrated on an American stamp 17 years earlier. While some psychology historians consider Dewey more of a philosopher than a bona fide psychologist,[16] the authors noted that Dewey was a founding member of the A.P.A., served as the A.P.A.'s eighth President in 1899, and was the author of an 1896 article on the reflex arc which is now considered a basis of American functional psychology.[17]
Dewey also expressed interest in work in the psychology of visual perception performed by Dartmouth research professor Adelbert Ames, Jr. He had great trouble with listening, however, because it is known Dewey could not distinguish musical pitches - in other words was tone deaf.[18]
John Dewey views, a term emphasized by Dewey in his later years to describe his theories of knowledge and experience. Religious historian Jerome A. Stone credits Dewey with contributing to the early thinking in the development of Religious Naturalism[21].
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Epistemology
The terminology problem in the fields of epistemology and logic is partially due, according to Dewey and Bentley,[22] to inefficient and imprecise use of words and concepts that reflect three historic levels of organization and presentation.[23] In the order of chronological appearance, these are: Self-Action: Prescientific concepts regarded humans, animals, and things as possessing powers of their own which initiated or caused their actions. Interaction: as described by Newton, where things, living and inorganic, are balanced against something in a system of interaction, for example, the third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Transaction: where modern systems of descriptions and naming are employed to deal with multiple aspects and phases of action without any attribution to ultimate, final, or independent entities, essences, or realities. A series of characterizations of Transactions indicate the wide range of considerations involved.[24]
north side of the Ira Allen Chapel in Burlington, "Aristotelian logic, which still passes current nominally, is a Vermont. The only grave on the University of logic based upon the idea that qualitative objects are existential Vermont campus in the fullest sense. To retain logical principles based on this conception along with the acceptance of theories of existence and knowledge based on an opposite conception is not, to say the least, conductive to clearness a consideration that has a good deal to do with existing dualism between traditional and the newer relational logics.
John Dewey (Qualitative Thought 1930) Louis Menand argues in The Metaphysical Club that Jane Addams had been critical of Dewey's emphasis on antagonism in the context of a discussion of the Pullman strike of 1894. In a later letter to his wife, Dewey confessed that Addams' argument was "the most magnificent exhibition of intellectual & moral faith I ever saw. She converted me internally, but not really, I fear.... When you think that Miss Addams does not think this as a philosophy, but believes it in all her senses & muscles-- Great God... I guess I'll have to give it [all] up & start over again." He went on to add, "I can see that I have always been interpreting dialectic wrong end up, the unity as the reconciliation of opposites, instead of the opposites as the unity in its growth, and thus translated the physical tension into a moral thing... I don't know as I give the reality of this at all,... it seems so natural & commonplace now, but I never had anything take hold of me so."[26] In a letter to Addams herself, Dewey wrote, clearly influenced by his conversation with her: "Not only is actual antagonizing bad, but the assumption that there is or may be antagonism is bad-- in fact, the real first antagonism always comes back to the assumption."
22
Aesthetics
Art as Experience (1934) is Dewey's major writing on aesthetics. It is, according to his place in the Pragmatist tradition that emphasizes community, a study of the individual art object as embedded in (and inextricable from) the experiences of a local culture. Dewey attempted to justify the idiosyncratic collection of modern art that was assembled by the wealthy Albert C. Barnes at the Barnes Foundation. See his Experience and Nature for an extended discussion of 'Experience' in Dewey's philosophy.
On democracy
The overriding theme of Dewey's works was his profound belief in democracy, be it in politics, education or communication and journalism. As Dewey himself stated in 1888, while still at the University of Michigan, "Democracy and the one, ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind synonymous."[27] With respect to technological developments in a democracy: "Persons do not become a society by living in physical proximity any more than a man ceases to be socially influenced by being so many feet or miles removed from others" John Dewey from Andrew Feenberg's "Community in the Digital Age" His work on democracy influenced one of his students, Dr Ambedkar, who later went on to become one of the founding fathers of independent India.[28]
On education
Dewey's educational theories were presented in My Pedagogic Creed (1897), The School and Society (1900), The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Democracy and Education (1916) and Experience and Education (1938). Throughout these writings, several recurrent themes ring true; Dewey continually argues that education and learning are social and interactive processes, and thus the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place. In addition, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning. The ideas of democracy and social reform are continually discussed in Dewey's writings on education. Dewey makes a strong case for the importance of education not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to
John Dewey learn how to live. In his eyes, the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one's full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good. He notes that "to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities" (My pedagogic creed, Dewey, 1897). In addition to helping students realize their full potential, Dewey goes on to acknowledge that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that "education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction". In addition to his ideas regarding what education is and what effect it should have on society, Dewey also had specific notions regarding how education should take place within the classroom. In The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Dewey discusses two major conflicting schools of thought regarding educational pedagogy. The first is centered on the curriculum and focuses almost solely on the subject matter to be taught. Dewey argues that the major flaw in this methodology is the inactivity of the student; within this particular framework, "the child is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be deepened" (1902, p.13).[29] He argues that in order for education to be most effective, content must be presented in a way that allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge. At the same time, Dewey was alarmed by many of the "child-centered" excesses of educational-school pedagogues who claimed to be his followers, and he argued that too much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning process. In this second school of thought, "we must take our stand with the child and our departure from him. It is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning" (Dewey, 1902, p.13-14). According to Dewey, the potential flaw in this line of thinking is that it minimizes the importance of the content as well as the role of the teacher. In order to rectify this dilemma, Dewey advocated for an educational structure that strikes a balance between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and experiences of the student. He notes that "the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process. Just as two points define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define instruction" (Dewey, 1902, p.16). It is through this reasoning that Dewey became one of the most famous proponents of hands-on learning or experiential education, which is related to, but not synonymous with experiential learning. He argued that "if knowledge comes from the impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is impossible to procure knowledge without the use of objects which impress the mind" (Dewey, 1916/2009, p.217-218).[30] Dewey's ideas went on to influence many other influential experiential models and advocates. Problem-Based Learning (PBL), for example, a method used widely in education today, incorporates Dewey's ideas pertaining to learning through active inquiry.[31] Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning process should take place, but also the role that the teacher should play within that process. According to Dewey, the teacher should not be one to stand at the front of the room doling out bits of information to be absorbed by passive students. Instead, the teacher's role should be that of facilitator and guide. As Dewey (1897) explains it: The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these Thus the teacher becomes a partner in the learning process, guiding students to independently discover meaning within the subject area. This philosophy has become an increasingly popular idea within present-day teacher preparatory programs. As well as his very active and direct involvement in setting up educational institutions such as the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (1896) and The New School for Social Research (1919), many of Dewey's ideas influenced the founding of Bennington College and Goddard College in Vermont, where he served on the Board of Trustees. Dewey's works and philosophy also held great influence in the creation of the short-lived Black Mountain College in North Carolina, an experimental college focused on interdisciplinary study, and whose faculty included
23
John Dewey Buckminster Fuller, Willem de Kooning, Charles Olson, Franz Kline, Robert Duncan, and Robert Creeley, among others. Black Mountain College was the locus of the "Black Mountain Poets" a group of avant-garde poets closely linked with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance.
24
On journalism
Since the mid-1980s, Deweyan ideas have experienced revival as a major source of inspiration for the public journalism movement. Dewey's definition of "public," as described in The Public and its Problems, has profound implications for the significance of journalism in society. As suggested by the title of the book, his concern was of the transactional relationship between publics and problems. Also implicit in its name, public journalism seeks to orient communication away from elite, corporate hegemony toward a civic public sphere. "The 'public' of public journalists is Dewey's public." Dewey gives a concrete definition to the formation of a public. Publics are spontaneous groups of citizens who share the indirect effects of a particular action. Anyone affected by the indirect consequences of a specific action will automatically share a common interest in controlling those consequences, i.e., solving a common problem.[32] Since every action generates unintended consequences, publics continuously emerge, overlap, and disintegrate. In The Public and its Problems, Dewey presents a rebuttal to Walter Lippmann's treatise on the role of journalism in democracy. Lippmann's model was a basic transmission model in which journalists took information given to them by experts and elites, repackaged that information in simple terms, and transmitted the information to the public, whose role was to react emotionally to the news. In his model, Lippmann supposed that the public was incapable of thought or action, and that all thought and action should be left to the experts and elites. Dewey refutes this model by assuming that politics is the work and duty of each individual in the course of his daily routine. The knowledge needed to be involved in politics, in this model, was to be generated by the interaction of citizens, elites, experts, through the mediation and facilitation of journalism. In this model, not just the government is accountable, but the citizens, experts, and other actors as well. Dewey also said that journalism should conform to this ideal by changing its emphasis from actions or happenings (choosing a winner of a given situation) to alternatives, choices, consequences, and conditions, in order to foster conversation and improve the generation of knowledge. Journalism would not just produce a static product that told what had already happened, but the news would be in a constant state of evolution as the public added value by generating knowledge. The "audience" would end, to be replaced by citizens and collaborators who would essentially be users, doing more with the news than simply reading it. Concerning his effort to change journalism, he wrote in The Public and its Problems: "Till the Great Society is converted in to a Great Community, the Public will remain in eclipse. Communication can alone create a great community" (Dewey, p.142). Dewey believed that communication creates a great community, and citizens who participate actively with public life contribute to that community. "The clear consciousness of a communal life, in all its implications, constitutes the idea of democracy." (The Public and its Problems, p.149). This Great Community can only occur with "free and full intercommunication." (p.211) Communication can be understood as journalism.
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On humanism
Dewey participated with a variety of humanist activities from the 1930s into the 1950s, which included sitting on the advisory board of Charles Francis Potter's First Humanist Society of New York (1929); being one of the original 34 signatories of the first Humanist Manifesto (1933) and being elected an honorary member of the Humanist Press Association (1936).[33] His opinion of humanism is best summarised in his own words from an article titled "What Humanism Means to Me", published in the June 1930 edition of Thinker 2: "What Humanism means to me is an expansion, not a contraction, of human life, an expansion in which nature and the science of nature are made the willing servants of human good." John Dewey, "What Humanism Means to Me"[34]
Other interests
Dewey's interests and writings included many topics, and according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "a substantial part of his published output consisted of commentary on current domestic and international politics, and public statements on behalf of many causes. (He is probably the only philosopher in this encyclopedia to have published both on the Treaty of Versailles and on the value of displaying art in post offices.)"[40] In 1917, Dewey met F. M. Alexander in New York City and later wrote introductions to Alexander's Man's Supreme Inheritance (1918), Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (1923) and The Use of the Self (1932). Alexander's influence is referenced in "Human Nature and Conduct" and "Experience and Nature."[41] As well as his contacts with people mentioned elsewhere in the article, he also maintained correspondence with Henri Bergson, William M. Brown, Martin Buber, George S. Counts, William Rainey Harper, Sidney Hook, and George Santayana.
John Dewey
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Criticism
Dewey is considered the epitome of liberalism by many historians,[42][43] and sometimes was portrayed as "dangerously radical."[44] Meanwhile, Dewey was critiqued strongly by American communists because he argued against Stalinism and had philosophical differences with Marx, despite identifying himself as a democratic socialist.[45] Historians have examined his religious beliefs. Biographer Steven C. Rockefeller, traced Dewey's democratic convictions to his childhood attendance at the Congregational Church, with its strong proclamation of social ideals and the Social Gospel.[46] However, historian Edward A. White suggested in Science and Religion in American Thought (1952) that Dewey's work had led to the 20th century rift between religion and science.
Academic awards
Copernican Citation (1943) Doctor "honoris causa" University of Oslo (1946) Doctor "honoris causa" University of Pennsylvania (1946) Doctor "honoris causa" Yale University (1951) Doctor "honoris causa" University of Rome (1951)
Honors
John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, New York is named after him. John Dewey Academy of Learning in Green Bay, Wisconsin is a charter school named after him.
Publications
Besides publishing prolifically himself, Dewey also sat on the boards of scientific publications such as Sociometry (advisory board, 1942) and Journal of Social Psychology (editorial board, 1942), as well as having posts at other publications such as New Leader (contributing editor, 1949). The following publications by John Dewey are referenced or mentioned in this article. A more complete list of his publications may be found at List of publications by John Dewey. "The New Psychology [47]" Andover Review, 2, 278-289 (1884) Psychology (1887) Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding (1888) "The Ego as Cause [48]" Philosophical Review, 3,337-341. (1894) "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" [49] (1896) "My Pedagogic Creed" (1897) The School and Society (1900) The Child and the Curriculum [50] (1902) "The Postulate of Immediate Empiricism" [51] (1905) Moral Principles in Education (1909) The Riverside Press Cambridge Project Gutenberg [52] How We Think (1910) German Philosophy and Politics [53] (1915) Democracy and Education: an introduction to the philosophy of education (1916) Reconstruction in Philosophy [54] (1919) Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology
Experience and Nature [55] (1925) The Public and its Problems (1927) The Quest for Certainty (1929)
John Dewey The Sources of a Science of Education (1929) The Kappa Delta Pi Lecture Series Individualism Old and New (1930) Philosophy and Civilization (1931) Ethics, second edition (with James Hayden Tufts) (1932) Art as Experience (1934) A Common Faith (1934) Liberalism and Social Action (1935) Experience and Education (1938) Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938) Freedom and Culture (1939) Theory of Valuation (1939). ISBN 0-226-57594-2 Knowing and the Known (1949)
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See also The Essential Dewey: Volumes 1 and 2. Edited by Larry Hickman and Thomas Alexander (1998). Indiana University Press The Philosophy of John Dewey Edited by John J. McDermott (1981). University of Chicago Press Dewey's Complete Writings is available in 3 multi-volume sets (37 volumes in all) from Southern Illinois University Press: [56] The Early Works: 1892-1898 (5 volumes) The Middle Works: 1899-1924 (15 volumes) The Later Works: 1925-1953 (17 volumes) Posthumous Works: 1956-2009
[57]
The Correspondence of John Dewey is available in 4 volumes via online subscription for university servers. (The CD-ROM has been discontinued).
John Dewey Popkewitz, Thomas S. (ed). Inventing the Modern Self and John Dewey: Modernities and the Traveling of Pragmatism in Education. (2005) New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Putnam, Hilary. "Dewey's Logic: Epistemology as Hypothesis". In Words and Life, ed. James Conant. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Rockefeller, Stephen. John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism. (1994) [65] Columbia University Press Rogers, Melvin. The Undiscovered Dewey: Religion, Morality, and the Ethos of Democracy (2008). Columbia University Press.[66] Roth, Robert J. John Dewey and Self-Realization. (1962). Prentice Hall Rorty, Richard. "Dewey's Metaphysics". In The Consequences of Pragmatism: Essays 1972-1980. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982. Rud, A. G., Garrison, Jim, and Stone, Lynda (eds.) John Dewey at 150: Reflections for a New Century. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2009. Ryan, Alan. John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism. (1995) [67] W.W. Norton. Seigfried, Charlene Haddock, (ed.). Feminist Interpretations of John Dewey (2001) [68] Pennsylvania State University Press Shook, John. Dewey's Empirical Theory of Knowledge and Reality. (2000) [69] The Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy Sleeper, R.W. The Necessity of Pragmatism: John Dewey's Conception of Philosophy. Introduction by Tom Burke. (2001) [70] University of Illinois Press. Talisse, Robert B. A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy (2007) Routledge Westbrook, Robert B. John Dewey and American Democracy. (1991) [71] Cornell University Press. online edition [72] , the standard scholarly biography White, Morton. The Origin of Dewey's Instrumentalism. (1943). Columbia University Press.
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References
[1] http:/ / www. aacu. org/ meetings/ ppts/ knefelkamppresentation. ppt [2] Alan Ryan, John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism, (1995) p 32 [3] Violas, Paul C.; Tozer, Steven; Senese, Guy B.. School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. p.121. ISBN0-07-298556-9. [4] Gutek, Gerald L.. Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education: A Biographical Introduction.. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc. pp.338. ISBN0-13-113809-X. [5] Who Belongs To Phi Beta Kappa (http:/ / www. pbk. org/ infoview/ PBK_InfoView. aspx?t=& id=59), Phi Beta Kappa website, accessed Oct 4, 2009 [6] bio of Dewey from Bowling Green State University (http:/ / www. bgsu. edu/ departments/ acs/ 1890s/ dewey/ dewey. html) [7] Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club: A History of Ideas in the United States (New York: Farrar, Staus and Giroux, 2002) [8] New York Times edition of January 19, 1953, page 27 [9] Hilda M. Neatby, So Little for the Mind (Toronto: Clarke Irwin & Co. Ltd., 1953), pp.22-23. [10] Biography at Muskingum College (http:/ / www. muskingum. edu/ ~psych/ psycweb/ history/ dewey. htm) [11] InteLex Past Masters series (http:/ / www. nlx. com/ titles/ titldewc. htm) [12] Jessica Ching-Sze Wang. John Dewey in China: To Teach and to Learn. Albany: State University of New York Press, Suny Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture, 2007. ISBN 9780791472033 p. 3-5. [13] Wang, pp. 8-10, 13- 14. [14] John Dewey, Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey Letters from China and Japan. New York,: E.P Dutton, 1920; rpr. Project Guttenberg (http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ ebooks/ 31043) [15] Field, Richard. John Dewey in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Northwest Missouri State University UTM.edu - The University of Tennessee at Martin (http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ d/ dewey. htm) Retrieved 29 August 2008. [16] Benjamin, L.T. (2003). "Why Can't Psychology Get a Stamp?". Journal of applied psychoanalytic studies 5 (4): 443454. [17] Brucato, G. & Hogan, J.D. (1999, Spring). "Psychologists on postage stamps" The General Psychologist, 34(1):65 [18] Zeltner, Philip N.; John Dewey's Aesthetic Philosophy; p. 93 ISBN 90-6032-029-8 [19] Good (2006). A Search for Unity in Diversity: The "Permanent Hegelian Deposit" in the Philosophy of John Dewey. Lexington Books. [20] A Common Faith, p. 42 (LW 9:29).
John Dewey
[21] Religious Naturalism Today, page 44-52 [22] John Dewey, Arthur Bentley, (1949). Knowing and the Known. Beacon Press, Boston. [23] John Dewey, Arthur Bentley, (1949). Knowing and the Known. Beacon Press, Boston, p107-109. [24] John Dewey, Arthur Bentley, (1949). Knowing and the Known. Beacon Press, Boston, p121-139. [25] "The Problem of Logical Subject Matter", in Logic: The Theory of Inquiry 1938 [26] Louis Menand. The Metaphysical Club p. 313 [27] Early Works, 1:128 (Southern Illinois University Press) op cited in Douglas R. Anderson, AAR, The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 61, No. 2 (1993), p. 383 [28] Ambedkar, Bhimrao. Annihilation of castes. Critical Quest. pp.64. ISBN81-89524-21-6. [29] Dewey, J. (1902). The child and the curriculum. Retrieved from http:/ / books. google. com/ books [30] Dewey, J. (2009). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: WLC Books. (Original work published 1916) [31] Savery, J. R. (2006). Overview of Problem-based Learning: Denitions and Distinctions. Journal of Problem-based Learning, 1(1). [32] Dewey, J. 1927. The Public and its Problems. Henry Holt & Co., New York. pp 126. [33] "John Dewey Chronology" 1934.04.08, 1936.03.12, 1940.09, and 1950.09.11. (http:/ / www. siu. edu/ ~deweyctr/ CHRONO. pdf) [34] Italics in the original. "What Humanism Means to Me," first published in Thinker 2 (June 1930): 9-12, as part of a series. Dewey: Page lw.5.266 [The Collected Works of John Dewey, 1882-1953, The Electronic Edition] [35] American Institute of Physics (http:/ / www. aip. org/ history/ einstein/ public3_text. htm) [36] Dewey, J. (1927) An Appreciation of Henry George (http:/ / www. wealthandwant. com/ HG/ PP/ Dewey_Appreciation_HG. html) [37] Dewey, J. (1939) A Letter to Henry Ford (http:/ / www. cooperativeindividualism. org/ dewey-john_a-letter-to-henry-ford-1939. html) [38] "Dewey Commission Report" (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ archive/ trotsky/ 1937/ dewey/ index. htm) [39] "Origins of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1949-1950" CIA official web site (https:/ / www. cia. gov/ library/ center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/ kent-csi/ docs/ v38i5a10p. htm) [40] "Dewey's Political Philosophy" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http:/ / www. seop. leeds. ac. uk/ archives/ sum2005/ entries/ dewey-political/ ) [41] F. M. Alexander Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923 ISBN 0-913111-11-2 [42] Ryan, John Dewey and the high tide of American liberalism [43] William Paringer, John Dewey and the paradox of liberal reform (1990) p. 13 [44] William R. Caspary, Dewey on Democracy. (2000) [45] Baird, Robert B Westbrook (1993). John Dewey and American Democracy. Cornell University Press. ISBN0-8014-8111-2. [46] Stephen Rockefeller, John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism. (1994) p 13 [47] http:/ / psychclassics. yorku. ca/ Dewey/ newpsych. htm [48] http:/ / psychclassics. yorku. ca/ Dewey/ ego. htm [49] http:/ / www. brocku. ca/ MeadProject/ Dewey/ Dewey_1896. html [50] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=lJEjAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA7& dq=The+ child+ and+ the+ curriculum [51] http:/ / spartan. ac. brocku. ca/ ~lward/ Dewey/ Dewey_1910b/ Dewey_1910_09. html [52] http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ catalog/ world/ readfile?fk_files=768523 [53] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ibE8AAAAYAAJ& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q& f=false [54] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ZUg8AAAAIAAJ& pg=PA1& dq=reconstruction+ in+ philosophy [55] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=P6a_Jd2OxpsC& pg=PP1& dq=experience+ and+ nature& sig=N0PWh4mPRvPnedmyxkKWf9caCTw [56] http:/ / www. siu. edu/ ~siupress [57] http:/ / www. nlx. com/ collections/ 132 [58] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=E_oYhjRfHokC) [59] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=drjfgQLsvrgC) [60] http:/ / www. questia. com/ PM. qst?a=o& d=98139647 [61] http:/ / www. questia. com/ PM. qst?a=o& d=108990927 [62] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Democracy-Rhetoric-Becoming-Studies-Communication/ dp/ 1570038767/ [63] http:/ / www. press. uillinois. edu/ books/ catalog/ 44mxp7kf9780252032004. html [64] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=gzMay_1Q9qoC) [65] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=LOc6q5lmEj8C) [66] (http:/ / cup. columbia. edu/ book/ 978-0-231-14486-5/ the-undiscovered-dewey) [67] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Igm5mV_ngUgC) [68] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=YVeloS3G5oYC) [69] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=e_CxRsMZ-6oC) [70] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6uNAAO4LLL8C) [71] excerpt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=0I-9gJN9rbwC) [72] http:/ / quod. lib. umich. edu/ cgi/ t/ text/ text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;view=toc;idno=heb00586. 0001. 001
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John Dewey
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External links
Center for Dewey Studies (http://www.siuc.edu/~deweyctr/) John Dewey Papers, 1858-1970 (http://archives.lib.siu.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard& id=2125) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center John Dewey Chronology at Southern Illinois University (http://www.siu.edu/~deweyctr/CHRONO.pdf) John Dewey Society (http://www.johndeweysociety.org/) Works by John Dewey (http://www.gutenberg.org/author/John+Dewey) at Project Gutenberg Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (http://xroads.virginia.edu/ ~HYPER2/dewey/cover.html) hypertext from American Studies at the University of Virginia. Excerpts from Dewey, Experience and Nature (http://www.erzwiss.uni-hamburg.de/sonstiges/dewey/ DewExpNa.pdf) (pdf file) Dewey, Impressions of Soviet Russia (http://ariwatch.com/VS/JD/ImpressionsOfSovietRussia.htm) Information about John Dewey and F. Mathias Alexander (http://www.alexandertechnique.com/articles/ dewey) John Dewey: His Life and Work (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8009791051515751015) 4-minute clip from a documentary film used primarily in higher education. More information about John Dewey and F. Mathias Alexander (http://dewey.area501.net/)
Article on Dewey's Moral Philosophy in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.seop.leeds.ac.uk/ archives/sum2005/entries/dewey-moral/) Article on Dewey's Political Philosophy in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.seop.leeds.ac. uk/archives/sum2005/entries/dewey-political/) Dewey page from Pragmatism Cybrary (http://dewey.pragmatism.org/#deweybooks) National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir (http://www.nasonline.org/publications/ biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/dewey-john.pdf)
Joe L. Kincheloe
31
Joe L. Kincheloe
Joe L. Kincheloe
Born December 14, 1950 Kingsport, Tennessee December 19, 2008
Died
Nationality American Fields Education, Critical pedagogy, educational research, urban education, cognition, curriculum, and cultural studies
Institutions McGill University, CUNY Graduate Center, Brooklyn College, Pennsylvania State University, Florida International University, Clemson University, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Sinte Gleska College Alma mater Knownfor University of Tennessee Concept of an evolving Critical Theory/Critical Pedagogy; Theory of Critical Post-Formal Educational Psychology; Theory of Critical Multiculturalism; Critical Bricolage; Critical Ontology; Critical Complex Epistemology Paulo Freire, Walter Benjamin, Jean Baudrillard, John Dewey, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Francisco Varela, Terence McKenna, Tom Robbins, Greg Allman, and Sandra Harding Leila Villaverde, Nelson Rodriguez, Rochelle Brock, Connie Titone, Priya Parmar, kecia hayes, Regina Bernard, Pam Joyce, Joanne Carris, Tricia Kress, Kate E. O'Hara, Ray Horn, Gia Delaveaux, Myunghee Kim, Giuliana Cucinelli, L.A. Gabay
Influences
Influenced
Joe Lyons Kincheloe (December 14, 1950 December 19, 2008) was a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He wrote more than 45 books, numerous book-chapters, and hundreds of journal articles on issues including critical pedagogy, educational research, urban studies, cognition, curriculum, and cultural studies. Kincheloe received three graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee. The father of four children, he worked closely for the last 19 years of his life with his partner, Shirley R. Steinberg.[1]
Academic
Joe Kincheloe's first academic position was on the Rosebud Indian Reservation as the department chair of education at Sinte Gleska College (19801982). He was tenured at LSU-Shreveport (19821989), Clemson University (19891992), Florida International University (19921994), Pennsylvania State University (19941998), and was the Belle Zeller Chair of Public Policy and Administration from 1998-2000 at Brooklyn College. Kincheloe co-authored the Urban Education Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, and served as Deputy Executive Program Officer there from 2000-2005. He moved to McGill University in January 2006, and received a Canada Research Chair in October 2006.
Major Influences
Kincheloe's work drew from a number of theoretical traditions, and his analyses focused on the social, cultural, political, economic, and cognitive dynamics that contextualize teaching and learning. Dr. Kincheloe's research provided for a compelling understanding of the forces shaping contemporary education. Understanding these dynamics, educators are better equipped to formulate policies and develop actions that rigorously cultivate the intellect while operating in a more socially just and inclusive manner. A passionate public speaker, Kincheloe laid out these positions in a unique oratorical style that has been described as part Southern evangelist, part philosophy professor, and part rock music critic. He and Steinberg spoke about critical pedagogy and cultural/media politics in North America, South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia.
Joe L. Kincheloe
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Impact
Central to Kincheloe's work in all of these areas is the construction of a rigorous form of multidimensional scholarship that draws upon critical theory, critical pedagogy, feminist theory, complexity theory, indigenous knowledges, post/anti-colonialism, and other global discourses to help end dominant power-constructed human suffering. In his work over the last few years Kincheloe has focused much attention on the politics of knowledge and epistemology and the diverse ways they operate to shape human consciousness and socio-political and educational activities. He was dedicated to creating a critical pedagogy that helps individuals reshape their lives, become better scholars and social activists, realize their cognitive potential, re-create democratic spaces in a electronically mediated global world, and build and become members of communities of solidarity that work to create better modes of education and a more peaceful, equitable, and ecologically sustainable world. As educational scholar, Rucheeta Kulkarni (2008) writes: "With an authorial voice that blends conversational simplicity with visionary philosophy, Joe Kincheloe [outlines] the deepening crises of this nations actions at home and abroadincluding preemptive wars against imagined enemies, scripted curricula for deprofessionalized teachers, privatization of public schools, and corporate ownership of the news mediahe tells the reader not to despair but to hope...For any reader who aspires to do meaningful and transformative knowledge work, it is hard to refuse Kincheloes invitation into the ideas of critical pedagogy." See Raymond Horn (1999) for a comprehensive overview of Kincheloe's scholarship in the 1980s and 1990s. For those who follow Kincheloe's work, he is viewed not simply as a key public intellectual of our era but a mentor and role model for young scholars. He and Shirley R. Steinberg have helped scholars/activists from around the world develop and publish over 500 books. In this spirit Kincheloe offers a compelling vision of reconceptualized academic institutions grounded on both a hard nosed understanding of power and scholarship and a commitment to new conceptions of social justice and pedagogy. In recent years Kincheloe has come to be known internationally as the conscience of critical pedagogy.
Criticism
Kincheloe's work is criticized for its use of a variety of methods and theories that serve to make issues more complicated than necessary. His work on the failures of positivism and mainstream Western research methods have been characterized by conservatives as an attack on viable modes of inquiry and accepted forms of reason. Some reviewers have labelled his multiperspectival bricolage as a form of anti-rationality. For example, educational researcher, Peter Smagorinsky (2007) argues in a review of Kincheloe's and Kenneth Tobin's Doing Educational Research: A Handbook that Kincheloe uses positivism as a inappropriate bogeyman in a misguided effort to
Joe L. Kincheloe resurrect this long-discredited way of knowing to justify radical perspectives on knowledge production. In Smagorinsky's opinion Kincheloe's work is misleading and dangerous for those legitimate scholars who would seek to engage in scholarship that produces assured answers to specific questions. Detractors also critique Kincheloe's frequent attacks on U.S. educational, social, and foreign policy. Such attacks, it is maintained, are often unfair and reflect a one-dimensional biased point of view. His analysis of "whiteness" and Caucasian racism have often drawn fire from more moderate and conservative analysts.
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Resources
Appelbaum, B. (1999). Review of Joe Kincheloe, Shirley Steinberg, Nelson Rodriguez, and Ronald Chennaults White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. Educational Review: A Journal of Book Reviews. http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev46.htm Aumeerally, N. (2006). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg's The Miseducation of the West: How Schools and the Media Distort Our Understanding of the Islamic World. Comparative Education Review, 50, 3. Bigger, S. (1998). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg's Changing Multiculturalism. Westminster Studies in Education. http://eprints.worc.ac.uk/242/1/Kincheloe&Steinberg.pdf. Blake, J. (2008). Review of Joe L. Kincheloes Critical Constructivism. Educational Review: A Journal of Book Reviews. http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev660.htm Blake, N. (2004). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg's Students as Researchers: Creating Classrooms that Matter. Teaching Theology & Religion, 4, 1, 55-62. Broadfoot, P. (1998). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, and Aaron D. Gresson III's Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined Comparative Education Review, 42, 3, 372-374 Horn, R. (1999). "Joe L. Kincheloe: Teacher as Researcher." Educational Researcher, 28, 4. King, D. (2006). A Cultural Studies Approach to Teaching the Sociology of Childhood. Sociation Today. 4, 1. Kirylo, J. D. (2011). Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife. New York: Peter Lang. Knobel, M. (2004). Review of Shirley Steinberg and Joe Kincheloe's 19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City. Educational Review: A Journal of Book Reviews. http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev264.htm Kulkarni, R. (2008). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe's Critical Pedagogy. 2nd edition. Educational Review: A Journal of Book Reviews. http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev721.htm Leech, N. (2007). Research and the "Inner Circle": The Need to Set Aside Counterproductive Language. Educational Researcher, 36, 4, 199-203. Lincoln, Y. (2001). An Emerging New Bricoleur: Promises and Possibilities (A Reaction to Joe Kincheloes Describing the Bricoleur). Qualitative Inquiry, 7, 6, 693-705. Nayar, P. (2006). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe's Sign of the Burger: McDonalds and the Culture of Power. Anthropology of Work Review. 27, 2. http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1525/awr.2006.27.2.24 Nesbit, T. (2000). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe's How Do We Tell the Workers? The Socioeconomic Foundations of Work and Vocational Education. Labor Studies Journal, 25, 125-26. Oakes, E. (2006). Review of Shirley R. Steinberg & Joe L. Kincheloe's Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood. 2nd Edition.
Joe L. Kincheloe College Literature, 33, 3, 212-216. Pigza, J. (2005). Review of Joe L. Kincheloes Critical Pedagogy. Educational Review: A Journal of Book Reviews. http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev364.htm. Rumbo, J. (2004). Examining Relationships between Consumption, Nature, and Culture. Review of Joe Kincheloe's The Sign of the Burger: McDonalds and the Culture of Power. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 33, 2, 218-230. Sew, J.W. (2006) Review of Joe L. Kincheloe's Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered. Discourse in Society, 17, 4, 554-557 Smagorinsky, P. (2007). A Thick Description of Thick Description. Educational Researcher, 36, 4, 199-203. Urban, W. (1992). Rejoinder to Joe Kincheloe. Curriculum Inquiry, 22, 4, 447-448.
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Bibliography
Authored: Kincheloe, Joe L (2008). Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction. Dordrecht, London: Springer. ISBN978-1-4020-8223-8. OCLC192027689. Kincheloe, Joe L (2005). Critical constructivism primer. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN978-0-8204-7616-2. OCLC57344185. Critical Pedagogy. (2004). New York: Peter Lang. (2nd edition, 2008). Kincheloe, Joe L (2002). The sign of the burger: McDonald's and the culture of power [2]. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN978-1-56639-931-9. OCLC47140812. Teachers as Researchers: Qualitative Paths to Empowerment, 2nd Edition. (2002). New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Getting Beyond the Facts: Teaching Social Studies/Social Sciences in the Twenty-First Century. (2001). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. Hacia una Revision Critica del Pensamiento Docente. (2001). Barcelona: Ocaedro. 'How Do We Tell the Workers? The Socio-Economic Foundations of Work and Vocational Education. (1999). Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Co-authored: Reading, Writing, and Thinking: The Postformal Basics. (2006). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. (with P.L. Thomas). Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research: Conceptualizing the Bricolage. (2004). London: Open University Press. (with Kathleen Berry) (Portuguese Edition, 2005) Art, Culture, & Education: Artful Teaching in a Fractured Landscape. (2003). New York:Peter Lang Publishing. (with Karel Rose) Contextualizing Teaching: Introduction to the Foundations of Education. (2000). New York: Allan & Bacon. Longman. (with Shirley Steinberg) 'The Stigma of Genius: Einstein, Consciousness and Education. (1999). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (with Deborah Tippins and Shirley Steinberg) Changing Multiculturalism: New Times, New Curriculum. (1997). London: Open University Press. (with Shirley Steinberg) Edited: Classroom Teaching: An Introduction. (2005). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered. (2004). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (Chinese Edition 2005). Co-edited:
Joe L. Kincheloe Christotainment: Selling Jesus Through Popular Culture. (2009). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. (with Shirley Steinberg) Cutting Class: Socio-economic Class and Education. (2007). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. (with Shirley Steinberg) Critical Pedagogy: Where Are We Now? (2007). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (with Peter McLaren) Doing Educational Research. (2006). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. (with Kenneth Tobin) Teaching City Kids: Understanding Them and Appreciating Them. (2006). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (with Kecia Hayes) Urban Education: An Encyclopedia. (2006). 2 vols. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. (with Philip Anderson, Kecia Hayes and Karel Rose). Rights bought by Rowman and Littlefield for 2nd edition: (2007) Urban Education: A Comprehensive Guide for Educators, Parents, and Teachers. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. Educational Psychology: An Encyclopedia. (2006). 4 vols. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. (with Raymond Horn). Metropedagogy: Power, Justice and the Urban Classroom. (2006). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. What You Dont Know about Schools. (2006). New York: Palgrave Press. (with Shirley Steinberg) The Miseducation of the West: How the Schools and Media Distort Our Understanding of Islam. (2004). Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Press. (Arabic Edition, 2005) (with Shirley Steinberg). American Standards: Quality Education in a Complex WorldThe Texas Case. (2001). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (with Raymond Horn).
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References
[1] "McGill Reporter: Joe L. Kincheloe: 1950-2008" (http:/ / publications. mcgill. ca/ reporter/ 2009/ 01/ joe-l-kincheloe-1950-2008/ ). . Retrieved 2010-09-22. [2] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=jo88ePT5m0UC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_atb#v=onepage& q& f=false
External links
: The Friere Project Website (http://freireproject.org/)
Shirley R. Steinberg
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Shirley R. Steinberg
Dr. Shirley R. Steinberg
Born Nationality Fields Institutions Baltimore, Maryland American Education, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture, Critical Pedagogy University of Calgary
Alma mater Pennsylvania State University[1] Knownfor Influences Theory of Critical Multiculturalism, [1] Notion of Kinderculture, [1] [1] and Notion of Christotainment
Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, John Fiske, Aaron D. Gresson, Dorothy Heathcote
Shirley R. Steinberg is the Director and Chair of The Werklund Foundation Centre for Youth Leadership in Education [2], and Professor of Youth Studies at the University of Calgary. She is the author and editor of many books in critical pedagogy, urban and youth culture, and cultural studies. Her most recent books include: Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood [3] (2011); 19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City [4] (2010); Christotainment: Selling Jesus Through Popular Culture [5] (2009); Diversity and Multiculturalism: A Reader [6] (2009); Media Literacy: A Reader [7] (2007); the award winning Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia [8]; and The Miseducation of the West: How Schools and Media Distort Our Understanding of the Islamic World [9] (2004). Originally a social/improvisational theatre creator, she has facilitated happenings and flashmobs globally. A regular contributor to CBC Radio One, CTV, The Toronto Globe and Mail, The Montreal Gazette, and Canadian Press, she is an internationally known speaker and teacher. She is also the founding editor of Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education [10], The International Journal of Youth Studies, and the Managing Editor of The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy [11]. The co-founder of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy [12], she is the organizer of The Critical Pedagogical Congress, she is committed to a global community of transformative educators and community workers engaged in radical love, social justice, and the situating of power within social and cultural contexts.
Critical multiculturalism
Critical Multiculturalism is an idea that draws upon the evolving theoretical position emerging in the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory in the 1920s,[13] The framework for Critical Multiculturalism was laid out in Steinberg's 2001 book, Multi/Intercultural Conversations: A Reader, but originally discussed in Kincheloe's and Steinberg's book, Changing Multiculturalism and further refined in her book, Diversity: A Reader, (2009). In Dr. Stephen Bigger's 1998 review of Changing Multiculturalism, he writes, "Multiculturalism, a problematic term, is clarified into a position called critical multiculturalism, described with approval inasfar as it explores the way power shapes consciousness (p.25) and has an emancipatory commitment to social justice and the egalitarian democracy that accompanies it (p.26) in contrast to a moral emptiness to pedagogies that attempt to understand the world without concurrently attempting to change it. Teachers need to have experienced transformation if they are to teach transformatively. The pedagogy comes out of the concern with the intersection of power, identity and knowledge (p.29).[14]
Shirley R. Steinberg
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Media literacy
Steinberg's courses revolve around the critical pedagogical approach to media, as defined in a recent book co-edited with Donaldo Macedo: Media Literacy: A Reader (New York: Peter Lang, 2007). The book claims that it provides a critical understanding of media culture designed to develop the ability to interpret media as well as understand how it emotionally affects individuals. The book is based on the notion that while many strongly believe that humans exercise agency, that there are social, cultural, and political forces that affect agency. According to Steinberg, one's conception of media literacy analyzes the ways everyday decisions are encoded and inscribed by emotional and bodily commitments relating to the production of desire and mood.
Kinderculture
Steinberg is also known for her notion of kinderculture, first introduced with Joe L. Kincheloe in Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood (Boulder, Co: Westview Press, 1997). The book included her chapter, "The Bitch Who has Everything," an examination into the cultural studies of Barbie. The book was published in a second edition in 2004. Steinberg (and Kincheloe) outline the premise of the concept of kinderculture as using pleasure as its ultimate weapon, the corporate children's consumer culture, which we label 'kinderculture,' commodifies cultural objects and turns them into things to purchase rather than objects to contemplate (11). The third edition of the book is edited solely by Steinberg.[15]
Christotainment
Steinberg's book, Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture, co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2009), explores her idea of Christotainment by examining the ways in which principles, beliefs, and religious practices supported or constructed by Christian fundamentalist groups are promoted or bought and sold through the use of popular or mainstream media productions.[20][21]
Post-Formalism
Steinberg was the co-author of the theory of Post-Formalism with Joe L. Kincheloe. This theory argues that while twentieth century educational psychology has made important advances, a time for reassessment has arrived. Steinberg contends that recent years have seen the rise of neo-Vygotskian analysis and situated cognition within the discipline of cognitive psychology. Steinberg and Kincheloe expand upon these theories to develop the specific connections between the social and the psychological dimensions of learning theory and Educational Psychology.[22] Postformal thinking, according to Steinberg and Kincheloe write, concerns questions of meaning and purpose, multiple perspectives, human dignity, freedom, and social responsibility. Curriculum and instruction based on postformalism involves detecting problems, uncovering hidden assumptions, seeing relationships, deconstructing, connecting logic and emotion, and attending to context.[23]
Shirley R. Steinberg
38
Resources
Appelbaum, B. (1999). Review of Joe Kincheloe, Shirley Steinberg, Nelson Rodriguez, and Ronald Chennaults White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. Educational Review: A Journal of Book Reviews.[24] Aumeerally, N. (2006). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg's The Miseducation of the West: How Schools and the Media Distort Our Understanding of the Islamic World. Comparative Education Review, 50, 3. Bigger, S. (1998). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg's Changing Multiculturalism. Westminster Studies in Education.[25] Blake, N. (2004). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg's Students as Researchers: Creating Classrooms that Matter. Teaching Theology & Religion, 4, 1, 55-62. Broadfoot, P. (1998). Review of Joe L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, and Aaron D. Gresson III's Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined Comparative Education Review, 42, 3, 372-374 King, D. (2006). A Cultural Studies Approach to Teaching the Sociology of Childhood. Sociation Today. 4, 1. Kowch, E. (2012). In conversation. (unpublished) Knobel, M. (2004). Review of Shirley Steinberg and Joe Kincheloe's 19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City. Educational Review: A Journal of Book Reviews.[26] Leech, N. (2007). Research and the "Inner Circle": The Need to Set Aside Counterproductive Language. Educational Researcher, 36, 4, 199-203. Oakes, E. (2006). Review of Shirley R. Steinberg & Joe L. Kincheloe's Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood. 2nd Edition. College Literature, 33, 3, 212-216.
Sources
Kincheloe, Joe L. (2004). "Critical Pedagogy Primer." New York: Peter Lang. (2nd edition, 2008).
Primary Works
Steinberg is the author and editor of many books, including: "Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood" - Boulder, Co: Westview Press, 2011 (edited). "Boyhood Culture: An Encyclopedia" - ABC Clio, 2010 (Co-edited with Michael Kehler and Lindsay Cornish) "19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City" - NY: Peter Lang, 2010. Christotainment: Selling Jesus Through Popular Culture - Boulder, Co: Westview Press, 2009 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) Cutting Class: Socioeconomic Class and Education Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) Media Literacy: A Reader New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2007 (Co-edited with Donaldo Macedo) Teen Life in Europe Greenwich, CT: Praeger Press, 2005 Encyclopedia of Contemporary Youth Culture Greenwich, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005 (Co-edited with Priya Parmar and Birgit Richard) Things You Dont Know About Schools New York: Palgrave Press, 2005 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) 19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood, 2nd Ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe)
The Miseducation of the West: How Schools and the Media Distort Our Understanding of the Islamic World Westport, CT: Praeger Press, 2004 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) Multi/Intercultural Conversations: A Reader New York: New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2001
Shirley R. Steinberg Thinking Queer: Sexuality, Culture and Education - New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2000 (Co-edited with Susan Talburt) *NOTE: Translated into Spanish The Stigma of Genius: Einstein, Education, and Consciousness - New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2000 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) Contextualizing Teaching - New York: Longman Publishing, 1999 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe). The Post-Formal Reader - New York: Garland Press, 1999 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe and Patricia Hinchey) White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America - New York: St. Martins Press, 1998 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe, Nelson Rodriguez, Ronald Chennault) Students as Researchers: Creating Classrooms that Matter - London: Falmer Press, 1998 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) *NOTE: Translated into Chinese 2001 Unauthorized Methods: Strategies for Critical Teaching - New York: Routledge, 1998 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) Changing Multiculturalism: New Times, New Curriculum - London: Open University Press, 1997 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) *NOTE: Translated into Spanish Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood - Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe) *NOTE: Translated into Portuguese and Spanish Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined - New York: St. Martins Press, 1996 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe and Aaron D. Gresson III) Thirteen Questions: Reframing Educations Conversation: 2nd Edition - New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1996 (Co-edited with Joe L. Kincheloe)
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References
[1] Steinberg, S. R. (Ed.). (2001). Multi/Intercultural Conversations. New York: Peter Lang. [2] http:/ / www. educ. ucalgary. ca/ werklund/ [3] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Kinderculture-Corporate-Construction-Childhood-Educational/ dp/ 081332310X [4] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Urban-Questions-Counterpoints-Joe-Kincheloe/ dp/ 0820457728 [5] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Christotainment-Selling-through-Popular-Culture/ dp/ 0813344050 [6] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Diversity-Multiculturalism-Shirley-R-Steinberg/ dp/ 1433103451 [7] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Media-Literacy-Reader-Donaldo-Macedo/ dp/ 082048668X [8] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Contemporary-Youth-Culture-Volumes-International/ dp/ 0313337292 [9] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Miseducation-West-Understanding-Reverberations-Education/ dp/ 0275981606 [10] http:/ / www. freireproject. org/ category/ topic-tags/ taboo [11] http:/ / libjournal. uncg. edu/ ojs/ index. php/ ijcp [12] http:/ / www. freireproject. org/ [13] Steinberg, S. R. and Kincheloe, J. L. (2001). Setting the context for Critical Multi/Interculturalism: The power blogs of class elitism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. In S. R. Steinberg (Ed.) Multi/Intercultural Conversations: A Reader. New York: Peter Lang. [14] See http:/ / eprints. worc. ac. uk/ 242/ 1/ Kincheloe& Steinberg. pdf [15] (http:/ / www. westviewpress. com/ book. php?isbn=9780813344898) [16] (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=p1pMbFQYBQgC& printsec=frontcover& dq=shirley+ r. + steinberg& source=bl& ots=_m0g12J52p& sig=L47cG9qBpbO7W4e9Wd9N7Ledj_8& hl=en& ei=Bq0HTZWEKoyssAO2oMSYDg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=5& ved=0CCwQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage& q& f=false) [17] (http:/ / webcache. googleusercontent. com/ search?q=cache:OFZf2KPOxksJ:freireproject. org/ content/ lyrical-minded-video+ lyrically+ minded+ priya& cd=4& hl=en& ct=clnk& gl=us& client=safari) [18] (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=hkfxAti_ExAC& pg=PA2& lpg=PA2& dq="teens+ in+ europe"+ steinberg& source=bl& ots=hjPefdDeyB& sig=gAxEhelatvX8sbEi8xNDRhesxfU& hl=en& ei=qK8HTdvcO4KosQP0ufyPDg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q& f=false) [19] (http:/ / www. powells. com/ biblio/ 73-9780313327162-0) [20] (http:/ / webcache. googleusercontent. com/ search?q=cache:LINayn6HET0J:feministreview. blogspot. com/ 2009/ 05/ christotainment-selling-jesus-through. html+ christotainment+ reviews& cd=2& hl=en& ct=clnk& gl=us& client=safari) [21] (http:/ / webcache. googleusercontent. com/ search?q=cache:1J8gnqOaAGMJ:www. goodreads. com/ book/ show/ 5219712-christotainment+ christotainment+ reviews& cd=3& hl=en& ct=clnk& gl=us& client=safari) [22] See http:/ / www. buy. com/ prod/ post-formal-thinking-cognition-and-education/ q/ loc/ 106/ 30514871. html
Shirley R. Steinberg
[23] See http:/ / eric. ed. gov:80/ ERICWebPortal/ custom/ portlets/ recordDetails/ detailmini. jsp?_nfpb=true& _& ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ466427& ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no& accno=EJ466427 [24] (http:/ / edrev. asu. edu/ reviews/ rev46. htm) [25] (http:/ / eprints. worc. ac. uk/ 242/ 1/ Kincheloe& Steinberg. pdf) [26] (http:/ / edrev. asu. edu/ reviews/ rev264. htm)
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External links
Shirley R. Steinbergs People Page at McGill University (http://people.mcgill.ca/shirley.steinberg/) Shirley R. Steinbergs personal blog (http://www.culturologist.com/) The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy (http://freire.education.mcgill.ca/)
Anti-oppressive education
Anti-oppressive education encompasses multiple approaches to learning that actively challenge different forms of what proponents describe as oppression.[1][2]
About
Anti-oppressive education is premised on the notion that many traditional and commonsense ways of engaging in "education" actually contribute to oppression in schools and society. It also relies on the notion that many "commonsense" approaches to education reform mask or exacerbate oppressive educational methods.[3] The consequences of anti-oppressive education include a deep commitment to changing how educators conceptualize and engage in curriculum, pedagogy, classroom management and school culture.[4] There is also an implication that institutional structure and policies must be transformed. Exploring perspectives on education that do not conform to what has become "commonsense" must be partaken as well. Anti-oppressive education expects to be different, perhaps uncomfortable, and even controversial.[5] In Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (1993), he stated that education is suffering from "narration sickness" (Freire, 1993, p.52). That students simply memorize mechanically the narrated content transmitted by the educator. This is the "banking concept" of education, in which the scope of action allowed by the students extends only as far as receiving, filling and storing the deposits(Freire, 1993, p.52). Thus, projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as a process of inquiry (Freire, 1993, p.53). As a result, the more students work at storing these deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world (Freire, 1993, p.54). As a result, oppressive social controls are never questioned and remain as an integral part of our culture thus, perpetuating oppression in our educational systems.[6]
Anti-oppressive education
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References
[1] "Dalene Swanson" (http:/ / www. ualberta. ca/ ~dalene/ Index. html). Ualberta.ca. . Retrieved 2012-10-13. [2] "Center for Anti-Oppressive Education" (http:/ / antioppressiveeducation. org/ definition. html). Antioppressiveeducation.org. . Retrieved 2012-10-13. [3] Kumashiro, K. (2000) "Toward a Theory of Anti-Oppressive Education." Review of Educational Research. 70(1), 25-53. [4] Kumshiro, K. (2004) "Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice." Routledge: New York. [5] Lang, Pete. (2007) Five Lenses for Anti-Oppressive Education: Partial Stories, Improbable Conversations. [6] Freire, Paulo (1993). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York City, USA: The Continuum Publishing Company.
Anti-bias curriculum
The anti-bias curriculum is an activist approach which its proponents claim challenges prejudices such as racism, sexism, ableism/disablism, ageism, homophobia, and other -isms. Anti-bias curriculum has a strong relationship to multiculturalism curriculum and its implementation. The most notable difference between these two theories and practices is the age of the intended audience.
Origin
The anti-bias movement was born out of the multiculturalism movement. Some of the people involved in the multiculturalism movement felt that it did not do enough to address social problems in the education system. Multicultural curriculum taught basic facts about different cultures, often on specially designated culture days or holidays, rather than being systematically infused into the entire curriculum. While this did increase students' superficial knowledge of other cultures, some people within the movement wanted students to know why they didnt know about other cultures and why certain people of certain ethnicities and classes are less likely to be economically successful.
Purpose
The objectives of the anti-bias curriculum are to raise awareness of bias and to reduce bias. Anti-bias curriculum transgresses the boundaries by actively providing children with a solid understanding of social problems and issues while equipping them with strategies to combat bias and improve social conditions for all. Instead of presenting the culturally dominant view of a subject, idea, history, or person, the anti-bias curriculum presents all possible sides. It claims to allow the student to see the whole view of the subject. Students will be able to analyze the topic from the different perspectives and see why and how different groups have different views of the subject. The anti-bias curriculum is seen by its proponents as a catalyst in the critical analysis of various social conditions. It is implemented as an active means of reducing social oppression with the ultimate goal of social justice in mind.[1]
Designing a curriculum
Advocates claim there are two parts to an educational curriculum: The "formal curriculum" consists of the educational content, expectations, course materials (e.g. textbooks), evaluation, and instruction. The "hidden curriculum" encompasses all the values passed on by teachers and educators, and from the school or educational milieu (i.e., the culture of the educational setting). For instance, the hidden curriculum teaches children and students to value punctuality and transmits dominant culture (e.g. chosen holiday celebration, monetary norms, manners).
Anti-bias curriculum Anti-bias curriculum advocates claim that varying degrees and layers of oppression exist in educational institutions, and that a biased curriculum perpetuates oppression, interferes with interpersonal relationships, and impedes the acquisition of skills and knowledge. The anti-bias approach urges educators to be aware of these social limitations and to eliminate them. The anti-bias approach is intended to teach children about acceptance, tolerance and respect; to critically analyze what they are taught; and to recognize the connections between ethnicity, gender, religion, and social class, and power, privilege, prestige, and opportunity.
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Criticism
Much of the anti-bias curriculum has been criticized for being Afrocentric rather than anti-bias. Educational experts such as Deirdre Almeida, have said that typical anti-bias materials omit the contributions of non-African ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, Inuit and Alaskan Natives. Portrayals of Native Americans in typical anti-bias materials conflate actual aboriginal practices with invented, obsolete or erroneous ideas about Native American culture.[2] Other critics, such as J. Amos Hatch, have noted that some anti-bias curricula can be construed as actively or passively adopting an anti-European racist bias, seeking to minimize contributions of Europeans in favor of other ethnic groups. This has produced "anti-bias" curricula that are overtly biased against people of European descent or in favor of people of African descent.[3]
References
[1] What is Anti-Bias Education? (http:/ / www. adl. org/ tools_teachers/ tip_antibias_ed. asp) Anti-Defamation League Quotation: "Anti-bias education takes an active, problem solving approach that is integrated into all aspects of an existing curriculum and a schools environment." [2] Countering Prejudice against American Indians and Alaska Natives through Antibias Curriculum and Instruction. (http:/ / www. ericdigests. org/ 1997-2/ antibias. htm) ERIC Digest. [3] J. Amos Hatch, Qualitative Research in Early Childhood Settings (http:/ / www. greenwood. com/ catalog/ C4921. aspx)
Anti-Defamation League. (1999). What is Anti-Bias Education?. Retrieved on November 6, 2004, from http:// www.adl.org/tools_teachers/tip_antibias_ed.asp (http://www.adl.org/tools_teachers/tip_antibias_ed.asp) Biles, B. (1994). Activities that Promote Racial and Cultural Awareness. Retrieved November 6, 2004, from Family Child Care Connections, 4(3) : http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/pdf_pubs/CHLDCARE.PDF (http:// web.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/pdf_pubs/CHLDCARE.PDF) Derman-Sparks, L. (1989). "Creating an Anti-Bias Environment" Chapter 2, in Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children. New York, NY: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Derman-Sparks, L. & Hohensee, J.B. (1992). Implementing an Anti-Bias Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms. Retrieved November 6, 2004, from ERIC/EECE Digest: http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-1/early. htm (http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-1/early.htm) Riehl, P.(1993). Five ways to analyze classrooms for an anti-bias approach. Retrieved November 6, 2004, from the National Network for Child Care (NNCC): http://www.nncc.org/Diversity/sac26_anti-bias.analyz.html (http://www.nncc.org/Diversity/sac26_anti-bias.analyz.html)
Anti-bias curriculum
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Further reading
Bartlett, Lesley and Marla Frederick, Thaddeus Gulbrandsen, Enrique Murillo. The Marketization of Education: Public Schools for Private Ends. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 27.2 (1996): 186-203. Ferguson, Ann Arnett. Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity. (2000): 592-600. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Osborne, A. Barry. Practice into Theory into Practice: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Students We Have Marginalized and Normalized. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 27.3 (1996): 285-314. Van Ausdale, Debra and Joe Feagin. What and How Children Learn About Racial and Ethnic Matters. The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism. (2001): 175-196. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
Purpose
Anti-racist mathematics education is primarily concerned with the way in which mathematics is taught, although it also examines the contents of the curriculum in as much as this might reasonably differ from universally acceptable mathematical education. An anti-racist approach to mathematics education could include any or all of the following: Discussion of the mathematical knowledge of ancient civilizations outside of Europe, and non-European contributions to mathematical knowledge and discovery. The avoidance of racial stereotyping when forming and communicating expectations of pupils' attainments in mathematics. The avoidance of racial stereotypes or cultural bias in classroom materials, textbooks, coursework topics and examination questions. For example, common non-European names, such as Chaim (Jewish), Jamal (Arabic), or Muhammed (Islamic), could be used in story problems, rather than common European names, like Mary or Emily.
Academic Imperalism
Indian mathematician and polymath C. K. Raju has coined the term "academic imperialism" to describe western academic system's suppression of non-western mathematical ideas.[4] He pointed out the contradiction in western mathematicians' claim that modern mathematics is a universal language, yet of Greek origin[5] He argued that modern western mathematics is built on two valued logic, and would not work under a different logical system like the quasi-truth functional logic of Buddhism.[6]
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Opposition
Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made reference to anti-racist mathematics in expressing opposition to "multicultural" and "anti-racist" educational approaches.[10] In her address to the Conservative Party Conference in October 1987, she said how inner city children's opportunities for decent education were being "snatched away from them by hard-left education authorities" and that "children who need to be able to count and multiply are learning anti-racist mathematics, whatever that is."[11] In 2005, Liza Porteus of Fox News reported that an "anti-racist education" program in the Newton Public Schools district of the wealthy Newton, Massachusetts community angered some parents, who perceived the program to focus more on political correctness than mathematics itself.[12]
Further reading
Woodrow, D. (1989). Multicultural and anti-racist mathematics teaching. In P. Ernest (Ed.), Mathematics teaching: The state of the art (pp.229235). London: Falmer. Cotton, A. (1990). Anti-racist mathematics teaching and the national curriculum. Mathematics Teaching, 132, 22-26. Levidow, L. (1987). Racism in scientific innovation. In D. Gill and L. Levidow (Eds.), Anti-racist science teaching (pp.4358). London: Free Association. Vance, M. (1987). Biology teaching in a racist society. In D. Gill and L. Levidow (Eds.), Anti-racist science teaching. (pp.107123). London: Free Association. Young, R. M. (1987). Racist society, racist science. In D. Gill and L. Levidow (Eds.), Anti-racist science teaching. (pp.1642). London: Free Association. Mears, T. (1986). Multicultural and anti-racist approaches to the teaching of science in schools. In J. Guadara, C. Jones and K. Kimberley (Eds.), Racism, diversity and education (pp.154166). London: Hodder and Stoughton. The Politics of Anti-Racist Mathematics in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Political Dimensions of Mathematics Education, (Ed. R. Noss), Institute of Education Publications, University of London, 1990. The Politics of Anti-Racist Mathematics, European Education Journal, July 1994, pp.6774 Harding, Sandra. The Science Question in Feminism. 1986.
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Notes
[1] Ending Academic Imperialism: a Beginning, C. K. Raju [2] Is Science Western in Origin?, C. K. Raju [3] Contact, Carl Sagan [4] http:/ / multiworldindia. org/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2010/ 05/ ckr-Tehran-talk-on-academic-imperialism. pdf [5] History of Mathematics, Rouse Ball [6] Zeroism and Calculus without Limits, C. K. Raju, 2008 [7] http:/ / ckraju. net/ papers/ MathEducation1Euclid. pdf [8] http:/ / www. cbc. ca/ news/ technology/ story/ 2007/ 08/ 14/ calculus070814. html [9] Zeroism and Calculus without limits, C. K. Raju [10] George Gheverghese Joseph (Spring 1994). "The Politics of Anti-Racist Mathematics" (http:/ / mesharpe. metapress. com/ app/ home/ linking. asp?referrer=linking& target=contribution& id=W46757K371456577& backto=contribution,1,1;searcharticlesresults,1,2;). European Education (The Department of Econometrics and Social Statistics, The University of Manchester, U.K.) 26 (1): 67 - 74. doi:10.2753/EUE1056-4934260167. . "At the Annual Conservative Party Conference in 1987, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared: "Children who need to count and multiply are being taught antiracist mathematics, whatever that may be"" [11] Quoted from King, Anna S.; Reiss, Michael J. (1993). The Multicultural Dimension of the National Curriculum (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=5Q3MFCr7ht0C& printsec=frontcover& dq="Children+ who+ need+ to+ be+ able+ to+ count+ and+ multiply+ are+ learning+ anti-racist+ mathematics,+ whatever+ that+ is. "#PPA26,M1). Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. p.26. ISBN978-0-7507-0069-6. . [12] Porteus, Liza (2005-02-08). "'Anti-Racist' Message in Mass. Math Class" (http:/ / www. foxnews. com/ story/ 0,2933,146684,00. html). Fox News. . Retrieved 2008-07-26.
External links
Book Review: Issues in Mathematics Teaching (http://www.atm.org.uk/reviews/books/ issuesinmathsteaching.html) - Ed. Peter Gates Eurocentrism in Mathematics (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Projects/Pearce/Chapters/ Ch10.html) Extract from memorandum submitted by the African-Caribbean Network for Science & Technology to the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ cm200102/cmselect/cmsctech/508/508ap30.htm)
Multicultural education
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Multicultural education
Multicultural education is a set of strategies and materials in U.S. education that were developed to assist teachers to promote democracy while responding to the many issues created by rapidly changing demographics of their students. Multicultural education means to ensure the highest levels of academic achievement for all students. It helps students develop a positive self-concept by providing knowledge about the histories, cultures, and contributions of diverse groups. Multicultural education assumes that the future of U.S. society is pluralistic. Today, teachers in most urban areas face students from a variety of social classes and cultural and language groups. Many students do not share the middle-class, European American culture common to most college-educated teachers. Teachers find large numbers of English as a Second Language (ESL) students in their classes in both urban and rural areas such as Iowa and Utah. Multicultural classrooms promote decision-making and critical thinking while moving away from inequality of opportunity and toward cultural pluralism. Multicultural educators seek to substantially reform schools to give diverse students an equal chance in school, in the job market, and in contributing to building healthy communities.[1] one of the leaders in the field of multicultural education, describes five dimensions of multicultural education: (1) content integration, (2) the knowledge construction process, (3) prejudice reduction, (4) an equity pedagogy, and (5) an empowering school culture and social structure. Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg, Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux, Antonia Darder, Christine Sleeter, Ernest Morrell, Sonia Nieto, Rochelle Brock, Cherry A. McGee Banks, James A. Banks, Nelson Rodriguez, Leila Villaverde and many other scholars of critical pedagogy have offered an emancipatory perspective on multicultural education. This theory concentrates on the need of including notions of race, class, and diversity while teaching. Multiculturalism supports the idea that students and their backgrounds and experiences should be the center of their education and that learning should occur in a familiar context that attends to multiple ways of thinking. If done correctly, students will develop a positive perception of themselves by demonstrating knowledge about the culture, history, and contributions of diverse groups. This way, multiculturalism is a tool for instilling students with pride and confidence in their unique and special backgrounds. Globalization is a social trend which integrates people with different cultural backgrounds. Cultures meet, clash, and grapple with one and other as if in the contact zone.[2] Under this circumstance, people started to improve the teaching methods, which means the phenomenon of multicultural education is coming along with the development of globalization. The influence of multicultural education for international students shows on both positive and negative sides. Multicultural education provides a relatively fair learning environment for international students, which can help them to more easily get involved in a new community. Additionally, with the help of this education method, international students can receive more opportunities to better access to knowledge. Moreover, when teachers pay attention to cultivate a multicultural atmosphere, it helps international students to gradually obtain global view. However, multicultural education may cause abandonment of original cultural for international students. Teachers sometimes use multiple examples to satisfy diverse students, but there is no standard benchmark for multicultural education and teachers usually add their own values to their education. Consequently, if teachers try to deliberately concentrate on providing multicultural examples, it may confuse international students and it cannot guarantee a fair education environment. Furthermore, international students may feel being left out when teachers want to emphasize on multiculturalism. Overall, multicultural education is a dialectical issue with two sides.
Multicultural education
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Conservative multiculturalism
Assumptions: 1. Unsuccessful minorities from culturally deprived backgroundsundermined by a lack of family values. 2. Common cultureWASP norms as invisible barometer for quality form the basis of the curriculum. These norms should be transferred to the next generation. 3. Content of curriculum is decided by dominant cultural norms. I.Q. and achievement tests used uncritically to measure student acquisition of content and student cognitive ability. 4. Non-white ethnic groups are studied in conservative multiculturalism as add-ons to the dominant culture, outsiders expected to melt into the Great Pot. 5. The existing social order is just. 6. Whiteness is not included as an ethnicityit becomes an invisible barometer of normality. 7. Education is a form of ethnicity striping for economic success.
Liberal multiculturalism
Assumptions: 1. Multicultural education should be based on a notion of samenesswe are all the same. 2. Racial inequality exists because of a lack of opportunity for minority groups. 3. Abstract individualism is central to Western social organization. In this context it is believed that all humans can succeed if given a chance. 4. In abstract individualism we are free agents responsible for our own success or failure. Such a position, Kincheloe and Steinberg maintain, often fails to account for hidden forms of racism and norms devised around dominant cultural traits. 5. Everyone enters the competitive race of life from the same starting-line. 6. Celebrations of Black or Latino history month are positive ways of honoring ethnic groups. Critics believe that liberal multiculturalism in this context often tokenizes ethnicity with such add-ons. 7. Whiteness still viewed as non-ethnic norm. 8. Studies of racism, sexism, class-bias, homophobia, and colonial oppression viewed as divisive. 9. Subjugated knowledge might be studied as a quaint manifestation of diversitynot profound alternative insights that provide everyone new and consciousness changing perspectives on the world.
Multicultural education
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Pluralist multiculturalism
Assumptions are the following: 1. This discourse often has served as the mainstream articulation of multicultural education over the last 20 years. 2. Pluralist multicultural education shares numerous features with liberal multiculturalit focuses more on difference than liberal multiculturalism. 3. Like liberal multiculturalism, often serves as a form of regulation and decontextualisation that fails to problematise whiteness and the Eurocentric norm. 4. Diversity is intrinsically valuable to the dominant culture in a globalizing world with its free market economy. 5. Curriculum involves learning about Others, their knowledge, values, beliefs, and patterns of behavior. 6. Social unfairness does exist and education should address prejudices and stereotypes. 7. Education should build pride in minority groups heritage. It often studies members of such groups who have attained success (implies that anyone can make it). 8. Psychological affirmation is the equivalent of socio-political empowerment. 9. Like liberal multiculturalism often ignores issues of social class. 10. Non-whites are gaining upward mobility and empowerment in ways not matched in reality. 11. Race and ethnicity are viewed as private matters that hold little connection to the complex structures of patriarchy, class elitism and economic colonialism, and white supremacy. 12. The coverage of harsh realities of race, class, gender, and sexual oppression does not have to be upsetting. Thus, the horrors of such realities often become a form of cultural tourism instead of a rigorous analysis of human suffering. 13. As prejudice does exist between different cultures, children from multicultural families could play a role in building bridges within diverse cultures and help to improve this situation. 14. In order to provide a comfortable education environment to multicultural students, colleges should pay more attention to caring about various cultures. 15. In this multicultural society, people always get into the social groups with same cultures as them. 16. In a pluralistic multicultural educational society, laws exist to prohibit discrimination based on race, color, gender, age, and creed. Even though there are laws, the society of the United States still contain behaviors that are derogatory to some ethnic, cultural, and social groups, and are preferential to others. 17. Pluralist multicultural education segregates people. It also tends to isolate people in small individual groups that share the same cultural background. 18. More social unfairness is induced by the pluralistic approach to multicultural education. 19. In pluralistic multicultural education, the differences between cultures are usually being focused upon instead of the places where the cultures share commonalities. 20. The main flaw in United States is the fact that pluralism usually separates and isolates people racially, socially, and culturally different. People with similar cultures usually come together and form bigger cultures. For example, China Town, Little Italy, and The Hood are all formed from a blend of cultures. These cultures usually are defined by economic differences, not by ethnic differences.
Multicultural education
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Left-essentialist multiculturalism
Assumptions: 1. A caveat: racism, class oppression, sexism, and homophobia are all forms of right-wing essentialism and have a far more pervasive impact on society than left-essentialist multiculturalism 2. Cultural differences are central to multiculturalism. 3. Races, ethnic groups, genders, and sexual orientations possess a specific set of characteristics that make them what they are. 4. These essential traits are romanticized, even exoticized in a process that positions difference in a distant past of social/cultural authenticity. This removes various groups from history, culture, and power relations and returns them to a primeval past. 5. Ones ethnicity or gender, their politics of identity guarantees that their pronouncements will be politically correct. Such a position undermines our attempt to analyze the ambiguous ways that historical forces shape our lives and our education. 6. That the good guys are now the bad guys and vice-versa. The curricula that come from this assumption simply invert traditional stereotypes and truth claims. Thus, a multicultural education is created that constructs a seamless history that in its moralistic reductionism fails to understand the subtlety of racism and other forms of oppression. 7. Subjugated knowledge is important in this context, but it is often romanticized as a pure manifestation of natural truth. In this way it can be passed along as a new authoritarian canon. 8. Second caveat: Kincheloe and Steinberg in their critique of left-essentialist multiculturalism in no way imply a rejection of the dire need for African American/Latino/indigenous studies or African American/Latino/indigenous based curricula. Because of the erasure of such knowledge in mainstream curriculum, such scholarship and such curriculum development is necessary. Such ethnic knowledges as well as gender, class, and sexual knowledges need to be studied as both separate and integrated phenomenaseparate from white, male, middle/upper class, and heterosexual experience and inseparable from them at the same time.
Critical multiculturalism
1. Representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality are grounded on larger complex social struggles. 2. A multicultural curriculum is part of a larger effort to transform the social, cultural, and institutional structures that generate these representations and perpetuate oppression. 3. Race, class, gender, sexual differences exist in the context of power and privilege. 4. Unlike liberal, pluralist, and conservative positions, justice in Western societies already exists and only needs to be distributed more equitably. 5. Community is not built simply on consensus but on, as Paulo Freire put it, unity in diversity. In a multiethnic society that respects but does not essentialize differences, great gains can be realized in the cultivation of critical thinking and ethical reasoning. 6. A homogeneous community grounded on consensus may be unable to criticize the injustice and exclusionary practices that undermine it. 7. Reform of cultural pathology often comes from the recognition of difference, from the interaction with individuals who do not suffer from the same injustices. 8. Multicultural education is based on solidarity in difference: grants social groups enough respect to listen to their perspectives and use them to consider existing social values; realizes lives of individuals in different groups are interconnected to the point that everyone is accountable to everyone else. 9. It is essential to make commitment to the legitimation of multiple traditions of knowledge. 10. Students come to see their own points-of-view as one of many socially and historically constructed ways of seeing. 11. Difference in solidarity expands their social imagination, their vision of what could be.
Multicultural education 12. Notions of whiteness and the effects of being white should be critically examinedmulticultural curriculum in this context explores the social construction of whiteness as an ethnicity. In this move the curriculum is dramatically changed, it investigates both self and other. 13. White male experience must be problematised as the norm, the invisible standard by which other cultures are measured. 14. Subjugated knowledge becomes a living body of knowledge open to different interpretations. It is not simply passed along as the new canon, but is viewed in relation to the old canon.
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Multicultural education dominant culture. Multicultural Education should be inclusive, visible, celebrated and tangible. Multicultural education is appropriate for everyone. Citizens need multicultural education in order to enter into the dialogue with your fellow citizens and future citizens . Further, multicultural education should include preparation for an active, participatory citizenship. James Banks, a lifetime leader in multicultural education and a former president of both the National Council for the Social Studies and the American Educational Research Association, describes the balancing forces in [9]( 4th. Edition, 2008) Citizenship education must be transformed in the 21st.century because of the deepening racial, ethnic, cultural, language and religious diversity in nation-states around the world. Citizens in a diverse democratic society should be able to maintain attachments to their cultural communities as well as participate effectively in the shared national culture. Unity without diversity results in cultural repression and hegemony. Diversity without unity leads to Balkanization and the fracturing of the nation-state. Diversity and unity should coexist in a delicate balance in democratic multicultural nation-states. [10] Planning curriculum for schools in a multicultural democracy involves making some value choices. Schools are not neutral. The schools were established and funded to promote democracy and citizenship. A pro democracy position is not neutral; teachers should help schools promote diversity. The myth of school neutrality comes from a poor understanding of the philosophy of positivism. Rather than neutrality, schools should plan and teach cooperation, mutual respect, the dignity of individuals and related democratic values. Schools, particularly integrated schools, provide a rich site where students can meet one another, learn to work together, and be deliberative about decision making. In addition to democratic values, deliberative strategies and teaching decision making provide core procedures for multicultural education. From: Choosing Democracy; a p[11] ractical guide to multicultural education. 4th. ed. 2010. Used with permission. pp.340341.
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References
[1] Banks (2008) [2] Pratt. [3] Kincheloe and Steinberg, Changing Multiculturalism (1997) [4] "Office of Multicultural Affairs" (http:/ / www. studentaffairs. columbia. edu/ multicultural/ ). . [5] Talbot, 2003 [6] Komives & Woodard, 2003. [7] p. 426. [8] Castellanos and Gloria (2007) [9] An Introduction to Multicultural Education. [10] (Banks, 2008) [11] Campbell, Duane (2010). Choosing Democracy: a Practical Guide to Multicultural Education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. pp.340341. ISBN978-0-13-503481-1.
Banks, James. An Introduction to Multicultural Education. 4th. edition. 2008,Pearson, Allyn/Bacon. Campbell, Duane. Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to Multicultural Education. 4th. edition. 2010. Pearson, Allyn /Bacon Kincheloe, Joe and Shirley Steinberg. Changing Multiculturalism. 1997, London: Open University Press. Steinberg, Shirley. Multi/Intercultural Conversations. 2001, NY: Peter Lang. Kincheloe, Joe, Steinberg, Shirley, Rodriguez, Nelson, and Chennault, Ronald. White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. 1998. NY: St. Martin's. Rodriguez, Nelson and Leila Villaverde. Dismantling White Privilege, 2000. NY: Peter Lang. Gresson, Aaron. Americas Atonement: Racial Pain, Recovery Rhetoric, and the Pedagogy of Healing, 2004. NY: Peter Lang. Dei, George J. Sefa. Racists Beware: Uncovering Racial Politics in the Post Modern Society, 2008. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Talbot. (2003). In S. R. Komives & D. Woodward, Jr. (Eds.). Student services: A handbook for the profession. (4th Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Multicultural education Castellanos, J., Gloria, A. M., Mayorga, M. M., Salas, C. (2007). Student Affairs Professionals Self-report of Multicultural Competence: Understanding Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills. NASPA Journal, 44(4), Art. 2. Retrieved September 9, 2008, from http://publications.naspa.org/naspajournal/vol44/iss4/art2 Pratt, Mary Louise. New York: (1991) 33-40. Arts of the Contact Zone. Retrieved 8 November 2010, from http:// learning.writing101.net/wp-content/readings/pratt_arts_of_the_contact_zone.pdf
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External links
Multicultural Education Pavilion; http://www.edchange.org/multicultural A Critical Examination of Anti-Racist Education (http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE19-4/ CJE19-4-08Mansfield.pdf) Alliance for Equity in Higher Education; http://www.ihep.org/programs/the-alliance.cfm American College Personnel Association Standing Committee for Multicultural Affairs; http://www.myacpa. org/sc/scma/ International Journal of Multicultural Education; http://www.ijme-journal.org Korean Association for Multicultural Education (KAME); http://www.kame.or.kr Multicultural Education Review; http://kame.or.kr/eng/journal.html National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME); http://www.nameorg.org/
Curriculum studies
Curriculum studies (CS) is a concentration within curriculum and instruction concerned with understanding curricula as an active force of human educational experience. Specific questions related to curriculum studies include the following: What should be taught in schools? Why should it be taught? To whom should it be taught? What does it mean to be an educated person? Proponents of CS also investigate the relationship between curriculum theory and educational practice and the relationship between school programs and the contours of the society and culture in which schools are located. There are programs in the field of curriculum studies in several Colleges of Education around the world. Curriculum Studies was also the first subdivision of the American Educational Research Association, known as Division B. Important CS books include The Curriculum: Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility by William Schubert (New York: Macmillan, 1986; and Understanding Curriculum by William Pinar, et al. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1995). Curriculum Studies emerged as a distinctive field in the late 1960s and early 1970s from educationists focused on curriculum development. The shift from developing and evaluating curriculum to understanding curriculum is known as the "Reconceptualization" of the curriculum field. A branch of curriculum studies that investigates how society transmits culture from generation to generation has been tagged with the term Hidden curriculum even though much of what is studied is hiding in plain sight. For instance, one of the 19th Century founders of the discipline of Sociology, mile Durkheim, observed that that more is taught and learned in schools than specified in the established curriculum of textbooks and teacher manuals. In Moral Education Durkheim wrote: "In fact, there is a whole system of rules in the school that predetermine the childs conduct. He must come to class regularly, he must arrive at a specified time and with an appropriate bearing and attitude. He must not disrupt things in class. He must have learned his lessons, done his homework, and have done so reasonably
Curriculum studies well, etc. There are, therefore, a host of obligations that the child is required to shoulder. Together they constitute the discipline of the school. It is through the practice of school discipline that we can inculcate the spirit of discipline in the child. (Durkheim, mile (1961 [1925]). Moral Education. New York, The Free Press.p.148)" Phillip W. Jackson (1968) may have coined the term hidden curriculum in his book Life in Classrooms. He argued that primary school emphasized specific skills: learning to wait quietly, exercising restraint, trying, completing work, keeping busy, cooperating, showing allegiance to both teachers and peers, being neat and punctual, and so on (Jackson, Philip (1968). Life in Classrooms.). The structural functional Structural functionalism sociologist Robert Dreeben (1968 On What is Learned in School) similarly concluded that the curriculum of schooling taught students to "form transient social relationships, submerge much of their personal identity, and accept the legitimacy of categorical treatment". Dreeben argued that formal schooling indirectly conveyed to students values such as independence and achievement, essential for their later membership in society. Since then, Curriculum Studies researchers ranging across the spectrum of paradigms from conservative structural-functionalists, to neo-Marxists to narrative- and arts-based researchers have examined formal curricula, experienced curricula, and hidden curricula. Progressive researchers like Paul Willis (1977, Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs), Jean Anyon (1980, "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work." Journal of Education 162), and Annette Laureau (1989.Home Advantage: Social Class, and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education) have examined the ways that hidden and overt curricula reproduce social class position. Narrative and arts-based researchers like Thomas Barone (2001, Touching Eternity: The Enduring Outcomes of Teaching) have inquired about the long-term effects of curricula on student lives. Critical theorists like Henry Giroux (1983 "Theories of Reproduction and Resistance in the New Sociology of Education: A critical analysis." Harvard Educational Review 53) began to examine the roles of students and teachers in resisting curricula both official and hidden.[1] So-called resistance theorists conceptualized students and teachers as active agents working to subvert, reject, or change curricula. They noted that curriculum was not a unified structure but incoherent conflicting and contradictory messages. Other researchers have examined the interactions between racial and ethnic cultures and the dominant curricula of the school. For instance the Anthropologist John Ogbu examined curricula established by African American students (Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu 1986 "Black Students School Success: Coping with the Burden of Acting White. The Urban Review18.[2] Critical Race Theorists Critical race theory like Daniel Solrzano examined how racial attitudes constitute another hidden curriculum in teacher education programs (1997, Images and Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory and Racial Stereotyping, and Teacher Education, Teacher Education Quarterly, 24). The interest in Curriculum Studies is thus cross disciplinary and of increasing importance to educational research and to the philosophy of education.
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Curriculum studies North West University, North West, South Africa [6] Indiana University, Bloomington, IN: www.iub.edu Purdue University: http://www.edci.purdue.edu/curriculum_studies/
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Critical pedagogy Acting white http:/ / coe. asu. edu/ candi/ brochures/ curr_studies_E. pdf http:/ / www. arcadia. edu/ academic/ default. aspx?id=11808 http:/ / coe. georgiasouthern. edu/ foundations/ edd/ http:/ / www. nwu. ac. za
About
Herbert Kohl argues that teachers may be inclined to teach against their conscience, limit their methodology, and focus heavily on being good teachers without placing similar emphasis on being good citizens. Overcoming these inclinations is the crux of what he and many other educators call "teaching for social justice".[3] Other popular educators who have explored the practice of teaching for social justice include John Dewey, who may have been the first advocate for teaching for social justice when he developed the first theories about technical education and student engagement in the classroom in Democracy and Education. Following him were George Counts, who focused on a democratically-inclusive, socialistic educational model, while Charles A. Beard and Myles Horton both provided more individualistic lenses which emphasized teaching for social justice. A variety of social and political theories and backgrounds inform the practice of teaching for social justice. Starting as early as the work of W. E. B. Du Bois in the early 1900s, social activists and educators have called for the realignment of educative practices towards a conscious, deliberative practice of engaging society in fostering justice for all. After the publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1971, Brazilian educator Paulo Freire became closely associated with teaching for social justice. Freire expounded the belief that teaching is a political act that is never neutral. Over the course of dozens of books, Freire proposed that educators focus on creating equity and changing systems of oppression within public schools and society.[4] The main goal of engaging in social justice through education is to fight oppression by giving all groups the opportunity to receive resources more equally. Esposito and Swain studied urban teachers that promote social justice in their teaching by using culturally relevant pedagogy. Esposito and Swain found that these teachers that engage in social justice through their teaching have to ensure that their students not only thrive academically, but also socially, which can create a burden on educators ([5]). By promoting social justice pedagogy, students can increase a sociopolitical consciousness, have a sense of agency, and help students develop a positive social and cultural identity
Teaching for social justice ([5]). Recently teaching for social justice has been built on ethnographic and discourse research on the complex work of educators, including works by bell hooks, who pioneered a culturally-relevant, critical classroom theory strongly informing teaching for social justice. Ira Shor, Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux, Joe L. Kincheloe, and Stanley Aronowitz have each built upon the contributions of Freire to develop uniquely American critical examinations of culture and society. Michael Apple is remarkable for his democracy-focused project which reinforces the tenets of teaching for social justice. Jonathan Kozol, Alfie Kohn, Susan Searls Giroux, Khen Lampert, Michelle Rosser, and Lisa Delpit are among the growing body of modern educational theorists who have also contributed greatly to this practice. Attention to social justice issues incorporates a broad range of sociological dimensions in teaching, and education more generally, including attention to fairness and equity with regard to gender, race, class, disability, sexual orientation, etc. Teaching for social justice has a common goal of preparing teachers to recognize, name, and combat inequality in schools and society through culturally relevant pedagogy, anti-racist pedagogy, and intercultural teaching among others ([6]). A number of subject specific fields of practice and enquiry in education, including science education and mathematics education have sub-communities of teachers and scholars working on social justice issues. For example the 2007 special issue no. 20 of Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal is devoted to social justice issues in mathematics education.
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Peer relationships
Peer relationships among learners are largely determinant of the outcomes of schools.[7][8] Methods including cooperative group work,[9][10] and diverse group interactions.[11] In the modern educational realm of teaching and learning, students are now seen as active participants in the learning process. Lev Vygotsky's (1978) social development theory requires students to play untraditional roles as they collaborate with one another. The physical environment of the classroom also plays a role in peer relationships. Based on Vygotskys (1978) theory, clustered desks would enable peer collaboration as well as small group instruction. Therefore, the instructional design of material being learned would encourage peer-to-peer interaction. To that effect, the classroom serves as a community of learning.
Teacher relationships
The relationships teachers have with students also affect teaching for social justice. In this sense, parent/teacher relationships are central,[12] as are access to information and resources for all students,[12] understanding the role of youth/adult partnerships in the classroom,[13] and teachers actually learning about students.[14] It is also important for students to understand equity issues in their classrooms.[15] The role of the teacher is to promote learning through facilitation, which can aid in the production of knowledge. Helping students understand how they learn helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses as learners. Through this metacognitive approach to learning, students can also develop new ways to use their strengths in order to improve their weaknesses.
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Classrooms
The number of specific classroom issues that affect teaching for social justice are almost countless.[16] Understanding the effects of teachers on student learning is vital,[12] and a teacher cannot teach under the assumption that equal means the same. Students come from numerous cultures, languages, lifestyles and values and a monocultural framework will not suit all student needs.[12][17] [18] Additionally, teachers need to be critically conscious[19] and offer students well-planned units and lessons that develop knowledge of a wide range of groups.[20][21] Curriculum building on acknowledgment rather than neglect the experiences of students.[12] Educators can also match students cultures to the curriculum and instructional practices[22] In essence, monocultural education creates a context in which schools do not embrace minority students cultural knowledge, which includes historical, social, and cultural background experiences. Oftentimes, there is also cultural and linguistic bias factors in the education of minority students. To allude, insufficient teacher awareness of culturally diverse students can create a few misunderstandings in the area of teaching minority students. For example, whenever a mainstream teacher thinks minority students behavior is bizarre, rude, or unexpected, it can be a sign of cultural misunderstanding. According to Harper de Jong, Students who speak a language other than English at home and whose proficiency in English is limited are the fastest growing group of k-12 students in the United States. Unfortunately, well-intentioned efforts to include diverse learners in general education reforms are often based on misconceptions about effective instruction for ELLs. The misconceptions stem from two basic assumptions that guide much current teacher preparation for diversity. As a result, a teacher may be unaware of the background knowledge of minority students. To this effect, the teacher is unable to help minority students solve daily learning tasks, which can cause any lesson to become meaningless. Many school districts call for teachers to become critically conscious of diversity in education by offering students well-planned units and lessons that develop knowledge of a wide range of groups. It is also hopeful for teachers to understand that culture is a significant driving force in the lives of their students learning the English language. Educators can also match students cultures to the curriculum and instructional practices. Culturally responsive teaching is a very important element in regards to embracing a diverse students background[23] . The ethnic background of culturally diverse students should not be dishonored in the classroom. Instead, it should be embraced and recognized as an important aspect of ones ethnic identity. There are a variety of learning materials that would aid in the assistance of educating other students to appreciate various ethnic perspectives (i.e. multicultural literature, diverse learning styles and techniques of other cultures, etc.). Geneva Gay draws on the importance that literature in the classroom would reflect multiple ethnic perspectives and literary genres. Math instruction would incorporate everyday-life concepts, such as economics, employment, and consumer habits of various ethnic groups. In order to teach to the different learning styles of students, activities would reflect a variety of sensory opportunities-visual, auditory, tactile. With this in mind, it is important for teachers encourage the use of multicultural materials that will not only enhance the learning capacity of minority learners but also mainstream learners. In actuality, the importance of the nature and role of culture and cultural groups in students language and literacy development will help increase student self-esteem. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers incorporate the culture of a student and relate it to the class work. If culture is not incorporated, then minority students will ultimately feel apprehensive and subjugated to a dull educational atmosphere. For example, teachers should dedicate a day out of each month to celebrate the culture of a particular minority students heritage. Not only will learning occur, but also a time where heritage speakers can explore communicative activities such as experience sharing from his or her own native country. In essence, this celebration and storytelling will encourage communication, which is a key element to the process of teaching and learning. Also, the use of multicultural literature books can be used as an essential component to each students heritage, which can also be implemented into the curriculum. This is a fascinating method to educate others in the class about their peers native background. There are various multicultural trade books on the market that not only educate
Teaching for social justice students, but also strengthen their ability to read and comprehend each students heritage background. With a greater appreciation, teachers could design lesson plans for students to understand a traditional custom or event through the use of the following strategies: timelines, dioramas, creative costumes, story reenactment, poster boards, pictures depicting an event, or re-write an ending to a story. Any of these interactive approaches to learning about ones culture will make the lesson more interesting for minority learners. Some childrens literature, such as historical fiction or stories related to social issues can also be used effectively with older or advanced proficient learners. According to H. Douglas Brown, Your own language classroom is an excellent place to begin the quest for a more humane world. Our classroom can themselves become models of mutual respect across cultural, political, and religious boundaries. Therefore, it is noted that educators should not teach based on mistaken belief systems in the teaching of minority learners, but on student ability, needs, and cultural values that will foster a lasting educational foundation on all learners
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Relevant organizations
Many universities and colleges have programs focused on teaching for social justice, including the University of Massachusetts, Amherst [24], The University of South Carolina, the University of Regina, The Evergreen State College, State University of New York at Oswego, Pennsylvania State University, Swarthmore College, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Washington. A number of nonprofit organizations also support the practice in schools, including Mosaic, the Institute for Community Leadership and the Freechild Project.
Criticism
Sudbury model of democratic education schools maintain that values, social justice included, must be learned through experience[25][26][27][28] as Aristotle said: "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."[29] They adduce that for this purpose schools must encourage ethical behavior and personal responsibility. In order to achieve these goals schools must allow students the three great freedomsfreedom of choice, freedom of action and freedom to bear the results of actionthat constitute personal responsibility.[30] In addition, critics contest that the political and ideological priorities of the Teaching for Social Justice movement have little or nothing to do with the actual problems that struggling students face and in spirit harms the quality of the teachers of these students.[31]
References
[1] Russo, P. (1994) What does it mean to teach for social justice? (http:/ / www. oswego. edu/ ~prusso1/ Russos_what_does_it_mean_to_teach_for_s. htm) SUNY Oswego. Retrieved 5/20/07. [2] Sol Stern "Pedagogy of the Oppressor" City Journal, Spring 2009 [3] Kohl, H. Teaching for Social Justice (http:/ / www. rethinkingschools. org/ archive/ 15_02/ Just152. shtml). Rethinking Schools. Volume 15, No. 2 - Winter 2000/01. Retrieved 5/20/07. [4] Freire, P. (1971) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. [5] Esposito, J. and Swain, A. N. (2009). Pathways to social justice: Urban teachers' uses of culturally relevant pedagogy as a conduit for teaching for social justice. Perspectives on Urban Education, 1, 38-48. [6] Spalding, E., Klecka, C. L., Lin, E., Odell, S. J., and Wang, J. (2010). Social justice and teacher education: A hammer, a bell, and a song. Journal of Teacher Education, 61, 191-196. [7] Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. [8] Boykin, A.W., Tyler, K.m., & Miller, O. (2005). In search of cultural themes and their expressions in the dynamics of classroom life. Urban Education, 40(5), 521-547. [9] Cohen, E.G. 1994. Designing groupwork. New York: Teachers College Press. [10] Costantino, M. (1999). Reading and Second Language Learners. Olympia, WA: The Evergreen Center for Education Improvement. [11] Johnson, A. (2001). Privilege, power and difference. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. [12] Nieto, S. [13] Lewis,A.(2004) Race in the school yard. Rutgers University Press. [14] Nieto, Sonia (2004). Affirming Diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. 4th ed. Pearson Education, Inc.
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Bibliography
Bigelow, B., & Peterson, B. (Eds.). (1998). Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years. Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools Ltd. Bigelow, B., Christensen, L., Karp, S., Miner, B., & Peterson, B. (Eds.). (1994). Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice. (Vol. 1). Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools Ltd. Brown, H.D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (3rd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents. Garry, P., (2006) Cultural whiplash: The Unforeseen Consequences of America's Crusade against Racial Discrimmination. Nashville: Cumberland House. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, & Practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Grant, C.A., & Sleeter, C.E. (2006). Turning on Learning: Five Approaches for Multicultural Teaching Plans for Race, Class, Gender, and Disability (4th ed.). Indianapolis: Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley. Haberman, M. (1995). STAR Teachers of Children in Poverty. Indianapolis: Kappa Delta Pi.
Teaching for social justice Harper, C.; de Jong, E. (2004). Misconceptions about teaching English-language learners. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Ladson-Billings, G. (1997). The Dreamkeepers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lampert, k. (2003). Compassionate Education: Erolegomena for Radical Schooling MD USA, Romman&Littlefield. North, Connie. (2006) "More Than Words? Delving Into the Substantive Meaning(s) of 'Social Justice' in Education." Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 507-535. Schutz, Aaron. Social Class, Social Action, and Education: The Failure of Progressive Democracy introduction (http://educationaction.org) Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Inclusion (education)
Inclusion in education is an approach to educating students with special educational needs. Under the inclusion model, students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students. Implementation of these practices varies. Schools most frequently use them for selected students with mild to severe special needs.[1] Inclusive education differs from previously held notions of integration and mainstreaming, which tended to be concerned principally with disability and special educational needs and implied learners changing or becoming ready for or deserving of accommodation by the mainstream. By contrast, inclusion is about the childs right to participate and the schools duty to accept the child. Inclusion rejects the use of special schools or classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. A premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights. Inclusion gives students with disabilities skill they can use in and out of the classroom.[2] Fully inclusive schools, which are rare, no longer distinguish between "general education" and "special education" programs; instead, the school is restructured so that all students learn together.[3]
Classification
Inclusion has two sub-types:[4] the first is sometimes called regular inclusion or partial inclusion, and the other is full inclusion.[5] "Inclusive practice" is not always inclusive but is a form of integration. For example, students with special needs are educated in regular classes for nearly all of the day, or at least for more than half of the day.[5] Whenever possible, the students receive any additional help or special instruction in the general classroom, and the student is treated like a full member of the class. However, most specialized services are provided outside a regular classroom, particularly if these services require special equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of the class (such as speech therapy), and students are pulled out of the regular classroom for these services. In this case, the student occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive instructional sessions in a resource room, or to receive other related services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational and/or physical therapy, and social work.[5] This approach can be very similar to many mainstreaming practices, and may differ in little more than the educational ideals behind it.[5] In the "full inclusion" setting, the students with special needs are always educated alongside students without special needs, as the first and desired option while maintaining appropriate supports and services. Some educators say this might be more effective for the students with special needs.[6] At the extreme, full inclusion is the integration of all students, even those that require the most substantial educational and behavioral supports and services to be successful in regular classes and the elimination of special, segregated special education classes.[6] Special education
Inclusion (education) is considered a service, not a place and those services are integrated into the daily routines and classroom structure, environment, curriculum and strategies and brought to the student, instead of removing the student to meet his or her individual needs. However, this approach to full inclusion is somewhat controversial, and it is not widely understood or applied to date.[6][7][8][9] Much more commonly, local educational agencies provide a variety of settings, from special classrooms to mainstreaming to inclusion, and assign students to the system that seems most likely to help the student achieve his or her individual educational goals. Students with mild or moderate disabilities, as well as disabilities that do not affect academic achievement, such as using wheelchair, are most likely to be fully included. However, students with all types of disabilities from all the different disability categories have been successfully included in general education classes, working and achieving their individual educational goals in regular school environments and activities (reference needed).
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Alternatives
Students with disabilities who are not included are typically either mainstreamed or segregated. A mainstreamed student attends some general education classes, typically for less than half the day, and often for less academically rigorous classes. For example, a young student with significant intellectual disabilities might be mainstreamed for physical education classes, art classes and storybook time, but spend reading and mathematics classes with other students that have similar disabilities. They may have access to a resource room for remediation of course content. A segregated student attends no classes with non-disabled students. He or she might attend a special school that only enrolls other students with disabilities, or might be placed in a dedicated, self-contained classroom in a school that also enrolls general education students. Some students may be confined to a hospital due to a medical condition and are thus eligible for tutoring services provided by a school district.[10] Less common alternatives include homeschooling[11] and, particularly in developing countries, exclusion from education.
Legal issues
The new anti-discriminatory climate has provided the basis for much change in policy and statute, nationally and internationally. Inclusion has been enshrined at the same time that segregation and discrimination have been rejected. Articulations of the new developments in ways of thinking, in policy and in law include: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which sets out childrens rights in respect of freedom from discrimination and in respect of the representation of their wishes and views. The Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO prohibits any dicrimination, exclusion or segregation in education. The UNESCO[12] Salamanca Statement (1994) which calls on all governments to give the highest priority to inclusive education.[13] The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) which calls on all States Parties to ensure an inclusive education system at all levels.[14] For schools in the United States, the federal requirement that students be educated in the least restrictive environment that is reasonable encourages the implementation of inclusion for some students.
Inclusion (education)
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Frequency of use
The proportion of students with disabilities who are included varies by place and by type of disability, but it is relatively common for students with milder disabilities and less common with certain kinds of severe disabilities. In Denmark, 99% of students with learning disabilities like dyslexia are placed in general education classrooms.[15] In the United States, three out of five students with learning disabilities spend the majority of their time in the general education classroom.[16]
Necessary resources
Although once hailed as a way to increase achievement while decreasing costs, full inclusion does not save money, reduce students' needs, or improve academic outcomes; in most cases, it merely moves the special education professionals out of their own classrooms and into a corner of the general classroom. To avoid harm to the academic education of students with disabilities, a full panoply of services and resources is required, including:[17] Adequate supports and services for the student Well-designed individualized education programs Professional development for all teachers involved, general and special educators alike Time for teachers to plan, meet, create, and evaluate the students together Reduced class size based on the severity of the student needs Professional skill development in the areas of cooperative learning, peer tutoring, adaptive curriculum Collaboration between parents, teachers and administrators Sufficient funding so that schools will be able to develop programs for students based on student need instead of the availability of funding.
In principle, several factors can determine the success of inclusive classrooms: Family-school partnerships Collaboration between general and special educators Well-constructed plans that identify specific accommodations, modifications, and goals for each student Coordinated planning and communication between "general" and "special needs" staff Integrated service delivery Ongoing training and staff development
Common practices
Students in an inclusive classroom are generally placed with their chronological age-mates, regardless of whether the students are working above or below the typical academic level for their age. Also, to encourage a sense of belonging, emphasis is placed on the value of friendships. Teachers often nurture a relationship between a student with special needs and a same-age student without a special educational need. Another common practice is the assignment of a buddy to accompany a student with special needs at all times (for example in the cafeteria, on the playground, on the bus and so on). This is used to show students that a diverse group of people make up a community, that no one type of student is better than another, and to remove any barriers to a friendship that may occur if a student is viewed as "helpless." Such practices reduce the chance for elitism among students in later grades and encourage cooperation among groups.[18] Teachers use a number of techniques to help build classroom communities: Using games designed to build community Involving students in solving problems Sharing songs and books that teach community Openly dealing with individual differences by discussion Assigning classroom jobs that build community
Inclusion (education) Teaching students to look for ways to help each other Utilizing physical therapy equipment such as standing frames, so students who typically use wheelchairs can stand when the other students are standing and more actively participate in activities Encouraging students to take the role of teacher and deliver instruction (e.g. read a portion of a book to a student with severe disabilities) Focusing on the strength of a student with special needs
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Collaboration
Inclusion settings allow children with and without disabilities to play and interact every day, even when they are receiving therapeutic services. When a child displays fine motor difficulty, his ability to fully participate in common classroom activities, such as cutting, coloring, and zipping a jacket may be hindered. While occupational therapists are often called to assess and implement strategies outside of school, it is frequently left up to classroom teachers to implement strategies in school. Collaborating with occupational therapists will help classroom teachers use intervention strategies and increase teachers awareness about students needs within school settings and enhance teachers independence in implementation of occupational therapy strategies. As a result of the 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Act, greater emphasis has been placed on delivery of related services within inclusive, general education environments. [Nolan, 2004] The importance of inclusive, integrated models of service delivery for children with disabilities has been widely researched indicating positive benefits. [Case-Smith& Holland, 2009] In traditional pull out service delivery models, children typically work in isolated settings one on one with a therapist, Case-Smith and Holland(2009) argue that children working on skills once or twice a week are less likely to produce learning that leads to new behaviors and increased competence. [Case Smith &Holland, 2009, pg.419].In recent years, occupational therapy has shifted from the conventional model of pull out therapy to an integrated model where the therapy takes place within a school or classroom.
Inclusion (education) Bowe says that regular inclusion, but not full inclusion, is a reasonable approach for a significant majority of students with special needs.[5] He also says that for some students, notably those with severe autism spectrum disorders or mental retardation, as well as many who are deaf or have multiple disabilities, even regular inclusion may not offer an appropriate education.[5] Teachers of students with autism spectrum disorders sometimes use antecedent procedures, delayed contingencies, self-management strategies, peer-mediated interventions, pivotal response training and naturalistic teaching strategies.[20]
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Inclusion (education)
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Positive effects
There are many positive effects of inclusions where both the students with special needs along with the other students in the classroom both benefit. Research has shown positive effects for children with disabilities in areas such as reaching individualized education program (IEP) goal, improving communication and social skills, increasing positive peer interactions, many educational outcomes, and post school adjustments. Positive effects on children without disabilities include the development of positive attitudes and perceptions of persons with disabilities and the enhancement of social status with nondisabled peers.[26] Several studies have been done on the effects of inclusion of children with disabilities in general education classrooms. A study on inclusion compared integrated and segregated (special education only) preschool students. The study determined that children in the integrated sites progressed in social skills development while the segregated children actually regressed.[27] Another study shows the effect on inclusion in grades 2 to 5. The study determined that students with specific learning disabilities made some academic and affective gains at a pace comparable to that of normal achieving students. Specific learning disabilities students also showed an improvement in self-esteem and in some cases improved motivation.[28]
Criticism
Critics of full and partial inclusion include both educators, administrators and parents. Full and partial inclusion approaches neglect to acknowledge the fact most students with significant special needs require individualized instruction or highly controlled environments. Thus, general education classroom teachers often are teaching a curriculum while the special education teacher is remediating instruction at the same time. Similarly, a child with serious inattention problems may be unable to focus in a classroom that contains twenty or more active children. Although with the increase of incidence of disabilities in the student population, this is a circumstance all teachers must contend with, and is not a direct result of inclusion as a concept.[29] Full inclusion may in fact be a way for schools to placate parents and the general public, using the word as a phrase to garner attention for what are in fact illusive efforts to education students with special needs in the general education environment.[30] At least one study examined the lack of individualized services provided for students with IEPs when placed in an inclusive rather than mainstreamed environment.[31] Some researchers have maintained school districts neglect to prepare general education staff for students with special needs, thus preventing any achievement. Moreover, school districts often expound an inclusive philosophy for political reasons, and do away with any valuable pull-out services, all on behalf of the students who have no so say in the matter.[32] Inclusion is viewed by some as a practice philosophically attractive yet impractical. Studies have not corroborated the proposed advantages of full or partial inclusion. Moreover, "push in" servicing does not allow students with moderate to severe disabilities individualized instruction in a resource room, from which many show considerable benefit in both learning and emotional development.[33] Parents of disabled students may be cautious about placing their children in an inclusion program because of fears that the children will be ridiculed by other students, or be unable to develop regular life skills in an academic classroom.[34] Some argue that inclusive schools are not a cost-effective response when compared to cheaper or more effective interventions, such as special education. They argue that special education helps "fix" the special needs students by providing individualized and personalized instruction to meet their unique needs. This is to help students with special needs adjust as quickly as possible to the mainstream of the school and community. Proponents counter that students with special needs are not fully into the mainstream of student life because they are secluded to special education.
Inclusion (education) Some argue that isolating students with special needs may lower their self-esteem and may reduce their ability to deal with other people. In keeping these students in separate classrooms they aren't going to see the struggles and achievements that they can make together. However, at least one study indicated mainstreaming in education has long-term benefits for students as indicated by increased test scores,[35] where the benefit of inclusion has not yet been proved.
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References
[1] Allen, K. E.; Schwartz, I. (2000). The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood Education (4 ed.). Delmar Cengage Learning. ISBN0-7668-0249-3. [2] Students learn the importance of individual and group contributions and develop valuable life skills that are often unexplored in less inclusive settings (Tapasak 216). Tapasak, Renee and Christine Walther-Thomas. Evaluation of a First-Year Inclusion Program: Student Perceptions and Classroom Performance. Remedial and Special Education 20 (1999): 216-225. Print. [3] Scheyer et al. (1996). The Inclusive Classroom Teacher Created Materials, Inc. The Inclusive Classroom (http:/ / lib. syndetics. com/ hw7. pl?isbn=1557348804/ LC. JPG) [4] (http:/ / encarta. msn. com/ dictionary_/ inclusion. html) Definition of inclusion, accessed October 11, 2007. Archived (http:/ / www. webcitation. org/ 5kwrE8sgg) 2009-10-31. [5] Bowe, Frank. (2005). Making Inclusion Work. Merrill Education/Prentice Hall. [6] Understanding Psychology Eighth Edition, Feldman, Robert S. (2008), page 309. Retrieved 2010-06-10. [7] Student teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion of children with special needs. Educational Psychology, Hastings. R.P., & Oakford, S. (2003), page 23, 87-95 [8] Mainstreaming to full inclusion: From orthogenesis to pathogenesis of an idea. International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education, Kavale, K.A. (2002), page 49, 201-214.
Inclusion (education)
[9] Attitudes of elementary school principals toward the inclusion of students with disabilities. Exceptional Children, Praisner, C. L. (2003), page 69, 135-145. [10] Jorgensen, C., Schuh, M., & Nisbet, J. (2005). The inclusion facilitator's guide. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. [11] Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 (http:/ / nces. ed. gov/ pubs2006/ homeschool/ TableDisplay. asp?TablePath=TablesHTML/ table_4. asp) [12] http:/ / www. unesco. org/ en/ inclusive-education/ [13] Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs. (http:/ / www. unesco. org/ education/ pdf/ SALAMA_E. PDF) (PDF-File, 198 KB) [14] Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (http:/ / www. un. org/ disabilities/ convention/ conventionfull. shtml), Article 24 Education. [15] Robert Holland (06/01/2002). "Vouchers Help the Learning Disabled: Lesson from 22 countries: Special-education students thrive in private schools". The Heartland Institute. [16] Cortiella, C. (2009). The State of Learning Disabilities. (http:/ / www. ncld. org/ stateofld) New York, NY: National Center for Learning Disabilities. [17] This list from the Utah Education Association. [18] Strully, J., & Strully, C. (1996). Friendships as an educational goal: What we have learned and where we are headed. In W. Stainback & S. Stainback (Eds.), Inclusion: A guide for educators. Balitmore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. [19] Carroll, Doug. "Transformation Ahead for Special Education" The Arizona Republic. 21 September 2006 [20] Simpson, Richard L.; Sonja R. de Boer (2009). Successful inclusion for students with autism: creating a complete, effective ASD inclusion program. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp.3842. ISBN0-470-23080-0. [21] Stainback, W., & Stainback, S. (1995). Controversial Issues Confronting Special Education. Allyn & Bacon. [22] Trainer, M. (1991). Differences in common: Straight talk on mental retardation, Down Syndrome, and life. Rockville, MD" Woodbine house. [23] Giangreco, M.F., Cloninger, C.J.,& Iverson, V.S.(1998). Choosing outcomes and accommodations for Children (COACH): A guide to educational planning for students with disabilities (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Paul H Brookes Plublishing Co [24] Marston, Douglas. The Journal of Special Education, Vol. 30, No. 2, 121-132 (1996) [25] Gillies, R.M. (2004). The effects of cooperative learning on junior high school students during small group learning. Learning and Instruction, 14(2),197-213. [26] Bennett, T., Deluca, D., & Bruns, D. (1997). Putting inclusion into practice: perspectives of teachers and parents. Exceptional Children, 64. [27] Sale, P., & Carey, D. (1995). The Sociometric status of students with disabilities in a full-inclusion school. Exceptional Children, 62. [28] Banerji, M., & Dailey, R. (1995). A Study of the effects of an inclusion model on students with specific learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 28(8), 511-522. [29] Barkley, R.A. (1998). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorders: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford. [30] JM Kauffman, DP Hallahan.The Illusion of Full Inclusion: A Comprehensive Critique of a Current Special Education Bandwagon. PRO-ED, Inc., 8700 Shoal Creek Blvd., Austin, TX 78757-6897 [31] Espin, C.A.Individualized Education Programs in Resource and Inclusive Settings.The Journal of Special Education, Vol. 32, No. 3, 164-174 (1998) [32] Lieberman, Laurence M. Preserving Special Education. Weston: Nobb Hill Press Inc, 1988. [33] An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Resource Rooms for Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Lawrence H. Weiner Journal of Learning Disabilities, Apr 1969; vol. 2: pp. 223 - 229. [34] This information provided by SEDL. [35] van den Bos, K.P., Nakken, H., Nicolay, P.G.,& van Houten, E.J. (2007). Adults with mild intellectual disabilities: Can their reading comprehension ability be improved? Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 51(11), 830-845. [36] http:/ / www. scribd. com/ doc/ 37626440/ UNESCO-Education-Inclusion-Policy-Guidelines [37] UNESCO (2009) Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education. UNESCO: Paris. http:/ / unesdoc. unesco. org/ images/ 0017/ 001778/ 177849e. pdf [38] http:/ / www2. ed. gov/ programs/ equitycenters/ index. html [39] http:/ / www. equityallianceatasu. org/ [40] Ladson-Billings, B. (1992). Reading between the lines and beyond the pages: A culturally relevant approach to literacy teaching. Theory Into Practice, 31(4), 312-320. [41] http:/ / ea. niusileadscape. org/ lc/ Record/ 137?search_query=Culturally%20Responsive [42] http:/ / www. bps. org. uk/ downloadfile. cfm?file_uuid=CE1DCB9D-1143-DFD0-7EA9-5C1B82EA4596& ext=doc British Psychological Society position statement on inclusive education [43] Patton, M. (2011). Developmental evaluation: Applying complexity concepts to enhance innovation and use. New York, NY, The Guilford Press.
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Ainscow M., Booth T. (2003) The Index for Inclusion: Developing Learning & Participation in Schools. Bristol: Center for Studies in Inclusive Education
Inclusion (education) Thomas, G., & Loxley, A. (2007) Deconstructing Special Education and Constructing Inclusion (2nd Edition). Maidenhead: Open University Press. Elementary programming for inclusive classrooms (http://www.parrotpublishing.com/Inclusion_Chapter_7. htm) Social development: Promoting Social Development in the Inclusive Classroom (http://www.circleofinclusion. org/english/guidelines/modulefour/social/socialskills.html) M. Mastropieri, Thomas E. Scruggs. The Inclusive Classroom: Strategies for Effective Instruction Mary Beth Doyle. The Paraprofessional's Guide to the Inclusive Classroom Conrad M., & Whitaker T. (1997). Inclusion and the law: A principals proactive approach. The Clearing House Jorgensen, C., Schuh, M., & Nisbet, J. (2005). The inclusion facilitator's guide. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
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External links
IDEAdata.org (http://www.ideadata.org) -- current statistics about IDEA, including the number of American children and youth who are educated all or most of the time in general classrooms. Kids Together, Inc. (http://www.kidstogether.org) Information and resources for inclusion. Inclusion and Social Justice Articles (http://www.isja.org.uk) - A directory of articles on the internet with a specific section on inclusion in education. Inclusive Teaching Resource Network by The Center for Applied Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University (http://knowledgenetwork.alumni.msu.edu/caitlah/ inclusiveteachingresourcenetwork.html) An autistic person objects to inclusive education (http://iautistic.com/autistic-school-life-problems.php) Working in partnership with schools, children's services and agencies to raise the academic, social and personal achievement of all learners, support strategic leadership and management and improve educational and social inclusion. (http://www.inclusiveschoolsupport.co.uk) noexclusion.com: Inclusion means NO Exclusion (http://www.noexclusion.com/)
Humanitarian education
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Humanitarian education
Humanitarian education teaches various social topics from a humanitarian perspective. A desire to reduce suffering, save lives and maintain human dignity is central to understanding humanitarian education. It is based on the assumption that people have an innate desire to help others, so is centrally concerned with our shared humanity.[1]
Curriculum content
By exploring crisis situations humanitarian education enables students to recognise that people can overcome adversity. It develops their understanding of humanitarian issues, the skills that build resilience and encourages them to intervene to support others in crisis. The way in which educators explore with students any topic, issue or event must be within the framework of the principles of humanity and impartiality. It does not directly address causes and explicitly avoids exploring political, religious, social class, nationality, economic, environmental or other factors that might contribute to or create a crisis.
Humanitarian education
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References
[1] Tawil, Sobhi. Humanitarian Education and the British Red Cross programme for Schools. 2002
External links
Brtitsh Red Cross Official site (http://www.redcross.org.uk) Resources for teachers (http://www.redcross.org.uk/education) International Committee of the Red Cross (http://www.icrc.org/eng) International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (http://www.ifrc.org) Exploring Humanitarian Law Virtual Campus (http://www.ehl.icrc.org)
Student-centred learning
Student-centred learning (or student-centered learning; also called child-centred learning) is an approach to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the educational process, such as teachers and administrators. This approach has many implications for the design of the curriculum, course content and interactivity of courses. Student-centred learning, that is, putting students needs first, is in contrast to teacher-centred learning. Student-centred learning is focused on each student's needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles, placing the teacher as a facilitator of learning. This classroom teaching method acknowledges student voice as central to the learning experience for every learner, and differs from many other learning methodologies. Teacher-centred learning has the teacher at its centre in an active role and students in a passive, receptive role. Student-centred learning requires students to be active, responsible participants in their own learning.
Background
In traditional education methodologies, teachers direct the learning process and students assume a receptive role in their education. Armstrong (2012) claimed that "traditional education ignores or suppresses learner responsibility". With the advent of progressive education in the 19th century, and the influence of psychologists, some educators have largely replaced traditional curriculum approaches with "hands-on" activities and "group work", in which a child determines on their own what they wants to do in class. Key amongst these changes is the premise that students actively construct their own learning. Theorists like John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky, whose collective work focused on how students learn, is primarily responsible for the move to student-centred learning. Carl Rogers' ideas about the formation of the individual also contributed to student-centred learning. Student-centred learning means inverting the traditional teacher-centred understanding of the learning process and putting students at the centre of the learning process. Maria Montessori was also an influence in centre-based learning, where preschool children learn through play. Student-centred learning allows students to actively participate in discovery learning processes from an autonomous viewpoint. Students spend the entire class time constructing a new understanding of the material being learned in a proactive way. A variety of hands-on activities are administered in order to promote successful learning. Unique, yet distinctive learning styles are encouraged in a student-centred classroom, and provide students with varied tools, such as task- and learning-conscious methodologies, creating a better environment for students to learn.[1] With the use of valuable learning skills, students are capable of achieving lifelong learning goals, which can further enhance student motivation in the classroom. Self-determination theory focuses on the degree to which an individuals behaviour is self-motivated and 'self-determined'. Therefore, when students are given the opportunity to gauge their learning, learning becomes an incentive. In being active agents in their learning, students corroborate Carl Rogers' theory that "the only learning which significantly influences behaviour [and education] is self discovered".[2]
Student-centred learning Because learning can be seen as a form of personal growth, students are encouraged to utilize self-regulation practices in order to reflect on his or her work. For that reason, learning can also be constructive in the sense that the student is in full control of his or her learning. Over the past few decades, a paradigm shift in curriculum has occurred where the teacher acts as a facilitator in a student-centred classroom. Such emphasis on learning has enabled students to take a self-directed alternative to learning. In the teacher-centred classroom, teachers are the primary source for knowledge. Therefore, the focus of learning is to gain information as it is proctored to the student, providing rationale as to why rote learning or memorization of teacher notes or lectures was the norm a few decades ago. On the other hand, student-centred classrooms are now the norm where active learning is strongly encouraged. Students are now researching material pertinent to the success of their academia and knowledge production is seen as a standard. In order for a teacher facilitate a student-centred classroom, he or she must become aware of the diverse backgrounds of his or her learners. To that end, the incorporation of a few educational practices such as Bloom's Taxonomy and Howard Gardners Theory of Multiple intelligences can be beneficial to a student-centred classroom because it promotes various modes of diverse learning styles, thereby accommodating the varied learning styles of students. The following provides a few examples of why student-centred learning should be integrated into the curriculum: Strengthens student motivation Promotes peer communication Reduces disruptive behaviour Builds student-teacher relationships Promotes discovery/active learning Responsibility for ones own learning
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These changes have impacted educator's methods of teaching and the way students learn. In essence, one might say that we teach and learn in a constructivist-learning paradigm. It is important for teachers to acknowledge the increasing role and function of his or her educational practices to work within their own biases, and create a student-centred environment. As educational practices evolve, so does the approach to teaching and learning. The mindset about teaching and learning is constantly evolving into new and innovative ways to reach diverse learners, and is impacted by new research and inquiry such as Gardner and Denig's dialogue on multiple intelligences. When a teacher allows their students to make inquiries or even set the stage for his or her academic success, learning becomes more productive. With the openness of a student-centred learning environment, knowledge production is vital when providing students the opportunity to explore their own learning styles. In that respect, successful learning also occurs when learners are fully engaged in the active learning process and teachers cater content to specific learning needs. A further distinction from a teacher-centred classroom to that of a student-centred classroom is when the teacher acts as a facilitator, as opposed to instructor. In essence, the teachers goal in the learning process is to guide students into making new interpretations of the learning material, thereby 'experiencing' content, reaffirming Rogers' notion that "significant learning is acquired through doing".[3] In terms of curriculum practice, the student has the choice in what they want to study and how they are going to apply their newfound knowledge. According to Ernie Stringer, Student learning processes are greatly enhanced when they participate in deciding how they may demonstrate their competence in a body of knowledge or the performance of skills. This pedagogical implication enables the student to establish his or her unique learning objectives, and mate them to their specific learning biases and needs. This aspect of learning holds the learner accountable for production of knowledge that he or she is capable of producing. In this stage of learning, the teacher evaluates the learner by providing honest and timely feedback on individual progress. Building a rapport with students is an essential strategy that educators could utilize in order to gauge student growth in a student-centred classroom. Through effective communication skills, the teacher is able to address student needs, interests, and overall engagement in the learning material, creating a feedback loop that encourages self-discovery and education.
Student-centred learning According to James Henderson, there are three basic principles of democratic living, which he says are not yet established in our society in terms of education. The three basic tenets, which he calls the 3Ss of teaching for democratic living, are: (Subject Learning)- Students learn best from subject matter thoughtfully presented. (Self-Learning)- One must engage oneself in the generative process. (Social Learning)- Empathy is wealth in this regard, social interaction with diverse others the target for generosity. Through peer-to-peer interaction, collaborative thinking can lead to an abundance of knowledge. In placing a teacher closer to a peer level, knowledge and learning is enhanced, benefitting the student and classroom overall. According to Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), students typically learn vicariously through one another. Through a socio-cultural perspective on learning, scaffolding is important when fostering independent thinking skills. Vygotsky proclaims, "Learning which is oriented toward developmental levels that have already been reached is ineffective from the view point of the child's overall development. It does not aim for a new stage of the developmental process but rather lags behind this process." In essence, instruction is designed to access a developmental level that is measurable to the students current stage in development.
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Teacher-directed instructions
In teacher-directed instruction: Students work to achieve curricular objectives in order to become critical thinkers Students complete activities designed by the teacher to achieve academic success Students respond to positive expectations set by the teacher as they progress through activities Students are given extrinsic motivators like grades and rewards in which motivates children to internalize information and objectively demonstrates their understanding of concepts Student work is evaluated by the teacher A teacher-directed approach to learning recognizes that children require achievable expectations and that students must have a solid foundation before learning a new concept. For example, in order to learn multiplication properly, a student must understand repeated addition and grouping. This process cannot be discovered by most students without the direction of a teacher.
Implementation considerations
To implement a student-centred learning environment, attention must be given to the following aspects of learning: What the child is curious about learning Teaching strategies to accommodate individual needs: intellectual,emotional Student's social needs: collaboration, communication, peer approval Curriculum goals overall
Because the focus is on individual students rather than whole class structures, teachers often offer choices and adaptations within lessons, which empowers student growth. This is a role teachers must be comfortable with if they are to implement a student-centred learning environment. To be considered a student-centred learning environment it has to be open, dynamic, trusting, respectful, and promote children's subjective as well as objective learning styles. Students may collaborate in hands-on problems and draw their own conclusions, or develop their own learning based on self-direction. This experiential learning involves the whole childtheir emotions, thoughts, social skills, and intuition. The result of student-centred learning is a person who arguably develops self-confident and critical thinking..
Student-centred learning
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Application to Higher-Education
The student-centred learning environment has been shown to be effective in higher education. A certain university sought to promote student-centred learning across the entire university by employing the following methods: Analysis of good practice by award-winning teachers, in all faculties, to show that, they made use of active forms of student learning. Subsequent use the analysis to promote wider use of good practice. A compulsory teacher training course for new junior teachers, which encouraged student-centred learning. Projects funded through teaching development grants, of which 16 were concerned with the introduction of active learning experiences. A programme-level quality enhancement initiative which utilised a student survey to identify strengths and potential areas for improvement. Development of a model of a broadly based teaching and learning environment inuencing the development of generic capabilities, to provide evidence of the need for an interactive learning environment. The introduction of programme reviews as a quality assurance measure (Kember, 2009). The success of this initiative was evaluated by surveying the students. After two years the mean ratings indicating the students' perception of the quality of the teaching and learning environment at the university all rose significantly (Kember, 2009). The success of the initiative at the university in this study indicates that by adapting a more student-oriented approach to education, the students will enjoy a more positive learning experience which will likely help them develop greater passion for learning and lead to more success in their learning endeavours. As well, this approach involves students in their overall education, creating a proactive involvement in learning.
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External resources
A paper from the Teaching and Learning Forum 2000 titled: "Student-centred learning: Is it possible?" [5] Active Learning [6] "Teaching Research Method Using a Student Centred Approach? Critical Reflections on Practice" [7] "Student-Centered Learning Environments: How and Why" [8] "Student-Centered Learning Strategies for Math and Other Subjects" [9] "Student-Centered Learning Thailand - Articles on the topic from an Asian perspective" [10]
References
[1] Smith, M. K. (2003). Learning theory. The encyclopedia of informal education. Available at http:/ / www. infed. org/ biblio/ b-learn. htm [2] Kraft, R. G. (1994). Bike riding and the art of learning. In L. B. Barnes, C. Roland Christensen, & A. J. Hansen (Eds.), Teaching and the case method. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, Pg. 41 [3] Kraft, R. G. (1994). Bike riding and the art of learning. In L. B. Barnes, C. Roland Christensen, & A. J. Hansen (Eds.), Teaching and the case method. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, Pg. 41 [4] Dewey, John. Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press, 1916: 102. [5] http:/ / lsn. curtin. edu. au/ tlf/ tlf2000/ sparrow. html [6] http:/ / www. uottawa. ca/ academic/ cut/ options/ Feb_99/ ActiveLearning_en. htm [7] http:/ / jutlp. uow. edu. au/ 2005_v02_i02/ barraket004. html [8] http:/ / www. edutopia. org/ blog/ student-centered-learning-environments-paul-bogdan [9] http:/ / www. edutopia. org/ blog/ student-centered-learning-activities-paul-bogdan [10] http:/ / www. sclthailand. org
Armstrong, J.S. (2012). Natural Learning in Higher Education (http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/files/ ?whdmsaction=public:main.file&fileID=3459). Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Heidelberg: Springer Bloom, Benjamin. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Susan Fauer Company, Inc. Denig, S. J. (2004). Multiple intelligences and learning styles: Two complementary dimensions. Teachers College Record, 106(1), 96-111. Available at http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/central/altudl/FILES/ Multiple_Intellegences_Learning_Styles.pdf Douglas, K. & Jaquith, D. (2009). Engaging learners through artmaking: Choice-based art education in the classroom. New York, Teachers College Press. Estes, Cheryl. (2004). Promoting Student-Centred Learning in Experiential Education. Journal of Experiential Education, 27(2), pp.141161. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determinaton in human behaviour. New York: Pienum. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Henderson, J.G. (1992). Reflective teaching: Professional artistry through inquiry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Iyoshi, Toru, Hannafin, Micaheal & Wang, Feng. (2005). Cognitive Tools and Student-centred Learning: Rethinking Tools,Functions and Applications. Educational Media International, 42(4), pp.281296. Kember, David. (2009). Promoting student-centred forms of learning across an entire university. "Higher Education, 58"(1), pp.113. Motschnig-Pitrik, R. & Holzinger, A. (2002). Student-Centred Teaching Meets New Media: Concept and Case Study. Educational Technology & Society, 5(4), pp.160172. Available online at http://www.pri.univie.ac.at/ Publications/2002/Motschnig_IEEE20002_Student_Centered_Teaching.pdf Pedersen, Susan & Williams, Doug. (2004). A Comparison of Assessment Practices and Their Effects on Learning and Motivation in a Student-Centred Learning Environment. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(3), pp.283307.
Student-centred learning Pedersen, Susan & Liu, Min. (2003). Teachers' Beliefs About Issues in the implementation of a Student-Centred Learning Environment. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 51(2), pp.5774. Available online at http://www.springerlink.com/content/m282r52l18576651/fulltext.pdf Stringer, E. (2008). Action research in education. (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Critical literacy
Critical Literacy is an instructional approach, stemming from Marxist Critical pedagogy, that advocates the adoption of "critical" perspectives toward text. Critical literacy encourages readers to actively analyze texts and offers strategies for what proponents describe as uncovering underlying messages. There are several different theoretical perspectives on critical literacy that have produced different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. All of these approaches share the basic premise that literacy requires the literate consumers of text to adopt a critical and questioning approach. According to proponents of critical literacy, the practice is not simply a means of attaining literacy in the sense of improving the ability to decode words, syntax, etc. In fact, the ability to read words on paper is not necessarily required in order to engage in a critical discussion of "texts," which can include television, movies, web pages, music, art and other means of expression. The important thing is being able to have a discussion with others about the different meanings a text might have and teaching the potentially critically literate learner how to think flexibly about it. Critical Literacy,[1] has become a popular approach to teaching English to students in some English speaking-countries,[2] including Canada, Australia,[3] New Zealand, and the UK. For post-structuralist practitioners of critical literacy, the definition of this literacy practice can be quite malleable, but usually involves a search for discourses and reasons why certain discourses are included or left out of a text. Two major theoretical perspectives within the field of critical literacy are the Neo-Marxist/Freirean and the Australian. These approaches overlap in many ways and they do not necessarily represent competing views, but they do approach the subject matter differently.
Neo-Marxist/Freirean
Critical Literacy practices grew out of the social justice pedagogy of Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo Freire, as first described in Education as the Practice of Freedom published in 1967 and his most famous book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, published in 1968. Freirean critical literacy is conceived as a means of empowering unempowered populations against oppression and coercion, frequently seen as enacted by corporate and/or government entities. Freirean critical literacy starts with the desire to balance social inequities and address societal problems caused by abuse of power. It proceeds from this philosophical basis to examine, analyze, and deconstruct texts. This perspective is reflected in the works of Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux, and Jean Anyon, among many others. The Freirean perspective on critical literacy is strongly represented in critical pedagogy. Other philosophical approaches to critical literacy, while sharing many of the ideas of Neo-Marxist/Freirean critical literacy, may be viewed as a less overtly politicized expansion on these ideas. Critical literacy helps teachers as well as students to explore the relationship between theoretical framework and its practical implications.
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Australian
Australian researchers and educators (including Allan Luke, Michele Anstey, Geoff Bull, J. Elkins, Peter Freebody, and the New London Group, among others) have made major contributions in recent years to the field of critical literacy. While Neo-Marxist/Freirean critical literacy proceeds from a desire to remedy social inequities, this body of work begins with an analysis of text and proceeds from there. This school of thought is not necessarily opposed to the use of critical literacy to address issues of social justice, but its enactment does not proceed from an assumption of exploitation and abuse of power. "Australian" critical literacy is researched and practiced in many countries. The philosophical underpinnings do not necessarily originate in Australia, but many researchers currently associated with the work are based in that country and Australia has incorporated many of the practices into its national curriculum. From this philosophical perspective, critical literacy is the belief that interpreting literature is more than simply decoding the words of a text. It is necessary to understand that language is a social construct and that it is never neutral. It is used to inform, entertain, persuade and manipulate. The philosophy behind critical literacy is that it is necessary to learn how language works in order to be a more skilled user of language in terms of both comprehending and composing. The use and relevance of critical literacy has been disputed. Some believe it to be innapropriate, and feel that texts are constantly deconstructed and over analysed to destruction. Portions of the following sections are from a document distributed to secondary school students in Australia detailing the basic tenets of critical literacy.
Definitions
Multiple Readings: Texts, of themselves, do not have any central integrity. There is no one indisputable way a text can be read. It may be read in different ways by different people. The different readings will be determined by factors such as the context and the reader's discursive background. A reading of Jane Austen's Emma, from the point of view of a member of the upper class English, could be quite different from that of a servant at that time. Again, a reading made in 1820 could be quite different from one made in 2000. Readings may be broken down into categories: Dominant reading: The readings of texts are not totally chaotic and usually most people construct more or less the same meaning of a given text. A slight variation on this dominant reading is the preferred meaning which refers to the meaning that the composer of the text had in mind for the readers. This of course is usually applicable to advertising texts. Alternative readings: These refer to readings made of a text that differ from the dominant reading but nevertheless are not markedly different and could still be supported by a number of readers. Parents, for example, might read Looking for Alibrandi in a different way to its intended teenage audience. Resistant reading: This is reading 'against the grain'. a minority reading that is not in accord with the majority of readers or the intentions of the composer. Many feminist readings of traditional texts, for example, could fit into this category.
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Context
This is not merely its setting in time and place. "Context refers to the multitude of factors which shape the meaning of a text within the social framework of its reading. This framework may include particular ideas about the text's history, but is also powerfully shaped by competing beliefs and practices in the present. (Moon,1992). This means that the context is constantly shifting and that the nature of the reader, and the time that it is read, are significant. This suggests that the 'meaning' or reading of a text is determined by a huge range of social, cultural, time, composer, reader factors. An example of context may be considered in terms of the movie Dead Poet's Society. This is set in the USA in the early 1960s, a time when teenagers had little individual freedom and the will of the parents was very strong. But not all American teenagers were in this category and not all parents exerted power. In turn this was all influenced by class, politics, religion etc. Furthermore this was the view as presented by the film's director and this needs to be examined. And again, the particular understanding of the viewer might 'vary' the context.
Discourse
This refers to all the language associated with a particular life experience or identity construct (e.g. race, social class, gender, sexuality, age, etc.). Hence one can have the discourse of school or the family or childhood that are closely related to the related sociocultural identities. Discourses overlap and constantly change. One can belong to a wide and ever changing number of discourses and they all can affect the way one makes meaning of texts. The language features can include the words (lexicons I of the discourse ego for school - timetable, parade, etc.,. the way words are expressed, the exclusive jargon, the operating power structures in the language etc.).
Discursive background
Each person has a unique personal and discursive background. This is shaped by the discourses that one has been involved in and have operated on us. Thus it could include one's upbringing (family, social class, traditions, religion etc.), one's friends, one's school, education, experiences one has had, ones gender, hobbies and interests and so on.
Intertextuality
As a result of one's discursive background, their view of the world and how they read texts are shaped by a multiplicity of previous experiences and readings. Whenever one looks at something they shift through all of their knowledge to make meanings. One combines texts to create a complete picture. This combination of texts is referred to as intertextuality. If, for example, one is watching a movie which includes a villain one of the ways that they assume that he or she is a villain is through the knowledge that they bring to this current text from previous texts -.i.e. clothes, facial expression, gestures etc. In this way, a reading can become richer. It can also explain why some people sometimes have difficulty making meaning of some texts; they may have limited intertextual experiences to draw on.
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Positioning
When constructing a text, an author inherently frames the content or character of the text using a certain attitude or point of view. This is called positioning. One may read the text in the way it is intended (which would be a preferred reading) or one may interpret it differently. For example, a woman may read a text on a rape differently than a man. One might also reject the reading or skew, and may attempt to construct one as a certain archetype who desires a certain product, when in fact one may resist such positioning. Positioning of course need not be static and it could change as the text develops.
Agency
A character in a text may be granted (or denied) empowerment. This can be called agency. For example a member of a marginalised group may be very well aware of his or her deprivation but is unable to do anything about it - lack of agency.
Deconstruction
Texts are considered social/cultural constructions. This means that they are assembled from a wide range of varied and possibly contradictory elements. Deconstruction is a critical practice which focuses on contradictions and" slippages" of meanings in order to remind one that meanings one makes when one reads are neither obvious or neutral. Deconstruction does not point out contradictions in order to 'destroy' texts but to improve ones reading of them (Moon, 1992)
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References
[1] Hagood, M. (2002). "Critical literacy for whom?",Reading Research and Instruction, 41, 247-264. [2] Cadeiro-Kaplan, K. (2002) Literacy ideologies: Critically engaging the language arts curriculum. Language Arts, 79, 372-381 [3] Sinfield, Ivor., Hawkins, Lise (2006). " CRITICAL LITERACY: Policy and Practice.", ". Orbit 36: 27.
Further reading
Lankshear, C. & McLaren, P. (Eds.) (1993). Critical literacy: Radical and postmodernist perspectives. Albany: State University of New York Press. Luke, C. (1995). Media and cultural studies. In P. Freebody, S. Muspratt, & A. Luke (Eds.). Constructing critical literacies. Crosskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Critical literacy New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 1.
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External links
IRA Critical Literacy Resources (http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/focus_critical.html) - The International Reading Association index page for critical literacy resources. Critical Literacy NZ (http://www.criticalliteracy.org.nz/) describes critical literacy in New Zealand, which, in line with Australia, is beginning to adopt this practice Critical Literacy Guide (http://www.education.tas.gov.au/curriculum/standards/english/english/teachers/ critlit) for teachers in the Australian state of Tasmania. Read-Write-Think Lesson Plan (http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=23)
Critical consciousness
Critical consciousness, conscientization, or conscientizao (Portuguese), is a popular education and social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational theorist Paulo Freire, grounded in Marxist critical theory. Critical consciousness focuses on achieving an in-depth understanding of the world, allowing for the perception and exposure of social and political contradictions. Critical consciousness also includes taking action against the oppressive elements in one's life that are illuminated by that understanding.[1]
Coinage
The English term "conscientization" is a translation of the Portuguese term conscientizao, which is also translated as "consciousness raising" and "critical consciousness". The term was popularized by Brazilian educator, activist, and theorist Paulo Freire in his 1970 work Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire was teaching the poor and illiterate members of Brazilian society to read at a time when literacy was a requirement for suffrage and dictators ruled many South American countries. The term originally derives from Frantz Fanon's coinage of a French term, conscienciser, in his 1952 book, Black Skins, White Masks.
Overview
Critical consciousness proceeds through the identification of "generative themes", which Freire identifies as "iconic representations that have a powerful emotional impact in the daily lives of learners." In this way, individual consciousness helps end the "culture of silence" in which the socially dispossessed internalize the negative images of themselves created and propagated by the oppressor in situations of extreme poverty. Liberating learners from this mimicry of the powerful, and the fratricidal violence that results therefrom is a major goal of critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is a fundamental aspect of Freire's concept of popular education. Arlene Goldbard, an author on the subject of community cultural development finds the concept of conscientization to be a foundation of community cultural development. From the glossary of Goldbard's 2006 book New Creative Community.: "Conscientization is an ongoing process by which a learner moves toward critical consciousness. This process is the heart of liberatory education. It differs from "consciousness raising" in that the latter may involve transmission of preselected knowledge. Conscientization means breaking through prevailing mythologies to reach new levels of awarenessin particular, awareness of oppression, being an "object" of others will rather than a self-determining "subject." The process of conscientization involves identifying contradictions in experience through dialogue and becoming part of the process of changing the world."[2]
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History of application
The ancient Greeks first identified the essence of critical consciousness when philosophers encouraged their students to develop an "impulse and willingness to stand back from humanity and nature... [and] to make them objects of thought and criticism, and to search for their meaning and significance.[3] In his books Pedagogy of the Oppressed[4] and Education for Critical Consciousness,[5] Freire explains critical consciousness as a sociopolitical educative tool that engages learners in questioning the nature of their historical and social situation, which Freire addressed as "reading the world". The goal of critical consciousness, according to Freire, should be acting as subjects in the creation of democratic society. In education, Freire implies intergenerational equity between students and teachers in which both learn, both question, both reflect and both participate in meaning-making. Using this idea, and describing current instructional methods as homogenization and lockstep standardization, alternative approaches are proposed, such as the Sudbury model of democratic education schools, an alternative approach in which children, by enjoying personal freedom thus encouraged to exercise personal responsibility for their actions, learn at their own pace rather than following a previously imposed chronologically-based curriculum.[6][7][8] In a similar form students learn all the subjects, techniques and skills in these schools. The staff are minor actors, the "teacher" is an adviser and helps just when asked.[9][10] Sudbury model of democratic education schools maintain that values, social justice, critical consciousness, intergenerational equity, and political consciousness included, must be learned through experience,[11][12][13][14] as Aristotle said: "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."[15] Picking up on Freire's definition of critical consciousness, Joe L. Kincheloe has expanded the definition of the concept in his work on postformalism. In Kincheloe's formulation postformalism connects cognition to critical theoretical questions of power and social justice. In this context Kincheloe constructs a critical theory of cognition that explores questions of meaning, emancipation vis-a-vis ideological inscription, and a particular focus on the socio-political construction of the self. With these concerns in mind Kincheloe's postformal critical consciousness engages questions of purpose, issues of human dignity, freedom, authority, reconceptualized notions of reason, intellectual quality, and social responsibility. Postformal critical consciousness stimulates a conversation between critical pedagogy and a wide range of social, cultural, political economic, psychological, and philosophical concerns. Kincheloe employs this "multilogical conversation" to shape new modes of self-awareness, more effective forms of social, political, and pedagogical action, and an elastic model of an evolving critical consciousness (Kincheloe and Steinberg, 1993; Kincheloe, 1999; Thomas and Kincheloe, 2006). Freire's development of critical consciousness has been expanded upon in several academic disciplines and common applications[16] Public health community collaborations focused on HIV prevention for women,[17] the role of critical consciousness in adult education,[18] and the effect of peer pressure on cigarette smokers[19] Freire's notion of critical consciousness is, in part, a type of political consciousness.
Relevant reading
Paulo Freire "Educacao como pratica da liberdade, Paz e Terra" (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) (1967) translation by Myra Bergman Ramos published as "Education and the Practice of Freedom" in Education for Critical Consciousness, Seabury, 1973. "Extension o comunicacion?", Institute for Agricultural Reform (Santiago) (1969) translation by Louise Bigwood and Margaret Marshall published as "Extension or Communication," in Education for Critical Consciousness, Seabury, 1973. "Education for Critical Consciousness" (includes "Education as the Practice of Freedom" and "Extension or Communication"), Seabury, 1973, published in England as Education, the Practice of Freedom, Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, 1976.
Critical consciousness Thomas, P. and J. Kincheloe "Reading, Writing, and Thinking: The Postformal Basics." Rotterdam, Sense Publishers, 2006. Kincheloe, J. and S. Steinberg "A Tentative Description of Post-formal Thinking: The Critical Confrontation with Cognitive Theory." Harvard Educational Review, 63 2, (Fall 1993), pp.296320. Kincheloe, J. "Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind: Grounding the Post-formal Critique of Educational Psychology," in J. Kincheloe, S. Steinberg, and P. Hinchey, "The Postformal Reader: Cognition and Education." NY: Falmer, 1999. Kirylo, James D. Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife. New York: Peter Lang, 2011.
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References
[1] Mustakova-Possardt, M (2003) "Is there a roadmap to critical consciousness? Critical Consciousness: A Study of Morality in Global, Historical Context." (http:/ / onecountry. org/ e152/ e15216as_Review_Consciousness_story. htm) One Country. 15(2). [2] Creative Communication (http:/ / www. newvillagepress. net/ pub_newCreativeComm. html) New Village Press. [3] Thorton, B. "Critical Consciousness and Liberal Education" in Watson, B. (2006) Civic Education And Culture. [4] Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. [5] Freire, P. (2005) Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. [6] Greenberg, D. (1992). "Special Education" -- A noble Cause Sacrificed to Standardization, Education in America -- A View from Sudbury Valley. [7] Greenberg, D. (1992). "Special Education" -- A Noble Cause Run Amok, Education in America -- A View from Sudbury Valley. [8] Greenberg, D. (1987). Chapter 1, And 'Rithmetic, Free at Last -- The Sudbury Valley School,. [9] Greenberg, D. (1987), Chapter 19, Learning, Free at Last -- The Sudbury Valley School. [10] Greenberg, H. (1987). The Art of Doing Nothing, (http:/ / www. sudval. com/ 05_underlyingideas. html#03) The Sudbury Valley School Experience. Accessed November 29, 2008. [11] Greenberg, D. (1992). 'Ethics' is a Course Taught By Life Experience, Education in America - A View from Sudbury Valley. [12] Greenberg, D. (1987). Teaching Justice Through Experience, The Sudbury Valley School Experience. [13] Greenberg, D. (1987). Chapter 35, With Liberty and Justice for All (http:/ / www. sudval. com/ 05_onepersononevote. html#02), Free at Last -- The Sudbury Valley School. Accessed November 29, 2008. [14] Greenberg, D. (1992). Democracy Must be Experienced to be Learned, Education in America - A View from Sudbury Valley. [15] Bynum, W.F. and Porter, R. (eds) (2005). Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations. Oxford University Press. 21:9. [16] Adelson, L (1987) "Contemporary Critical Consciousness: Peter Sloterdijk, Oskar Negt/Alexander Kluge, and the 'New Subjectivity'." German Studies Review. 10(1); pp. 57-68. [17] Champeau, D. & Shaw, S. (2002) "Power, empowerment, and critical consciousness in community collaboration: Lessons from an advisory panel for an HIV awareness media campaign for women." Women Health. 36(3):31-50. [18] Taylor, E., Tisdell, E. & Stone Hanley, M. (2000) The Role of Positionality in Teaching for Critical Consciousness: Implications for Adult Education. Paper presented at the 2000 Adult Education Research Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. [19] Zucker, A., Stewart, A., Pomerleau, C. & Boyd, C. (2005) "Resisting Gendered Smoking Pressures: Critical Consciousness as a Correlate of Women's Smoking Status," Behavioral Science. 53(3-4); 261-272.
1. Aspiazu, Gary G. (1998). "Improving the academic performance of Hispanic youth: A community education model." Bilingual Research Journal, 22:2, 3, & 4, Spring, Summer, & Fall, 1998. Available at: http:/ / brj. asu. edu/ v22234/abstract.html
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Praxis (process)
So, I tried to do a kind of semantic clarification in which praxisif not on the thither side of this dividewas perhaps somehow between the theoretical and the practical as they are generally understood, and particularly as they are understood in modern philosophy. Praxis as the manner in which we are engaged in the world and with others has its own insight or understanding prior to any explicit formulation of that understanding...Of course, it must be understood that praxis, as I understand it, is always entwined with communication. [1] Calvin O. Schrag
Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practiced, embodied, or realised. "Praxis" may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas. This has been a recurrent topic in the field of philosophy, discussed in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Immanuel Kant, Sren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Paulo Freire, and many others. It has meaning in the political, educational, and spiritual realms.
Origins
In Ancient Greek the word praxis () referred to activity engaged in by free men. Aristotle held that there were three basic activities of man: theoria, poiesis and praxis. There corresponded to these kinds of activity three types of knowledge: theoretical, to which the end goal was truth; poietical, to which the end goal was production; and practical, to which the end goal was action. Aristotle further divided practical knowledge into ethics, economics and politics. He also distinguished between eupraxia (, "good praxis")[2] and dyspraxia (, "bad praxis, misfortune").[3]
Marxism
The 19th century socialist Antonio Labriola called Marxism the Philosophy of praxis. Marx alluded to this concept in his Theses on Feuerbach when he stated that "philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." Simply put, Marx felt that philosophy's validity was in how it informed action. Georg Lukcs held that the task of political organization is to establish professional discipline over everyday political praxis, consciously designing the form of mediation best suited to clear interactions between theory and practice.
Hannah Arendt
In her The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt argues that Western philosophy too often has focused on the contemplative life (vita contemplativa) and has neglected the active life (vita activa). This has led humanity to frequently miss much of the everyday relevance of philosophical ideas to real life.[4][5] Arendt calls praxis the highest and most important level of the active life.[6] Thus, she argues that more philosophers need to engage in everyday political action or praxis, which she sees as the true realization of human freedom.[7] According to Arendt, our capacity to analyze ideas, wrestle with them, and engage in active praxis is what makes us uniquely human. "Arendt's theory of action and her revival of the ancient notion of praxis represent one of the most original contributions to twentieth century political thought."[8] "Moreover, by viewing action as a mode of human togetherness, Arendt is able to develop a conception of participatory democracy which stands in direct contrast to the bureaucratized and elitist forms of politics so characteristic of the modern epoch."[9]
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Education
Praxis is used by educators to describe a recurring passage through a cyclical process of experiential learning, such as the cycle described and popularised by David A. Kolb.[10] Paulo Freire defines praxis in Pedagogy of the Oppressed as "reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it." Through praxis, oppressed people can acquire a critical awareness of their own condition, and, with their allies, struggle for liberation.[11] In the BBC television documentary "New Order: Play At Home", Factory Records owner Tony Wilson describes praxis as "doing something, and then only afterwards, finding out why you did it". Praxis is also used in schools of community education, basically, practice and reflection.
Spirituality
Praxis is also key in meditation and spirituality, where emphasis is placed on gaining first-hand experience of concepts and certain areas, such as union with the Divine, which can only be explored through praxis due to the inability of the finite mind (and its tool, language) to comprehend or express the infinite. In an interview for YES! Magazine, Matthew Fox explained it this way: Wisdom is always tastein both Latin and Hebrew, the word for wisdom comes from the word for tasteso it's something to taste, not something to theorize about. "Taste and see that God is good," the psalm says; and that's wisdom: tasting life. No one can do it for us. The mystical tradition is very much a Sophia tradition. It is about tasting and trusting experience, before institution or dogma.[12] According to Strong's Hebrew dictionary, the Hebrew word, taam, is; properly a taste, that is, (figuratively) perception; by implication intelligence; transitively a mandate: advice, behaviour, decree, discretion, judgment, reason, taste, understanding.
Organizations
While praxis usually refers to the process of putting theoretical knowledge into practice, the strategic and organizational usage of the word emphasizes the need for a constant cycle of conceptualizing the meanings of what can be learned from experience in order to reframe strategic and operational models.
Social work
In social work theory, praxis is the reflexive relationship between theories and action. It describes a cyclical process of social work interactions developing new theories and refining old ones, as well as theories directing the delivery of social work interactions.
Notes
[1] Ramsey, Ramsey Eric; Miller, David James (2003). Experiences between philosophy and communication: engaging the philosophical contributions of Calvin O. Schrag (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Id7NornoMI8C). SUNY Press. p.21. ISBN978-0-7914-5875-4. . Retrieved 1 August 2010. [2] Aristotle, NE, VI, 5, 1140b7. [3] Krancberg, Sigmund (1994), A Soviet Postmortem: Philosophical Roots of the "Grand Failure" (http:/ / books. google. gr/ books?id=cmspK8ine2QC& pg=PA56& dq=), Rowman & Littlefield, p. 56. [4] Yar, Majid, (http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ arendt/ ), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [5] Fry, Karin, (http:/ / www. women-philosophers. com/ Arendt. html), Arendt, Hannah in Women-philosophers.com. [6] Fry, Karin, (http:/ / www. women-philosophers. com/ Arendt. html), Arendt, Hannah in Women-philosophers.com. [7] Yar, Majid, (http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ arendt/ ), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [8] d'Entreves, Maurizio Passerin (2006), (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ arendt/ #AreTheAct), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [9] d'Entreves, Maurizio Passerin (2006), (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ arendt/ #AreTheAct), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Praxis (process)
[10] Kolb, D., "David A. Kolb on experiential learning" (http:/ / www. infed. org/ biblio/ b-explrn. htm), Informal Education Encyclopedia. [11] Freire, P. (1986), Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. p. 36. [12] Holy Impatience: an interview with Matthew Fox (http:/ / www. yesmagazine. org/ article. asp?ID=1323), YES! Magazine.
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Further reading
Paulo Freire (1970), Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Continuum International Publishing Group.
External links
Entry for "praxis" at the Encyclopaedia of Informal Education (http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-praxis.htm) Der Begriff Praxis (http://kaltric.de/mat/matphil/der-begriff-praxis/)
Hidden curriculum
A hidden curriculum is a side effect of an education, "[lessons] which are learned but not openly intended[1] such as the transmission of norms, values, and beliefs conveyed in the classroom and the social environment.[2] Any learning experience may teach unintended lessons.[3] Hidden curriculum often refers to knowledge gained in primary and secondary school settings, usually with a negative connotation where the school strives for equal intellectual development.[4] In this sense, a hidden curriculum reinforces existing social inequalities by educating students according to their class and social status. The unequal distribution of cultural capital in a society mirrors a corresponding distribution of knowledge among its students.[5]
Educational history
Early workers in the field of education were influenced by the notion that the preservation of the social privileges, interests, and knowledge of one group within the population was worth the exploitation of less powerful groups.[6] Over time this theory has become less blatant, yet its underlying tones remain a contributing factor to the issue of the hidden curriculum. Several educational theories have been developed to help give meaning and structure to the hidden curriculum and to illustrate the role that schools play in socialization. Three of these theories, as cited by Henry Giroux and Anthony Penna, are a structural-functional view of schooling, a phenomenological view related to the new sociology of education, and a radical critical view corresponding to the neo-Marxist analysis of the theory and practice of education.[7] The structural-functional view focuses on how norms and values are conveyed within schools and how their necessities for the functioning of society become indisputably accepted. The phenomenological view suggests that meaning is created through situational encounters and interactions, and it implies that knowledge is somewhat objective. The radical critical view recognizes the relationship between economic and cultural reproduction and stresses the relationships among the theory, ideology, and social practice of learning. Although the first two theories have contributed to the analysis of the hidden curriculum, the radical critical view of schooling provides the most insight.[8] Most importantly it acknowledges the perpetuated economic and social aspects of education that are clearly illustrated by the hidden curriculum.
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Sources
Various aspects of learning contribute to the success of the hidden curriculum, including practices, procedures, rules, relationships, and structures.[9] Many school-specific sources, some of which may be included in these aspects of learning, give rise to important elements of the hidden curriculum. These sources may include, but are not limited to, the social structures of the classroom, the teachers exercise of authority, rules governing the relationship between teachers and students, standard learning activities, the teachers use of language, textbooks, audio-visual aids, furnishings, architecture, disciplinary measures, timetables, tracking systems, and curricular priorities.[10] Variations among these sources promote the disparities found when comparing the hidden curricula corresponding to various class and social statuses. While the actual material that students absorb through the hidden curriculum is of utmost importance, the personnel who convey it elicit special investigation. This particularly applies to the social and moral lessons conveyed by the hidden curriculum, for the moral characteristics and ideologies of teachers and other authority figures are translated into their lessons, albeit not necessarily with intention.[11] Yet these unintended learning experiences can result from interactions with not only instructors, but also with peers. Like interactions with authority figures, interactions amongst peers can promote moral and social ideals but also foster the exchange of information and are thus important sources of knowledge contributing to the success of the hidden curriculum.
Function
Although the hidden curriculum conveys a great deal of knowledge to its students, the inequality promoted through its disparities among classes and social statuses often invokes a negative connotation. For example, Pierre Bourdieu asserts that education-related capital must be accessible to promote academic achievement. The effectiveness of schools becomes limited when these forms of capital are unequally distributed.[12] Since the hidden curriculum is considered to be a form of education-related capital, it promotes this ineffectiveness of schools as a result of its unequal distribution. As a means of social control, the hidden curriculum promotes the acceptance of a social destiny without promoting rational and reflective consideration.[13] According to Elizabeth Vallance, the functions of hidden curriculum include the inculcation of values, political socialization, training in obedience and docility, the perpetuation of traditional class structure-functions that may be characterized generally as social control.[14] Hidden curriculum can also be associated with the reinforcement of social inequality, as evidenced by the development of different relationships to capital based on the types of work and work-related activities assigned to students varying by social class.[15]
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Literary references
John Dewey explored the hidden curriculum of education in his early 20th century works, particularly his classic, Democracy and Education. Dewey saw patterns evolving and trends developing in public schools which lent themselves to his pro-democratic perspectives. His work was quickly rebutted by educational theorist George Counts, whose 1929 book, Dare the School Build a New Social Order challenged the presumptive nature of Dewey's works. Where Dewey (and other child development theorists including Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson and Maria Montessori) hypothesized a singular path through which all young people travelled in order to become adults, Counts recognized the reactive, adaptive, and multifaceted nature of learning. This nature caused many educators to slant their perspectives, practices, and assessments of student performance in particular directions which affected their students drastically. Counts' examinations were expanded on by Charles A. Beard, and later, Myles Horton as he created what became the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. The phrase "hidden curriculum" was reportedly coined by Philip W. Jackson (Life In Classrooms, 1968). He argued that we need to understand "education" as a socialization process. Shortly after Jackson's coinage, MIT's Benson Snyder published The Hidden Curriculum, which addresses the question of why studentseven or especially the most giftedturn away from education. Snyder advocates the thesis that much of campus conflict and students' personal anxiety is caused by a mass of unstated academic and social norms, which thwart the students' ability to develop independently or think creatively. The hidden curriculum has been further explored by a number of educators. Starting with Pedagogy of the Oppressed, published in 1972, through the late 1990s, Brazilian educator Paulo Freire explored various effects of presumptive teaching on students, schools, and society as a whole. Freire's explorations were in sync with those of John Holt and Ivan Illich, each of whom were quickly identified as radical educators. Other theorists who have identified the insidious nature of hidden curricula and hidden agendas include Neil Postman, Paul Goodman, Joel Spring, John Taylor Gatto, and others. More recent definitions were given by Roland Meighan ("A Sociology of Education", 1981): The hidden curriculum is taught by the school, not by any teacher...something is coming across to the pupils which may never be spoken in the English lesson or prayed about in assembly. They are picking-up an approach to living and an attitude to learning. and Michael Haralambos ("Sociology: Themes and Perspectives", 1991): The hidden curriculum consists of those things pupils learn through the experience of attending school rather than the stated educational objectives of such institutions. Recently a variety of authors, including Neil Postman, Henry Giroux, bell hooks, Jonathan Kozol, and John Taylor Gatto have examined the effects of hidden curriculum.
References
[1] Martin, Jane. What Should We Do with a Hidden Curriculum When We Find One? The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 122139. [2] Giroux, Henry and Anthony Penna. Social Education in the Classroom: The Dynamics of the Hidden Curriculum. The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 100121. [3] Martin, Jane. What Should We Do with a Hidden Curriculum When We Find One? The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 122139. [4] Cornbleth, Catherine. Beyond Hidden Curriculum? Journal of Curriculum Studies. 16.1(1984): 2936. [5] Apple, Michael and Nancy King. What Do Schools Teach? The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 8299. [6] Apple, Michael and Nancy King. What Do Schools Teach? The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 8299. [7] Sokal, A.D. "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" Social Text #46/47, pp. 217-252 [8] Giroux, Henry and Anthony Penna. Social Education in the Classroom: The Dynamics of the Hidden Curriculum. The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 100121.
Hidden curriculum
[9] Martin, Jane. What Should We Do with a Hidden Curriculum When We Find One? The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 122139. [10] Martin, Jane. What Should We Do with a Hidden Curriculum When We Find One? The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 122139. [11] Kohlberg, Lawrence. The Moral Atmosphere of the School. The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 6181. [12] Gordon, Edmumd W., Beatrice L. Bridglall, and Aundra Saa Meroe. Preface. Supplemental Education: The Hidden Curriculum of High Academic Achievement. By Gordon, Edmumd W., Beatrice L. Bridglall, and Aundra Saa Meroe. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005. ixx. [13] Greene, Maxine. Introduction. The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. By Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 15. [14] Vallance, Elizabeth. Hiding the Hidden Curriculum: An Interpretation of the Language of Justification in Nineteenth-Century Educational Reform. The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 927. [15] Anyon, Jean. Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 143167. [16] Margolis, Eric, Michael Soldatenko, Sandra Acker, and Marina Gair. Peekaboo: Hiding and Outing the Curriculum. The Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education. Ed. Margolis, Eric. New York: Routledge, 2001. [17] Rosenbaum, James E. The Hidden Curriculum of High School Tracking. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1976.
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Consciousness raising
Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of political activism, named and first used by Mao Zedong in the 1940s to popularize Marxist-Leninist ideas and encourage class consciousness amongst rural peasants during the Chinese Civil War.[1] Consciousness raising was subsequently popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. Consciousness raising often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group of people on some cause or condition believed to require redress or remedy. Common issues include diseases (e.g. breast cancer, AIDS), conflicts (e.g. the Darfur genocide, global warming), social or political movements (e.g. Greenpeace, PETA, Earth Hour), and political parties or politicians. Since informing the populace of a public concern is often regarded as the first step to changing how the institutions handle it, raising awareness is often the first activity in which any advocacy group engages
Etymology
The term awareness raising is used in the Yogyakarta Principles against discriminatory attitudes[2] and LGBT stereotypes, as well as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to combat stereotypes, prejudices, and harmful practices toward people with disabilities.[3]
Issues
Feminism
"Consciousness raising" groups were formed by New York Radical Women, an early Women's Liberation group in New York City, and quickly spread throughout the United States. In November 1967, a group including Shulamith Firestone, Anne Koedt, Kathie Sarachild (originally Kathie Amatniek), and Carol Hanisch began meeting in Koedt's apartment. Meetings often involved "going around the room and talking" about issues in their own lives. The phrase "consciousness raising" was coined to describe the process when Kathie Sarachild took up the phrase from Anne Forer: "In the Old Left, they used to say that the workers don't know they're oppressed, so we have to raise their consciousness. One night at a meeting I said, 'Would everybody please give me an example from their own life
Consciousness raising on how they experienced oppression as a woman? I need to hear it to raise my own consciousness.' Kathie was sitting behind me and the words rang in her mind. From then on she sort of made it an institution and called it consciousness-raising." Anne Forer, quoted by Susan Brownmiller in In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution, p. 21 On Thanksgiving 1968, Kathie Sarachild presented "A Program for Feminist Consciousness Raising," at the First National Women's Liberation Conference near Chicago, Illinois, in which she explained the principles behind consciousness-raising and outlined a program for the process that the New York groups had developed over the past year. Groups founded by former members of New York Radical Women in particular Redstockings and New York Radical Feminists, Redstockings founded out of the breakup of the NYRW in 1969 promoted consciousness raising and distributed mimeographed sheets of suggesting topics for c.r. group meetings. New York Radical Feminists organized neighborhood-based c.r. groups in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, involving as many as four hundred women in c.r. groups at its peak.[4] Over the next few years, small-group consciousness raising spread rapidly in cities and suburbs throughout the United States. By 1971, the Chicago Women's Liberation Union, which had already organized several c.r. groups in Chicago, described small consciousness raising groups as "the backbone of the Women's Liberation Movement" [5]. Susan Brownmiller (a member of the West Village-One c.r. group organized by New York Radical Feminists) would later write that small-group consciousness raising "was the movement's most successful form of female bonding, and the source of most of its creative thinking. Some of the small groups stayed together for more than a decade". [6] "In 1973, probably the height of CR, 100,000 women in the United States belonged to CR groups."[7] Early feminists argued that women were isolated from each other, and as a result many problems in women's lives were misunderstood as "personal," or as the results of conflicts between the personalities of individual men and women, rather than systematic forms of oppression. Raising consciousness meant helping oneself and helping others to become politically conscious. Consciousness raising groups aimed to get a better understanding of women's oppression by bringing women together to discuss and analyze their lives, without interference from the presence of men. While explaining the theory behind consciousness raising in a 1973 talk, Kathie Sarachild remarked that "From the beginning of consciousness-raising ... there has been no one method of raising consciousness. What really counts in consciousness-raising are not methods, but results. The only 'methods' of consciousness raising are essentially principles. They are the basic radical political principles of going to the original sources, both historic and personal, going to peoplewomen themselves, and going to experience for theory and strategy".[8] However, most c.r. groups did follow a similar pattern for meeting and discussion. Meetings would usually be held about once a week, with a small group of women, often in the living room of one of the members. Meetings were women-only, and usually involved going around the room for each woman to talk about a predetermined subject for example, "When you think about having a child, would you rather have a boy or a girl?" speaking from her own experience, with no formal leader for the discussion and few rules for directing or limiting discussion. (Some c.r. groups did implement rules designed to give every woman a chance to speak, to prevent interruptions, etc.) Speaking from personal experience was used as a basis for further discussion and analysis based on the first-hand knowledge that was shared. Some feminist advocates of c.r. argued that the process allowed women to analyze the conditions of their own lives, and to discover ways in which what had seemed like isolated, individual problems (such as needing an abortion, surviving rape, conflicts between husbands and wives over housework, etc.) actually reflected common conditions faced by all women. As Sarachild wrote in 1969, "We assume that our feelings are telling us something from which we can learn... that our feelings mean something worth analyzing... that our feelings are saying something political, something reflecting fear that something bad will happen to us or hope, desire, knowledge that something good will happen to us. [...] In our groups, let's share our feelings and pool them. Let's let ourselves go and see where our feelings lead us. Our feelings will lead us to ideas and then to actions". [9]
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Consciousness raising Ellen Willis wrote in 1984 that c.r. has often been "misunderstood and disparaged as a form of therapy", but that it was, in fact, in its time and context, "the primary method of understanding women's condition" and constituted "the movement's most successful organizing tool." At the same time, she saw the lack of theory and emphasis on personal experience as concealing "prior political and philosophical assumptions."[10] In criticism, "[s]ome feminists ... ["insisted that"] CR meetings ... were 'trivial' and 'non-political.'"[11]
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Atheism
In The God Delusion, anti-religion activist Richard Dawkins uses the term "consciousness raising" for several other things, explicitly describing these as analogous to the feminist case. These include replacing references to children as Catholic, Muslim, etc. with references to children of the adults who are members of these religions (which he compares to our using non-sexist terminology) and Darwin as "raising our consciousness" in biology to the possibility of explaining complexity naturalistically and, in principle, raising our consciousness to the possibility of doing such things elsewhere (especially in physics). Earlier in the book, he uses the term (without explicitly referring to feminism) to refer to making people aware that leaving their parents' faith is an option. In a video entitled "The Four Horsemen" starring Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett, Dennett refers to consciousness-raising amongst philosophers regarding the distinction between puzzles and problems as a better way of referring to "mysteries". Dawkins has since discussed consciousness-raising with regards to religion by making comparisons to hypothetical seemingly absurd scenarios, such as geographical distributions of scientists' beliefs about the extinction of the dinosaurs, scientists defending their hypotheses in terms of revelation and dogma, and young children having strong political views.
LGBT rights
In the 1960s, consciousness-raising caught on with gay liberation activists, who formed the first "coming-out groups" which helped participants come out of the closet among welcoming, tolerant individuals and share personal stories about coming out. The idea of coming out as a tool of consciousness-raising had been preceded by even earlier opinions from German theorists such as Magnus Hirschfeld, Iwan Bloch and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, all of whom saw self-disclosure as a means of self-emancipation, the raising of consciousness among fellow un-closeted individuals and a means of raising awareness in the wider society.
Notes
[1] Ryan, Barbara. " Consciousness Raising (http:/ / www. blackwellreference. com/ public/ tocnode?id=g9781405124331_yr2012_chunk_g97814051243319_ss1-95)." In Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007), ed. George Ritzer, eISBN 9781405124331 [2] The Yogyakarta Principles, Article 2, 9, 15 [3] Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 8 "Awareness raising" [4] Brownmiller, p. 78 [5] http:/ / www. cwluherstory. com/ CWLUArchive/ crcwlu. html [6] Brownmiller, p. 79 [7] Eller, Cynthia, Living in the Lap of the Goddess, op. cit., p. 43 & n. 8 (p. 43 n. 8 citing Shreve, Anita, Women Together, Women Alone, op. cit., pp. 56 & 914). [8] Feminist Revolution, p. 147148 [9] Feminist Revolution, Appendix, p. 202. [10] Willis, p. 121. [11] Eller, Cynthia, Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1995 (ISBN 0-8070-6507-2)), p. 188 & n. 3 (author, with doctorate in religion from Univ. of Southern Calif., taught at Yale Divinity School & Fairleigh Dickinson Univ.) (p. 188 n. 3 citing Shreve, Anita, Women Together, Women Alone: The Legacy of the Consciousness-Raising Movement (N.Y.: Fawcett Columbine, 1989), pp. 1011).
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References
Brownmiller, Susan (1999). In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (ISBN 0-385-31486-8). Chicago Women's Liberation Union (1971), How to start your own consciousness-raising group (http://www. cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/crcwlu.html) Freeman, Jo. The Tyranny of Structurelessness. Redstockings (1975/1978). Feminist Revolution: an abridged edition with additional writings (http://www.afn. org/~redstock/feministrevo.html) (ISBN 0-394-73240-5). Sarachild, Kathie (1973): Consciousness-Raising: A Radical Weapon (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/ fem/sarachild.html). Also reprinted in Feminist Revolution, pp. 144150. Willis, Ellen, "Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism", 1984, collected in No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays, Wesleyan University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8195-5250-X, p. 117150.
Poisonous pedagogy
Poisonous pedagogy, also called black pedagogy, from the original German name Schwarze Pdagogik, is a term used by some present-day psychologists and sociologists to describe a subset of traditional child-raising methods which they regard as repressive and harmful. It is a concept that describes behaviors and communication that theorists consider to be manipulative or violent, such as corporal punishment.[1]
Origin
The concept was first introduced by Katharina Rutschky in her 1977 work Schwarze Pdagogik. Quellen zur Naturgeschichte der brgerlichen Erziehung. The psychologist Alice Miller used the concept to describe child-raising approaches that, she believes, damage a child's emotional development. Miller claims that this alleged emotional damage promotes adult behavior harmful to individuals. "Poisonous pedagogy", is described by these theorists as what happens when a parent (or teacher, nurse, or other caregiver) believes that a young child's behavior demonstrates that the child is infected with the "seeds of evil", and therefore attempts to weed out the evil, either by emotional manipulation or by brute force. Simple examples include the beating of children as punishment for lying, or mothers who refuse to feed their newborn until a set time, in order to "teach him patience, which will be useful for him in later life". Poisonous pedagogy, in Katharina Rutschky's definition, aims to inculcate a social superego in the child, to construct a basic defense against drives in the child's psyche, to toughen the child for later life, and to instrumentalize the body parts and senses in favor of socially defined functions. Although not explicitly, "poisonous pedagogy" serves, these theorists allege, as a rationalization of sadism and a defense against the feelings of the parent himself or of the person involved.[2] For methods, Rutschky claims, "poisonous pedagogy" makes use of initiation rites (for example, internalizing a threat of death), the application of pain (including psychological), the totalitarian supervision of the child (body control, behavior, obedience, prohibition of lying, etc.), taboos against touching, the denial of basic needs, and an extreme desire for order.
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Historical background
Germany
In the 18th century common notions of the evil nature of children or of taming bear witness to superstitions and the wish to be able to train human beings like animals.[3] One German child-raising book in the 18th century said: "These first years have, among other things, the advantage that one can use force and compulsion. With age children forget everything they encountered in their early childhood. Thus if one can take away children's will, they will not remember afterward that they had had a will."[4] In Germany the parental right to discipline was abolished by a change in the law in 2000. The Federal Minister for Family Affairs from 1994 to 1998 Claudia Nolte had wanted to maintain parents' right to use mild spanking,[5] contrary to the views of Alice Miller in her 1980 book For Your Own Good. Miller has written: "I understand 'black pedagogy' to be a parenting approach that is directed toward breaking the will of the child, in order to make it an obedient subject, with the aid of open or concealed use of force, manipulation, and repression."[6]
Ancient cultures
"Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child" was a saying that was recorded in Greece, by Juvenal, was also recorded with variations in Sumeria and China prior to the emergence of western European civilisation, and is adapted in the Bible, Proverbs 13:24. Corporal punishment was widespread in all of these civilizations.[7]
Psychological background
A relevant criterion in defining poisonous pedagogy is if a manipulative approach reveals behavioural issues in the parent such as a blindness to feelings, cruelty, or a tendency toward violence, or if strong negative emotions such as anger or hate are being discharged, emotions against which the juvenile or infant psyche, with its age-based limitations, cannot defend itself.[3] Miller also came to the conclusion, as a result of her therapeutic work, that she needed to "work on" her own childhood in order to understand her clients better. She takes the view that "poisonous pedagogy" is a behavior that is passed on from generation to generation by being euphemized and sanitized. Other themes of the controversial author Katharina Rutschky are parenting, feminist criticism, and abuse.
Personalities
Influential advocates of various forms of corporal punishment include John Harvey Kellogg,[8] Moritz Schreber,[9] and others.
Poisonous pedagogy Social psychologist David Smail contends that society bears a large part of the responsibility for individuals' dysfunctional behavior, and as yet has not addressed this in any meaningful way. Developmental psychologist James W. Prescott, in the 1970s, carried out research into primate child-mother bonding and noted a link between disruption to the child-mother bonding process and the emergence of violence and fear based behaviour in the young primates. He suggests that the same dynamic functions for human beings, through the breakdown of empathy. In 1975, Prescott outlined a link between violence and disruption of the child-mother bonding process in human societies, drawing on a cross-cultural study of Aboriginal Societies and a statistical analysis of those cultures' practices towards the nurturing of the natural child-mother bonding process, and an examination of historical attitudes towards children from Euramerican literature and the historical record.[11] He concluded that the disrupted child-mother bonding process was an absolute predictor of the emergence of violence, hierarchy, rigid gender roles, a dominatory psychology and violent territorial acquisition. Intervening upon and disrupting natural adolescent sexuality also formed part of the overall picture. This discovery was not expected. Most societies were peaceful, and the incidence of extremely violent societies was low. The research showed that over time, disruptive practices become the 'norm' and as generations grow and pass on these practices, the society in question begins to demonstrate a clear lack of empathy, and violence is codified. The history of Poisonous Pedagogy is the history of this codification of these non-nurturant practices. It is upon these that current transmitted practice is found. Prescott's work and insights have been confirmed by neuroscience, neurobiochemistry, psychology, peri-natal science, birth psychology and more anthropology. Recent research into living Aboriginal Societies and a review of the historical record of first contact data, and other recorded observations, over the past 400 years have shown that the majority of Aboriginal Cultures do not chastise children.[12] Indeed the data shows that children are treated with much more respect, trust and empathy than was previously believed.[13] Support for the view that corporal punishment is harmful, and in the long term, ineffective, is emerging from neuroscience, psychology, biochemistry and longtitudinal studies.[14]
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Footnotes
[1] Helfield, Isa (January 2001). "International Conference on Women and Literacy" (http:/ / education. gsu. edu/ csal/ icwl/ abs01/ ihelfield1. htm). The Center for the Study of Adult Literacy: Poisonous Pedagogy. . Retrieved 2008-03-25. [2] Rutschky, Katharina (1997) (in German). Schwarze Pdagogik. Quellen zur Naturgeschichte der brgerlichen Erziehung. Ullstein Buchverlage. ISBN3-548-35670-2. [3] Miller, Alice (1990). For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence (http:/ / www. nospank. net/ fyog. htm) (3rd ed.). Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN0-374-52269-3. . [4] Sulzer, J. Versuch von der Erziehung und Unterweisung der Kinder, 1748. [5] "Zur Bundestagswahl: Parteien im Vergleich" (http:/ / regenbogen. kraetzae. de/ ausgaben/ 23/ parteienvergleich) (in German), analysis of the views of German political parties. [6] Miller, A. Evas Erwachen. [7] Robert McCole Wilson. "A Study of Attitudes Towards Corporal Punishment as an Educational Procedure From the Earliest Times to the Present" (http:/ / www. zona-pellucida. com/ wilson02. html). . [8] Kellogg, J.H. (1888). "Treatment for Self-Abuse and Its Effects". Plain Facts for Old and Young. Burlington, Iowa: F. Segner & Co. "A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision [...]. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment [...]." Plain Facts for Old and Young (1881 edition) at Project Gutenberg [9] Daniels, George Eaton (1975 December). "BOOK REVIEW of William G. Niederland, M.D.: The Schreber Case: Psychoanalytic Profile of a Paranoid Personality". Bull N Y Acad Med 51 (11): pp.13311343. PMC1749743 [10] Frank Furedi (7 July 2004). "Punishing Parents" (http:/ / www. frankfuredi. com/ index. php/ site/ article/ 94/ ). . [11] "Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence" (http:/ / www. violence. de/ prescott/ bulletin/ article. html). The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: 1020. November 1975. .
Poisonous pedagogy
[12] Gray, Peter (9 July 2009). "Play Makes Us Human VI: Hunter-Gatherers Playful Parenting" (http:/ / www. psychologytoday. com/ blog/ freedom-learn/ 200907/ play-makes-us-human-vi-hunter-gatherers-playful-parenting). Psychology Today. . Retrieved 14 July 2012. [13] Gray, Peter (16 July 2009). "Trustful Parenting: Its Downfall and Potential Renaissance" (http:/ / www. psychologytoday. com/ blog/ freedom-learn/ 200907/ trustful-parenting-its-downfall-and-potential-renaissance). Psychology Today. . Retrieved 14 July 2012. [14] Maurel, Olivier (2005). "Why we must stop using corporal punishment" (http:/ / www. nospank. net/ qadv1-3. htm). Project NoSpank. LCCNHQ770.4 M34 2009. . Retrieved 14 July 2012.
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References
Foucault, Michel (1977). Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-75255-2
Reconstructivism
Reconstructivism is a philosophical theory holding that societies should continually reform themselves in order to establish more perfect governments or social networks.[1] This ideology involves recombining or recontextualizing the ideas arrived at by the philosophy of deconstruction, in which an existing system or medium is broken into its smallest meaningful elements and in which these elements are used to build a new system or medium free from the strictures of the original. Some thinkers have attempted to ascribe the term Reconstructivism to the post-postmodern art movement. In an essay by Chris Sunami, (Art Essays: Reconstructivist Art [2]) "reconstructivist art" is described as follows: A reconstructivist art work builds upon prior, deconstructionist artworks and techniques, but adapts them to classic themes and structures, with the goal of creating works of genuine emotion and significance. In this way, reconstructivism (when it works) combines the vitality and originality of deconstructionism with the comforts, pleasures and rewards of classicism. The overall purpose of reconstructivism is to reawaken a sense of the Real in a world where everything has been demonstrated to be an illusion. One of the examples Sunami provides of this technique is the way some modern music incorporates deconstructed samples of older music and combines and arranges the samples in a new way as part of a new composition.
References
[1] "Articleworld.org" (http:/ / www. articleworld. org/ index. php/ Reconstructivism) (php). Reconstructivism. . Retrieved 2008-04-26. [2] http:/ / kitoba. com/ pedia/ Reconstructivist+ Art. html
Critical theory
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Critical theory
Critical theory is a school of thought that stresses the reflective assessment and critique of society and culture, by applying knowledge from the social sciences and the humanities. As a term, critical theory has two meanings with different origins and histories: the first originated in sociology and the second originated in literary criticism, whereby it is used and applied as an umbrella term that can describe a theory founded upon critique; thus, the theorist Max Horkheimer described a theory as critical in so far as it seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them." [1] In philosophy, the term critical theory describes the neo-Marxist philosophy of the Frankfurt School, which was developed in Germany in the 1930s. Frankfurt theorists drew on the critical methods of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud and has at its heart a criticism of ideology and the principal obstacle to human liberation.[2] Critical theory was established as a school of thought primarily by five Frankfurt School theoreticians: Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, and Erich Fromm. Modern critical theory has been inluenced by second generation Frankfurt School scholar Jrgen Habermas as well by Gyrgy Lukcs and Antonio Gramsci. In Habermas's work, critical theory transcended its theoretic roots in German idealism, and progressed closer to American pragmatism. The concern for a social "base and superstructure" is one of the remaining Marxist philosophic concepts in much contemporary critical theory.[3] Whilst critical theorists usually are broadly defined as Marxist intellectuals[4] their tendency to denounce some Marxist concepts, and to synthesise Marxian analysis with other sociologic and philosophic traditions has been attacked as revisionism, by Classical, Orthodox, and Analytical Marxists, and by Marxist-Leninist philosophers. Martin Jay said that the first generation of critical theory is best understood as not promoting a specific philosophical agenda or a specific ideology, but as "a gadfly of other systems".[5]
Definitions
The two meanings of critical theory from different intellectual traditions associated with the meaning of criticism and critiquederive ultimately from the Greek word kritikos meaning judgment or discernment, and in their present forms go back to the 18th century. While they can be considered completely independent intellectual pursuits, increasingly scholars are interested in the areas of critique where the two overlap. To use an epistemological distinction introduced by Jrgen Habermas in Erkenntnis und Interesse [1968] (Knowledge and Human Interests), critical theory in literary studies is ultimately a form of hermeneutics, i.e. knowledge via interpretation to understand the meaning of human texts and symbolic expressionsincluding the interpretation of texts which are themselves implicitly or explicitly the interpretation of other texts. Critical social theory is, in contrast, a form of self-reflective knowledge involving both understanding and theoretical explanation to reduce entrapment in systems of domination or dependence, obeying the emancipatory interest in expanding the scope of autonomy and reducing the scope of domination. From this perspective, much literary critical theory, since it is focused on interpretation and explanation rather than on social transformation, would be regarded as positivistic or traditional rather than critical theory in the Kantian or Marxian sense. Critical theory in literature and the humanities in general does not necessarily involve a normative dimension, whereas critical social theory does, either through criticizing society from some general theory of values, norms, or "oughts," or through criticizing it in terms of its own espoused values.
Critical theory
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In social theory
Critical theory was first defined by Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School of sociology in his 1937 essay Traditional and Critical Theory: Critical theory is a social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, in contrast to traditional theory oriented only to understanding or explaining it. Horkheimer wanted to distinguish critical theory as a radical, emancipatory form of Marxian theory, critiquing both the model of science put forward by logical positivism and what he and his colleagues saw as the covert positivism and authoritarianism of orthodox Marxism and Communism. Core concepts are: (1) That critical social theory should be directed at the totality of society in its historical specificity (i.e. how it came to be configured at a specific point in time), and (2) That critical theory should improve understanding of society by integrating all the major social sciences, including geography, economics, sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and psychology. This version of "critical" theory derives from Kant's (18th-century) and Marx's (19th Century) use of the term "critique", as in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Marx's concept that his work Das Kapital (Capital) forms a "critique of political economy." For Kant's transcendental idealism, "critique" means examining and establishing the limits of the validity of a faculty, type, or body of knowledge, especially through accounting for the limitations imposed by the fundamental, irreducible concepts in use in that knowledge system. Kant's notion of critique has been associated with the disestablishment of false, unprovable, or dogmatic philosophical, social, and political beliefs, because Kant's critique of reason involved the critique of dogmatic theological and metaphysical ideas and was intertwined with the enhancement of ethical autonomy and the Enlightenment critique of superstition and irrational authority. Ignored by many in "critical realist" circles, however, is that Kant's immediate impetus for writing his "Critique of Pure Reason" was to address problems raised by David Hume's skeptical empiricism which, in attacking metaphysics, employed reason and logic to argue against the knowability of the world and common notions of causation. Kant, by contrast, pushed the employment of a priori metaphysical claims as requisite, for if anything is to be said to be knowable, it would have to be established upon abstractions distinct from perceivable phenomena. Marx explicitly developed the notion of critique into the critique of ideology and linked it with the practice of social revolution, as in the famous 11th of his Theses on Feuerbach, "Philosophers have only interpreted the world in certain ways; the point is to change it."[6] One of the distinguishing characteristics of critical theory, as Adorno and Horkheimer elaborated in their Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), is a certain ambivalence concerning the ultimate source or foundation of social domination, an ambivalence which gave rise to the pessimism of the new critical theory over the possibility of human emancipation and freedom.[7] This ambivalence was rooted, of course, in the historical circumstances in which the work was originally produced, in particular, the rise of National Socialism, state capitalism, and mass culture as entirely new forms of social domination that could not be adequately explained within the terms of traditional Marxist sociology.[8] For Adorno and Horkheimer state intervention in the economy had effectively abolished the tension in capitalism between the "relations of production" and "material productive forces of society," a tension which, according to traditional critical theory, constituted the primary contradiction within capitalism. The market (as an "unconscious" mechanism for the distribution of goods) and private property had been replaced by centralized planning and socialized ownership of the means of production.[9] Yet, contrary to Marxs famous prediction in the Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, this shift did not lead to "an era of social revolution," but rather to fascism and totalitarianism. As such, critical theory was left, in Jrgen Habermas words, without "anything in reserve to which it might appeal; and when the forces of production enter into a baneful symbiosis with the relations of production that they were supposed to blow wide open, there is no longer any dynamism upon which critique could base its hope."[10] For Adorno and Horkheimer,
Critical theory this posed the problem of how to account for the apparent persistence of domination in the absence of the very contradiction that, according to traditional critical theory, was the source of domination itself. In the 1960s, Jrgen Habermas raised the epistemological discussion to a new level in his Knowledge and Human Interests, by identifying critical knowledge as based on principles that differentiated it either from the natural sciences or the humanities, through its orientation to self-reflection and emancipation. Though unsatisfied with Adorno and Horkeimer's thought presented in Dialectic of Enlightenment, Habermas shares the view that, in the form of instrumental rationality, the era of modernity marks a move away from the liberation of enlightenment and toward a new form of enslavement.[11] His ideas regarding the relationship between modernity and rationalization are in this sense strongly influenced by Max Weber. Habermas dissolved further the elements of critical theory derived from Hegelian German Idealism, though his thought remains broadly Marxist in its epistemological approach. Perhaps his two most influential ideas are the concepts of the public sphere and communicative action; the latter arriving partly as a reaction to new post-structural or so-called "post-modern" challenges to the discourse of modernity. Habermas engaged in regular correspondence with Richard Rorty and a strong sense of philosophical pragmatism may be felt in his theory; thought which frequently traverses the boundaries between sociology and philosophy.
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Critical theory the two versions of critical theory began to overlap or intertwine to a much greater degree than before.
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Construction
Both versions of critical theory have focused on the processes by which human communication, culture, and political consciousness are created. This includes: Whether it is through universal pragmatic principles through which mutual understanding is achieved (Habermas). The semiotic rules by which objects obtain symbolic meanings (Barthes). The psychological processes by which the phenomena of everyday consciousness are generated (psychoanalytic thinkers). The episteme that underlies our cognitive formations (Foucault), There is a common interest in the processes (often of a linguistic or symbolic kind) that give rise to observable phenomena and here there is some mutual influence among the different versions of critical theory. Ultimately this emphasis on production and construction goes back to the revolution wrought by Kant in philosophy, namely his focus in the Critique of Pure Reason on synthesis according to rules as the fundamental activity of the mind that creates the order of our experience.
Footnotes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] (Horkheimer 1982, 244) [Geuss, R. The Idea of a Critical Theory,Cambridge,Cambridge University Press] Outhwaite, William. 1988. Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers 2nd Edition (2009), p.5-8 (ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1) See, e.g., Leszek Kolakowski's Main Currents of Marxism (1979), vol. 3 chapter X; W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393329437 Jay, Martin (1996) The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 19231950. University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-20423-2, p. 41 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=nwkzVdaaB2sC& lpg=PA41& ots=38WIpH7P8O& dq="gadfly of other systems"& pg=PA41#v=onepage& q="gadfly of other systems"& f=false) [6] "Theses on Feuerbach" (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ archive/ marx/ works/ 1845/ theses/ theses. htm). Marxists Internet Archive. . Retrieved 22 August 2008. [7] Adorno, T. W., with Max Horkheimer. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Trans. Edmund Jephcott. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2002. 242. [8] "Critical Theory was initially developed in Horkheimers circle to think through political disappointments at the absence of revolution in the West, the development of Stalinism in Soviet Russia, and the victory of fascism in Germany. It was supposed to explain mistaken Marxist prognoses, but without breaking Marxist intentions." "The Entwinement of Myth and Enlightenment: Horkheimer and Adorno." in Habermas, Jrgen. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures. trans. Frederick Lawrence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987. 116. Also, see Helmut Dubiel, Theory and Politics: Studies in the Development of Critical Theory, trans. Benjamin Gregg (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1985). [9] "[G]one are the objective laws of the market which ruled in the actions of the entrepreneurs and tended toward catastrophe. Instead the conscious decision of the managing directors executes as results (which are more obligatory than the blindest price-mechanisms) the old law of value and hence the destiny of capitalism." Dialectic of Enlightenment. p. 38. [10] "The Entwinement of Myth and Enlightenment," p. 118. [11] Outhwaite, William. 1988. Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers 2nd Edition (2009). p6. ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1
References
Barry, W.J. (2012). Challenging the Status Quo Meaning of Educational Quality: Introducing Transformational Quality (TQ) Theory. Educational Journal of Living Theories. 4, 1-29. http://ejolts.net/node/191 An accessible primer for the literary aspect of critical theory is Jonathan Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction ISBN 0-19-285383-X Another short introductory volume with illustrations: "Introducing Critical Theory" Stuart Sim & Borin Van Loon, 2001. ISBN 1-84046-264-7 A survey of and introduction to the current state of critical social theory is Craig Calhoun's Critical Social Theory: Culture, History, and the Challenge of Difference (Blackwell, 1995) ISBN 1-55786-288-5 Problematizing Global Knowledge. Theory, Culture & Society. Vol. 23 (23). (Sage, 2006) ISSN 0263-2764
Critical theory Raymond GeussThe Idea of a Critical Theory. Habermas and the Frankfurt School. (Cambridge University Press,1981) ISBN 0-521-28422-8 Charles Arthur Willard Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy. University of Chicago Press. 1996. Charles Arthur Willard, A Theory of Argumentation. University of Alabama Press. 1989. Charles Arthur Willard, Argumentation and the Social Grounds of Knowledge. University of Alabama Press. 1982. Harry Dahms (ed.) No Social Science Without Critical Theory. Volume 25 of Current Perspectives in Social Theory (Emerald/JAI, 2008). Charmaz, K. (1995). Between positivism and postmodernism: Implications for methods. Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 17, 4372. Conquergood, D. (1991). "Rethinking ethnography: Towards a critical cultural politics". Communication Monographs 58 (2): 179194. doi:10.1080/03637759109376222. Gandler, Stefan (2009) (in German), Fragmentos de Frankfurt. Ensayos sobre la Teora crtica, Mxico: Siglo XXI Editores/Universidad Autnoma de Quertaro, ISBN978-607-03-0070-7 Lindlof, T. R., & Taylor, B. C. (2002). Qualitative Communication Research Methods, 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. An example of critical postmodern work is Rolling, Jr., J. H. (2008). Secular blasphemy: Utter(ed) transgressions against names and fathers in the postmodern era. Qualitative Inquiry, 14, 926948. Thomas, Jim (1993). Doing Critical Ethnography. London, New York (NY): Sage 1993, pp.15 & 1725 An example of critical qualitative research is Tracy, S. J. (2000). Becoming a character for commerce: Emotion labor, self subordination and discursive construction of identity in a total institution. Management Communication Quarterly, 14, 90128. Luca Corchia, La logica dei processi culturali. Jrgen Habermas tra filosofia e sociologia (http://books.google. it/books?id=U56Sag72eSoC&pg=PP1&dq=habermas+corchia#v=onepage&q=&f=false), Genova, Edizioni ECIG, 2010, ISBN 978-88-7544-195-1.
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External links
Using Critical Theory to Understand the Meaning of Educational Quality (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=S7HVfxq4l-8) Critical Theory (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy "Death is Not the End" (http://www.nplusonemag.com/theory.html) N+1 magazine's short history of academic critical theory. Critical Legal Thinking (http://www.criticallegalthinking.com/) A Critical Legal Studies website which uses critical theory in an analysis of law and politics. L. Corchia, Jrgen Habermas. A Bibliography: works and studies (1952-2010) (http://books.google.it/ books?id=jw3klIgEVZoC&pg=PA238&dq=Jrgen+Habermas.+A+Bibliography:+works+and+studies+ (1952-2010),&hl=it&ei=kZZBTO-5NuWJ4gasv4ypDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1& ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false), Pisa, Edizioni Il Campano Arnus University Books, 2010, 344 pp.
Political consciousness
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Political consciousness
Following the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx outlined the workings of a political consciousness.
False consciousness
In Marx's view, consciousness was always political, for it was always the outcome of politic-economic circumstances. What one thinks of life, power, and self, for Marx, is always a product of ideological forces. For Marx, ideologies appear to explain and justify the current distribution of wealth and power in a society. In societies with unequal allocations of wealth and power, ideologies present these inequalities as acceptable, virtuous, inevitable, and so forth. Ideologies thus tend to lead people to accept the status quo. The subordinate people come to believe in their subordination: the peasants to accept the rule of the aristocracy, the factory workers to accept the rule of the owners, consumers the rule of corporations. This belief in one's own subordination, which comes about through ideology, is, for Marx, false consciousness. That is, conditions of inequality create ideologies which confuse people about their true aspirations, loyalties, and purposes.[2] Thus, for example, the working class has often been, for Marx, beguiled by nationalism, organized religion, and other distractions. These ideological devices help to keep people from realizing that it is they who produce wealth, they who deserve the fruits of the land, all who can prosper: instead of literally thinking for themselves, they think the thoughts given to them by the ruling class.[3]
Political consciousness
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External resources
Outline for Hegel's ideas on consciousness at Marxists.org [5]
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] "Glossary of Terms: Co" (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ glossary/ terms/ c/ o. htm). Marxists.org. . Retrieved 2012-09-09. Karl Marx, The German ideology, Part 1 (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ archive/ marx/ works/ 1845/ german-ideology/ ch01a. htm) Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, ch. 2 (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ archive/ marx/ works/ 1848/ communist-manifesto/ ch02. htm). Sullivan http:/ / www. marxists. org/ reference/ archive/ hegel/ works/ ol/ ol_phen. htm
References
Sullivan, Robert. The Victorian Web (http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/phil2.html) Frederic Jameson, The Political Unconscious ISBN 0-8014-9222-X
Mikhail Bakhtin
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Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Bakhtin (1920) Born November 17, 1895 Oryol, Russian Empire March 7, 1975 (aged79) Moscow, Russian SFSR 20th century philosophy Russian Philosophy Russian Formalism Semiotics, literary criticism
Died
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (Russian: , pronounced[mxil mxajlvt bxtin]; November 17, 1895 March 7,[1] 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician[2] and scholar who worked on literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of language. His writings, on a variety of subjects, inspired scholars working in a number of different traditions (Marxism, semiotics, structuralism, religious criticism) and in disciplines as diverse as literary criticism, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology. Although Bakhtin was active in the debates on aesthetics and literature that took place in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, his distinctive position did not become well known until he was rediscovered by Russian scholars in the 1960s.
Mikhail Bakhtin
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Early life
Bakhtin was born in Oryol, Russia, to an old family of the nobility. His father was the manager of a bank and worked in several cities. For this reason Bakhtin spent his early childhood years in Orel, Vilnius, and then Odessa, where in 1913 he joined the historical and philological faculty at the local university. Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist write: "Odessa..., like Vilnius, was an appropriate setting for a chapter in the life of a man who was to become the philosopher of heteroglossia and carnival. The same sense of fun and irreverence that gave birth to Babel's Rabelaisian A commemorative plaque marking a building in which Mikhail gangster or to the tricks and deceptions of Ostap Bakhtin worked. Bender, the picaro created by Ilf and Petrov, left its mark on Bakhtin."[3] He later transferred to Petersburg University to join his brother Nikolai. It is here that Bakhtin was greatly influenced by the classicist F. F. Zelinsky, whose works contain the beginnings of concepts elaborated by Bakhtin.
Career
Bakhtin completed his studies in 1918 and moved to a small city in western Russia, Nevel (Pskov Oblast), where he worked as a schoolteacher for two years. It was at this time that the first "Bakhtin Circle" formed. The group consisted of intellectuals with varying interests, but all shared a love for the discussion of literary, religious, and political topics. Included in this group were Valentin Voloshinov and, eventually, P. N. Medvedev, who joined the group later in Vitebsk. German philosophy was the topic talked about most frequently and, from this point forward, Bakhtin considered himself more a philosopher than a literary scholar. It was in Nevel, also, that Bakhtin worked tirelessly on a large work concerning moral philosophy that was never published in its entirety. However, in 1919, a short section of this work was published and given the title "Art and Responsibility". This piece constitutes Bakhtins first published work. Bakhtin relocated to Vitebsk in 1920. It was here, in 1921, that Bakhtin married Elena Aleksandrovna Okolovich. Later, in 1923, Bakhtin was diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a bone disease that ultimately led to the amputation of his leg in 1938. This illness hampered his productivity and rendered him an invalid. In 1924, Bakhtin moved to Leningrad, where he assumed a position at the Historical Institute and provided consulting services for the State Publishing House. It is at this time that Bakhtin decided to share his work with the public, but just before "On the Question of the Methodology of Aesthetics in Written Works" was to be published, the journal in which it was to appear stopped publication. This work was eventually published 51 years later. The repression and misplacement of his manuscripts was something that would plague Bakhtin throughout his career. In 1929, "Problems of Dostoevskys Art", Bakhtins first major work, was published. It is here that Bakhtin introduces the concept of dialogism. However, just as this book was introduced, Bakhtin was accused of participating in the Russian Orthodox Church's underground movement. The truthfulness of this charge is not known, even today. Consequently, during one of the many purges of artists and intellectuals that Joseph Stalin conducted during the early years of his rule, Bakhtin was sentenced to exile in Siberia but appealed on the grounds that, in his weakened state, it would kill him. Instead, he was sentenced to six years of internal exile in Kazakhstan. Bakhtin spent these six years working as a book-keeper in the town of Kustanai, during which time he wrote several important essays, including "Discourse in the Novel". In 1936 he taught courses at the Mordovian Pedagogical Institute in Saransk. An obscure figure in a provincial college, he dropped out of view and taught only occasionally. In 1937, Bakhtin moved to Kimry, a town located a couple of hundred kilometers from Moscow. Here, Bakhtin
Mikhail Bakhtin completed work on a book concerning the 18th-century German novel which was subsequently accepted by the Sovetskii Pisatel' Publishing House. However, the only copy of the manuscript disappeared during the upheaval caused by the German invasion. After the amputation of his leg in 1938, Bakhtins health improved and he became more prolific. In 1940, and until the end of World War II, Bakhtin lived in Moscow, where he submitted a dissertation on Franois Rabelais to the Gorky Institute of World Literature to obtain a postgraduate title,[4] a dissertation that could not be defended until the war ended. In 1946 and 1949, the defense of this dissertation divided the scholars of Moscow into two groups: those official opponents guiding the defense, who accepted the original and unorthodox manuscript, and those other professors who were against the manuscripts acceptance. The book's earthy, anarchic topic was the cause of many arguments that ceased only when the government intervened. Ultimately, Bakhtin was denied a doctorate and granted a lesser degree by the State Accrediting Bureau. Later, Bakhtin was invited back to Saransk, where he took on the position of chair of the General Literature Department at the Mordovian Pedagogical Institute. When, in 1957, the Institute changed from a teachers' college to a university, Bakhtin became head of the Department of Russian and World Literature. In 1961, Bakhtins deteriorating health forced him to retire, and in 1969, in search of medical attention, Bakhtin moved back to Moscow, where he lived until his death in 1975.[5] Bakhtins works and ideas gained popularity after his death, and he endured difficult conditions for much of his professional life, a time in which information was often seen as dangerous and therefore often hidden. As a result, the details provided now are often of uncertain accuracy. Also contributing to the imprecision of these details is the limited access to Russian archival information during Bakhtins life. It is only after the archives became public that scholars realized that much of what they thought they knew about the details of Bakhtins life was false or skewed largely by Bakhtin himself.[6]
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Mikhail Bakhtin demands which manifest themselves as ones voice of consciousness.[10] It is here also that Bakhtin introduces an "architectonic" or schematic model of the human psyche which consists of three components: "I-for-myself", "I-for-the-other", and "other-for-me". The I-for-myself is an unreliable source of identity, and Bakhtin argues that it is the I-for-the-other through which human beings develop a sense of identity because it serves as an amalgamation of the way in which others view me. Conversely, other-for-me describes the way in which others incorporate my perceptions of them into their own identities. Identity, as Bakhtin describes it here, does not belong merely to the individual, rather it is shared by all.[11]
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Mikhail Bakhtin are heard, flourish and interact together. The carnival creates the "threshold" situations where regular conventions are broken or reversed and genuine dialogue becomes possible. The notion of a carnival was Bakhtin's way of describing Dostoevsky's polyphonic style: each individual character is strongly defined, and at the same time the reader witnesses the critical influence of each character upon the other. That is to say, the voices of others are heard by each individual, and each inescapably shapes the character of the other.
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Mikhail Bakhtin means "time space" and is defined by Bakhtin as "the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature."[25] For the purpose of his writing, an author must create entire worlds and, in doing so, is forced to make use of the organizing categories of the real world in which he lives. For this reason chronotope is a concept that engages reality.[26] The final essay, "Discourse in the Novel", is one of Bakhtins most complete statements concerning his philosophy of language. It is here that Bakhtin provides a model for a history of discourse and introduces the concept of heteroglossia.[24] The term heteroglossia refers to the qualities of a language that are extralinguistic, but common to all languages. These include qualities such as perspective, evaluation, and ideological positioning. In this way most languages are incapable of neutrality, for every word is inextricably bound to the context in which it exists.[27]
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Mikhail Bakhtin The final essay, "Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences", originates from notes Bakhtin wrote during the mid-seventies and is the last piece of writing Bakhtin produced before he died. In this essay he makes a distinction between dialectic and dialogics and comments on the difference between the text and the aesthetic object. It is here also, that Bakhtin differentiates himself from the Formalists, who, he felt, underestimated the importance of content while oversimplifying change, and the Structuralists, who too rigidly adhered to the concept of "code."[33]
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Disputed texts
Some of the works which bear the names of Bakhtin's close friends V. N. Voloinov and P. N. Medvedev have been attributed to Bakhtin particularly The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship and Marxism and Philosophy of Language. These claims originated in the early 1970s and received their earliest full articulation in English in Clark and Holquist's 1984 biography of Bakhtin. In the years since then, however, most scholars have come to agree that Voloinov and Medvedev ought to be considered the true authors of these works. Although Bakhtin undoubtedly influenced these scholars and may even have had a hand in composing the works attributed to them, it now seems clear that if it was necessary to attribute authorship of these works to one person, Voloinov and Medvedev respectively should receive credit.[34] Bakhtin had a difficult life and career, and few of his works were published in an authoritative form during his lifetime.[35] As a result, there is substantial disagreement over matters that are normally taken for granted: in which discipline he worked (was he a philosopher or literary critic?), how to periodize his work, and even which texts he wrote (see below). He is known for a series of concepts that have been used and adapted in a number of disciplines: dialogism, the carnivalesque, the chronotope, heteroglossia and "outsidedness" (the English translation of a Russian term vnenakhodimost, sometimes rendered into Englishfrom French rather than from Russianas "exotopy"). Together these concepts outline a distinctive philosophy of language and culture that has at its center the claims that all discourse is in essence a dialogical exchange and that this endows all language with a particular ethical or ethico-political force.
Legacy
As a literary theorist, Bakhtin is associated with the Russian Formalists, and his work is compared with that of Yuri Lotman; in 1963 Roman Jakobson mentioned him as one of the few intelligent critics of Formalism.[36] During the 1920s, Bakhtin's work tended to focus on ethics and aesthetics in general. Early pieces such as Towards a Philosophy of the Act and Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity are indebted to the philosophical trends of the timeparticularly the Marburg School Neo-Kantianism of Hermann Cohen, including Ernst Cassirer, Max Scheler and, to a lesser extent, Nicolai Hartmann. Bakhtin began to be discovered by scholars in 1963,[36] but it was only after his death in 1975 that authors such as Julia Kristeva and Tzvetan Todorov brought Bakhtin to the attention of the Francophone world, and from there his popularity in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries continued to grow. In the late 1980s, Bakhtin's work experienced a surge of popularity in the West. Bakhtins primary works include Toward a Philosophy of the Act, an unfinished portion of a philosophical essay; Problems of Dostoyevskys Art, to which Bakhtin later added a chapter on the concept of carnival and published with the title Problems of Dostoyevskys Poetics; Rabelais and His World, which explores the openness of the Rabelaisian novel; The Dialogic Imagination, whereby the four essays that comprise the work introduce the concepts of dialogism, heteroglossia, and chronotope; and Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, a collection of essays in which Bakhtin concerns himself with method and culture. In the 1920s there was a "Bakhtin school" in Russia, in line with the discourse analysis of Ferdinand de Saussure and Roman Jakobson.[37]
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Influence
He is known today for his interest in a wide variety of subjects, ideas, vocabularies, and periods, as well as his use of authorial disguises, and for his influence (alongside Gyrgy Lukcs) on the growth of Western scholarship on the novel as a premiere literary genre. As a result of the breadth of topics with which he dealt, Bakhtin has influenced such Western schools of theory as Neo-Marxism, Structuralism, and Semiotics. However, his influence on such groups has, somewhat paradoxically, resulted in narrowing the scope of Bakhtins work. According to Clark and Holquist, rarely do those who incorporate Bakhtins ideas into theories of their own appreciate his work in its entirety.[38] While Bakhtin is traditionally seen as a literary critic, there can be no denying his impact on the realm of rhetorical theory. Among his many theories and ideas Bakhtin indicates that style is a developmental process, occurring both within the user of language and language itself. His work instills in the reader an awareness of tone and expression that arises from the careful formation of verbal phrasing. By means of his writing, Bakhtin has enriched the experience of verbal and written expression which ultimately aids the formal teaching of writing.[39] Some even suggest that Bakhtin introduces a new meaning to rhetoric because of his tendency to reject the separation of language and ideology.[40]
Notes
[1] Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson, Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics (http:/ / books. google. gr/ books?id=BViC_wkbd4oC& dq=), Stanford University Press, 1990, p. xiv. [2] Maranho 1990, p.197 [3] Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist, Mikhail Bakhtin (Harvard University Press, 1984: ISBN 0-674-57417-6), p. 27. [4] Holquist Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World p.10 [5] Holquist xxi-xxvi [6] Hirschkop 2 [7] Liapunov xvii [8] Bakhtin 54 [9] Bakhtin 41 [10] Hirschkop 12-14 [11] Emerson and Morson [12] Holquist xxv [13] Clark and Holquist 295 [14] Clark and Holquist 297-299 [15] Iswolsky 1965, p. 92f. [16] Holquist xxvi [17] Maranho 1990, p.4 [18] James V. Wertsch (1998) Mind As Action (http:/ / books. google. it/ books?id=73Vv7Y3vf14C) [19] Holquist and Emerson 1981, p. 428 [20] Bakhtin [21] Holquist, 1990 [22] Hirschkop, Ken; Shepherd, David G (1989), Bakhtin and cultural theory (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=RCO8AAAAIAAJ& lpg=PA8& dq=Bakhtin Saussure Kant& pg=PA8#v=onepage& q& f=false), Manchester University Press ND, p.8, ISBN978-0-7190-2615-7, , retrieved 2011-04-26 Unlike Kant, Bakhtin positions aesthetic activity and experience over abstraction. Bakhtin also clashes with Saussure's view of "langue is a 'social fact'", since Bakhtin views Saussure's society as a "disturbing homogenous collective" [23] Holquist xxxii [24] Holquist 1981, p. xxxiii [25] Bakhtin 84 [26] Clark and Holquist 278 [27] Farmer xviii [28] Holquist xi. [29] Holquist xiii. [30] Holquist xv. [31] Holquist xvii-xviii. [32] Holquist xix. [33] Holquist xx-xxi.
Mikhail Bakhtin
[34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] Bota and Bronckart. Brandist The Bakhtin Circle, 1-26 Holquist Dialogism, p.183 Peter Ludwig Berger Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience (1997) p.86 Clark and Holquist 3. Schuster 1-2. Klancher 24.
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References
Bakhtin works
Bakhtin, M. M. [1930s] (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays (http://books.google.com/ books?id=JKZztxqdIpgC). Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London: University of Texas Press. [written during the 1930s] Bakhtin, M. M. [1941, 1965] Rabelais and His World. Trans. Hlne Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Bakhtin, M.M. (1973) Questions of Literature and Aesthetics, (Russian) Progress Moscow, 1979 Bakhtin, M. M. (1984) Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics. Edited and translated by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Bakhtin, M. M. (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Trans. by Vern W. McGee. Austin, Tx: University of Texas Press. Bakhtin, M. M. (1990) Art and Answerability. Ed. Michael Holquist and Vadim Liapunov. Trans. Vadim Liapunov and Kenneth Brostrom. Austin: University of Texas Press [written 19191924, published 1974-1979] Bakhtin, M. M. (1993) Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Ed. Vadim Liapunov and Michael Holquist. Trans. Vadim Liapunov. Austin: University of Texas Press. M.M.Bakhtin, V.D.Duvakin, S.G.Bocharov, MM Bakhtin: besedy s VD Duvakinym (Russian), Soglasie, 2002
Works on Bakhtin
Boer, Roland (d), Bakhtin and Genre Theory in Biblical Studies. Atlanta/Leiden, Society of Biblical Literature/Brill, 2007. Bota, Cristian, and Jean-Paul Bronckart. Bakhtine dmasqu: Histoire d'un menteur, d'une escroquerie et d'un dlire collectif. Paris: Droz, 2011. Brandist, Craig. The Bakhtin Circle: Philosophy, Culture and Politics London, Sterling, Virginia: Pluto Press, 2002. Clark, Katerina, and Michael Holquist. Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. Emerson, Caryl, and Gary Saul Morson. "Mikhail Bakhtin." The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Eds. Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth and Imre Szeman. Second Edition 2005. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 25 Jan. 2006 (http://litguide.press.jhu.edu.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/cgibin/view. cgi?eid=22&query=Bakhtin). Farmer, Frank. "Introduction." Landmark Essays on Bakhtin, Rhetoric, and Writing. Ed. Frank Farmer. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1998. xi-xxiii. Green, Barbara. Mikhail Bakhtin and Biblical Scholarship: An Introduction. SBL Semeia Studies 38. Atlanta: SBL, 2000. David Hayman Toward a Mechanics of Mode: Beyond Bakhtin (http://links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0029-5132(198324)16:2<101:TAMOMB>2.0.CO;2-Q&size=LARGE) NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Winter, 1983), pp.101120 doi:10.2307/1345079 Jane H. Hill The Refiguration of the Anthropology of Language (http://links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0886-7356(198602)1:1<89:TROTAO>2.0.CO;2-9&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage)
Mikhail Bakhtin (review of Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics) Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Feb., 1986), pp.89102 Hirschkop, Ken. "Bakhtin in the sober light of day." Bakhtin and Cultural Theory. Eds. Ken Hirschkop and David Shepherd. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2001. 1-25. Hirschkop, Ken. Mikhail Bakhtin: An Aesthetic for Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Holquist, Michael. [1990] Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World (http://books.google.com/ books?id=2IHurBoarNsC), Second Edition. Routledge, 2002. Holquist, Michael. "Introduction." Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. By Mikhail Bakhtin. Eds. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986. ix-xxiii. Holquist, Michael. Introduction (http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exbakdia.html#ex1) to Mikhail Bakhtin's The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1981. xv-xxxiv Holquist, M., & C. Emerson (1981). Glossary. In MM Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by MM Bakhtin. Klancher, Jon. "Bakhtins Rhetoric." Landmark Essays on Bakhtin, Rhetoric, and Writing. Ed. Frank Farmer. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1998. 23-32. Liapunov, Vadim. Toward a Philosophy of the Act. By Mikhail Bakhtin. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. Maranho, Tullio (1990) The Interpretation of Dialogue (http://books.google.com/books?id=T2b3Tgxc5bEC) University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-50433-6
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Meletinsky, Eleazar Moiseevich, The Poetics of Myth (http://books.google.com/books?id=E5oa-sE8FzYC) (Translated by Guy Lanoue and Alexandre Sadetsky) 2000 Routledge ISBN 0-415-92898-2 Morson, Gary Saul, and Caryl Emerson. Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics. Stanford University Press, 1990. O'Callaghan, Patrick. Monologism and Dialogism in Private Law (http://www.jurisprudence.com.au/juris7/ ocallaghan.pdf) The Journal Jurisprudence, Vol. 7, 2010. 405-440. Pechey, Graham. Mikhail Bakhtin: The Word in the World (http://books.google.com/ books?id=UOBiAAAAMAAJ&q=9780415424196). London: Routledge, 2007. ISBN 978-0-415-42419-6 Schuster, Charles I. "Mikhail Bakhtin as Rhetorical Theorist." Landmark Essays on Bakhtin, Rhetoric, and Writing. Ed. Frank Farmer. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1998. 1-14. Thorn, Judith. "The Lived Horizon of My Being: The Substantiation of the Self & the Discourse of Resistance in Rigoberta Menchu, Mm Bakhtin and Victor Montejo." University of Arizona Press. 1996. Townsend, Alex, Autonomous Voices: An Exploration of Polyphony in the Novels of Samuel Richardson, 2003, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., New York, Wien, 2003, ISBN 978-3-906769-80-6 / US-ISBN 978-0-8204-5917-2 Sheinberg, Esti (2000-12-29). Irony, satire, parody and the grotesque in the music of Shostakovich (http://web. archive.org/web/20071017042212/http://www.dschjournal.com/journal15/books15.htm). UK: Ashgate. pp.378. ISBN0-7546-0226-5. Vice, Sue. Introducing Bakhtin. Manchester University Press, 1997 Voloshinov, V.N. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. New York & London: Seminar Press. 1973 Young, Robert J.C., 'Back to Bakhtin', in Torn Halves: Political Conflict in Literary and Cultural Theory (http:// robertjcyoung.com/torn_halves.html) Manchester: Manchester University Press; New York, St Martins Press, 1996 ISBN 0-7190-4777-3 Mayerfeld Bell, Michael and Gardiner, Michael. Bakhtin and the Human Sciences. No last words. London-Thousand Oaks-New Delhi: SAGE Publications. 1998. Michael Gardiner Mikhail Bakhtin (http://www.sagepub.co.uk/refbooksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book224857& currTree=Subjects&level1=400). SAGE Publications 2002 ISBN 978-0-7619-7447-5. Maria Shevtsova, Dialogism in the Novel and Bakhtin's Theory of Culture (http://links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0028-6087(199222)23:3<747:DITNAB>2.0.CO;2-R) New Literary History, Vol. 23, No. 3, History, Politics, and Culture (Summer, 1992), pp.747763 doi:10.2307/469228
Mikhail Bakhtin Stacy Burton Bakhtin, Temporality, and Modern Narrative: Writing "the Whole Triumphant Murderous Unstoppable Chute" (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-4124(199624)48:1<39:BTAMNW>2.0.CO;2-D) Comparative Literature, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Winter, 1996), pp.3964 doi:10.2307/1771629 Vladislav Krasnov Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky A study in the Polyphonic Novel by Vladislav Krasnov University of Georgia Press ISBN 0-8203-0472-7 Maja Soboleva: Die Philosophie Michail Bachtins. Von der existentiellen Ontologie zur dialogischen Vernunft. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2009. (French) Jean-Paul Bronckart, Cristian Bota: Bakhtine dmasqu : Histoire d'un menteur, d'une escroquerie et d'un dlire collectif, Editeur : Droz, ISBN 2-600-00545-5
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External links
The Bakhtin Circle, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bakhtin.htm) The Bakhtin Centre (http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/A-C/bakh/bakhtin.html) (University of Sheffield) A Bakhtin profile (http://www.rpi.edu/~zappenj/Bibliographies/bakhtin.htm) (James P. Zappen) Bakhtin Timeline (http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/english/courses/60a/handouts/bak1.html) "INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY - The Battle over Mikhail Bakhtin" (http://linguafranca.mirror. theinfo.org/9804/steinglass.html) By Matt Steinglass, in Lingua Franca, (April 1998).
Philology in Runet. A special search through the M. M. Bakhtin's works. (http://ruthenia.ru/tiutcheviana/ search/en/bakhtin.html) Carnival, Carnivalesque and the Grotesque Body (http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~cklestinec/Teaching/ LCC3218.Bakhtin.html) A SURVEY OF THE IDEAS OF BAKHTIN (http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities. com/yazdanpour/y-ch2.htm&date=2009-10-26+00:24:51) Bakhtin and Religion: A Feeling for Faith (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3763/is_200409/ ai_n11849977) excerpts (http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/english/bbarrie/shakespeare/bakhtin_rab.html) from Rabelais and his world Page (http://pubpages.unh.edu/~jds/Bakhtinquotes.htm) on Bakhtin with a photo Absurdist Monthly Review - The Writers Magazine of The New Absurdist Movement (http://amr.obook.org) Polyphony of Brothers Karamazov likened to Bach fugue (http://www2.nau.edu/tas3/wtc/i08.html#movie) [Shockwave Player required] Description of Bakhtin's work and how it was "discovered" by Western scholars (http://www.isfp.co.uk/ russian_thinkers/mikhail_bakhtin.html) Languagehat blog on the veracity of the "smoking incident" (http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002327. php)
Book review
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Book review
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, style, and merit.[1] A book review can be a primary source opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review.[2] Books can be reviewed for printed periodicals, magazines and newspapers, as school work, or for book web sites on the internet. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantial essay. Such a review may evaluate the book on the basis of personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for a display of learning or to promulgate their own ideas on the topic of a fiction or non-fiction work. There are many special journals devoted to book reviews and they are indexed in special databases such as Book Review Index, www.sparknotes.com and Kirkus Reviews but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper databases and in scholarly databases such as Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and discipline-specific databases.
Literature
Chen, C. C. (1976), Biomedical, Scientific and Technical Book Reviewing, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ. Ingram, H. & Mills, P. B. (1989), Reviewing the book reviews, PS: Political science and Politics, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp.627634. Katz, Bill (19851986). The sunny book review. Technical Services Quarterly, 3(1/2), 17-25 Lindholm-Romantschuk, Y. (1998). Scholarly book reviewing in the social sciences and humanities. The flow of ideas within and among disciplines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Miranda, E. O. (1996), On book reviewing, Journal of Educational Thought, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp.191202. Motta-Roth, D. (1998), Discourse analysis and academic book reviews: a study of text and disciplinary cultures, in Fortanet, I. (Ed), Genre Studies in English for Academic Purposes, Universitat Jaume, Castell de la Plana, pp.2958. Nicolaisen, J. (2002a), Structure-based interpretation of scholarly book reviews: a new research technique, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science, pp.123135. Available: http://www.db.dk/jni/Articles/Abstract_Colis4.htm Nicolaisen, J. (2002b). The scholarliness of published peer reviews: A bibliometric study of book reviews in selected social science fields. Research Evaluation, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp.129140. Available: http://www.db.dk/ jni/Articles/Nicolaisen(2002c).htm Nielsen, S. (2009), Reviewing printed and electronic dictionaries: A theoretical and practical framework, in S. Nielsen/S. Tarp (eds.): Lexicography in the 21st Century. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins 2009, 23-41. Novick, Peter (1988). That noble dream. The "objectivity question" and the American Historical Profession. Cambridge: Cambridge University Rampola, Mary Lynn (2010). "Critiques and book reviews", A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, Sixth Edition, pp26-28. Riley, L. E. & Spreitzer, E. A. (1970), Book reviewing in the social sciences, The American Sociologist, Vol. 5 (November), pp.358363. Sabosik, P. E. (1988), Scholarly reviewing and the role of Choice in the postpublication review process, Book Research Quarterly, Summer, pp.1018. Sarton, G. (1960), Notes on the reviewing of learned books, Science, Vol. 131 (April 22.), pp.11821187. Schubert, A. et al. (1984), Quantitative analysis of a visible tip of the peer review iceberg: book reviews in chemistry, Scientometrics, Vol. 6 No. 6, pp.433443. Snizek, W. E. & Fuhrman, E. R. (1979), Some factors affecting the evaluative content of book reviews in sociology, The American Sociologist, Vol. 14 (May), pp.108114.
Book review Spink, A., Robins, D. & Schamber, L. (1998), Use of scholarly book reviews: implications for electronic publishing and scholarly communication, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Vol. 49 No. 4, pp.364374. Zuccala, A. & van Leeuwen, T. (2011), Book reviews in humanities research evaluations, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 62 No. 10, pp.1979-1991.
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References
[1] Princeton (2011). "Book reviews" (http:/ / wordnetweb. princeton. edu/ perl/ webwn?s=book review). Scholarly definition document. Princeton. . Retrieved September 22, 2011. [2] Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (2011). "Book reviews" (http:/ / www. lib. vt. edu/ find/ byformat/ bookreviews. html). Scholarly definition document. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. . Retrieved September 22, 2011.
External links
Jane Ciabattari. "The Future of Book Reviews: Critics vs. Amazon Reviewers" (http://www.thedailybeast.com/ blogs-and-stories/2011-05-12/the-future-of-book-reviews-critics-versus-amazon-reviewers/), The Daily Beast, May 12, 2011. Dalhousie University. How to write a book review (http://www.library.dal.ca/How/Guides/BookReview/) Indiana University, Bloomington. Writing Book Reviews (http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/ book_reviews.shtml), April, 2004 Los Angeles Valley College. How to write a book review (http://www.lavc.edu/library/bookreview.htm), February, 2009. Purdue Online Writing Lab. Writing a book review (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/704/01/), September, 2011. Queen's University, Stauffer Library. How to write book reviews (http://library.queensu.ca/research/guide/ book-reviews/how-write,), January, 2012.
Hermeneutics
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Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics (/hrmnjutks/), broadly, is the art and science of text interpretation. Traditional hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation of written texts, especially texts in the areas of literature, religion and law. A type of traditional hermeneutic is biblical hermeneutics which concerns the study of the interpretation of theBible. In religious studies and social philosophy, hermeneutics is the study of the theory and practice of interpretation. Modern hermeneutics encompasses everything in the interpretative process including verbal and nonverbal forms of communication as well as prior aspects that affect communication, such as presuppositions, preunderstandings, the meaning and philosophy of language, and semiotics.[1] The terms exegesis and hermeneutics have been used interchangeably. However, hermeneutics is a more widely defined discipline of interpretation theory, because it includes the entire framework of the interpretive process, encompassing written, verbal, and nonverbal communication. Exegesis, on the other hand, focuses primarily on written text. Philosophical hermeneutics refers primarily to the theory of knowledge initiated by Martin Heidegger and developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer in Truth and Method, and sometimes to the theories of Paul Ricoeur.[2] Hermeneutic consistency refers to analysis of texts for coherent explanation. A hermeneutic (singular) refers to one particular method or strand of interpretation. See also double hermeneutic.
Etymology
The folk etymology places the origin (Greek: hermeneutike) with Hermes, the mythological Greek deity whose role is that of messenger of the Gods.[3] Besides being mediator between the gods themselves, and between the gods and humanity, he leads souls to the underworld upon death. He is also considered the inventor of language and speech, an interpreter, a liar, a thief and a trickster.[3] These multiple roles make Hermes an ideal representative figure for hermeneutics. As Socrates notes, words have the power to reveal or conceal, thus promoting the message in an ambiguous way.[3] The Greek view of language as consisting of signs that could lead to truth or falsehood is the very essence of Hermes, who is said to relish the uneasiness of the recipients. Early use of "hermeneutics" places it within the boundaries of the sacred.[4] The divine message can only be understood on its own terms, received with implicit uncertainty regarding its truth or falsehood. This ambiguity of message is an irrationality, a sort of madness inflicted upon the receiver. Only one who possesses a rational method of interpretationan early hermeneuticcould define the truth or falsehood (thus the sanity) of a statement.[5] The traditional etymology of hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word Hermes, messenger of the gods, the inspiration of the name Hermeneutics. (hermeneu, "translate", or "interpret"), and is of uncertain origin.[6] It was introduced into philosophy mainly through the title of Aristotle's work (Peri Hermeneias, 'On Interpretation', more commonly referred by its Latin title DeInterpretatione). It is one of the earliest (c.360BC) extant philosophical works in the Western tradition to deal with the relationship between language and logic in a comprehensive, explicit, and formal way.
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History
Ancient
In , Aristotle offers an early understanding that lays the groundwork for many contemporary theories of interpretation and semiotics: Words spoken are symbols or signs (symbola) of affections or impressions (pathemata) of the soul (psyche); written words are the signs of words spoken. As writing, so also is speech not the same for all races of men. But the mental affections themselves, of which these words are primarily signs (semeia), are the same for the whole of mankind, as are also the objects (pragmata) of which those affections are representations or likenesses, images, copies (homoiomata). Aristotle,On Interpretation, 1.16a4 Equally important to later developments are texts on poetry, rhetoric, and sophistry, including many of Plato's dialogues, such as Cratylus, Ion, Gorgias, Lesser Hippias, and Republic, along with Aristotle's Poetics, Rhetoric, and On Sophistical Refutations. However, these texts deal more with the presentation and refutation of arguments, speeches and poems rather than the understanding of texts as texts. As Ramberg and Gjesdal note, "Only with the Stoics, and their reflections on the interpretation of myth, do we encounter something like a methodological awareness of the problems of textual understanding."[7] Some ancient Greek philosophers, particularly Plato, tended to vilify poets and poetry as harmful nonsensePlato denies entry to poets in his ideal state in The Republic until they can prove their value. In the Ion, Plato famously portrays poets as possessed: You know, none of the epic poets, if they're good, are masters of their subject; they are inspired, possessed, and that is how they utter all those beautiful poems. The same goes for lyric poets if they're good: just as the Corybantes are not in their right minds when they dance, lyric poets, too, are not in their right minds when they make those beautiful lyrics, but as soon as they sail into harmony and rhythm they are possessed by Bacchic frenzy. Plato,Ion, 533e534a The meaning of the poem thus becomes open to ridicule whatever hints of the truth it may have, the truth is covered by madness. However, another line of thinking arose with Theagenes of Rhegium, who suggested that instead of taking poetry literally, what was expressed in poems were allegories of nature. Stoic philosophers further developed this idea, reading into the poets not only allegories of natural phenomena, but allegories of ethical behavior. Aristotle differed with his predecessor, Plato, in the worth of poetry. Both saw art as an act of mimesis, but where Plato saw a pale, essentially false imitation in art of reality, Aristotle saw the possibility of truth in imitation. As critic David Richter points out, "for Aristotle, artists must disregard incidental facts to search for deeper universal truths"instead of being essentially false, poetry may be universally true. (Richter, The Critical Tradition, 57.) In the Poetics, Aristotle called both the tragedy and the epic noble, with tragedy serving the essential function of purging strong emotions from the audience through katharsis.
Hermeneutics
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Classical antiquity
Talmudical hermeneutics
Rabbinical Eras Chazal Zugot Tannaim Amoraim Savoraim Geonim Rishonim Acharonim
A common use of the word hermeneutics refers to a process of scriptural interpretation. Its earliest example is however found not in the written texts, but in the Jewish Oral Tradition dated to the Second Temple era (515 BCE 70 CE) that later became the Talmud. Summaries of the principles by which Torah can be interpreted date back at least to Hillel the Elder, although the thirteen principles set forth in the Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael are perhaps the best known. These principles ranged from standard rules of logic (e.g., a fortiori argument (known in Hebrew as ( kal v'chomer))), to more expansive ones, like the rule that a passage could be interpreted by reference to another passage in which the same word appears (Gezerah Shavah). The rabbis did not ascribe equal persuasive power to the various principles.[8] Traditional Jewish hermeneutics differ from the Greek method in that the rabbis considered the Tanakh (the Jewish bibilical canon) to be without error. Any apparent inconsistencies needed to be understood by careful examination of a given text in the context of other texts. There were different levels of interpretation, some used to arrive at the plain meaning of the text, some that expounded the law given in the text, and others that found secret or mystical levels of understanding. Biblical hermeneutics Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. While Jewish and Christian Biblical hermeneutics have some overlap and dialogue, they have distinctly separate interpretative traditions. The early Patristic traditions of biblical exegesis have few unifying characteristics in the beginning but tend toward unification in schools of hermeneutical theory. Apostolic Age The earliest Christian period of biblical interpretation is the Apostolic Age. Traditionally it is the period of the Twelve Apostles, dating from the Great Commission until the death of John the Apostle (about 100AD Since it is believed that John lived so long and was the last of the twelve to die, there is some overlap between the apostolic age and the first Apostolic Fathers. The operative hermeneutical principle in the New Testament was prophecy fulfillment. The Gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew, make extensive use of the Old Testament for the purposes of demonstrating that Jesus was the Messiah. Examples include Matthew1:23, 2:1518, 3:3, 21:42, Mark1:23, 4:12, Luke3:46, 22:37, John2:17, 12:15, and notably in Luke 4:1821 and parallels where Jesus read extensively from Isaiah and makes the claim that the prophecy is fulfilled in the crowds hearing it. The Pauline epistles employ the same principle, as evidenced by 1Corinthians1:19 and Ephesians4:810, as does Hebrews(see 8:713).
Hermeneutics Apostolic Fathers The Apostolic Fathers were students of the Apostles. This period is sometimes called the Sub-apostolic period. The principle of prophecy fulfillment is carried over from the apostolic age and through the 2ndcentury. For example, Irenaeus dedicates an entire chapter in Against Heresies to the defense of Isaiah 7:14, one of the chief prophecies used to validate Jesus as the Messiah.[9] This is consistent with Irenaeus' general usage. More so than even he, though, the second century apologists tended to interpret and utilize most scripture as being primarily for the purpose of showing prophecy fulfillment. Important among these was Justin Martyr, who made extensive use of scripture to this end. Examples of this usage may be seen in his Apology in which chapters3153 are specifically dedicated to proving Christ through prophecy. He uses scripture similarly in Dialogue with Trypho. And when Herod succeeded Archelaus, having received the authority which had been allotted to him, Pilate sent to him by way of compliment Jesus bound; and God foreknowing that this would happen, had thus spoken: "And they brought Him to the Assyrian, a present to the king."[10] Here Justin demonstrates that prophecy fulfillment supersedes logical context in hermeneutics. He ignores the christological issues that arise from equating Jesus to the calf idol of Bethel which is the "him" being brought to the king in Hosea10:6. It is likely that the high view of prophecy fulfillment is a product of the circumstance of the early church. The primary goal of early authors was a defense of Christianity against attacks from paganism and Judaism as well as suppressing what were considered schismatic or heretical groups. To this end, Martin Jan Mulder suggests that prophecy fulfillment was the primary hermeneutical method because Roman society had a high view of both antiquity and oracles.[11] By using the Old Testament (a term linked with Supersessionism) to validate Jesus, Early Christians sought to tap into both the oracles of the prophets and the antiquity of the Jewish scriptures.
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Late Antiquity
Two divergent schools of thought emerged during this period which spans from 200 A.D. to the medieval period. Historians however divide this period into the Ante-Nicene Period and First seven Ecumenical Councils). Schools of Alexandria and Antioch Beginning as early as the third century, Christian hermeneutics began to split into two primary schools: Alexandria and Antioch. The Alexandrian Biblical interpretations stressed allegorical readings, frequently at the expense of the texts' literal meaning. Primary figures in this school included Origen and Clement of Alexandria. The Antiochene school stressed instead the more literal and historical meaning of the text. Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus were the primary figures in the Antiochene school. Ante-Nicene Period The Ante-Nicene Period (literally meaning "before Nicaea"), or Post-Apostolic Period, of the history of early Christianity spanned the late 1st century to the early 4thcentury, with the end marked by the First Council of Nicaea in 325AD. Christianity during this time was extremely diverse, with many developments difficult to trace and follow. There is also a relative paucity of available material and this period is less studied than the preceding Apostolic Age and historical ages following it. Nevertheless, this portion of Christianity history is important, having a significant impact on the development of Christianity.
Hermeneutics First seven Ecumenical Councils This era begins with the First Council of Nicaea, which enunciated the Nicene Creed that in its original form and as modified by the First Council of Constantinople of 381AD was seen as the touchstone of orthodoxy on the doctrine of the Trinity. The first seven Ecumenical Councils, from the First Council of Nicaea (325) to the Second Council of Nicaea (787), represent an attempt to reach an orthodox consensus and to establish a unified Christendom. The first scholar to consider this time period as a whole was Philip Schaff, who wrote The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church [12], first published after his death in 1901. The topic is of particular interest to proponents of Paleo-orthodoxy who seek to recover the church before the schisms.
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Medieval
Medieval Christian interpretations of text incorporated exegesis into a fourfold mode that emphasized the distinction between the letter and the spirit of the text. This schema was based on the various ways of interpreting the text utilized by the Patristic writers. The literal sense (sensus historicus) of Scripture denotes what the text states or reports directly. The allegorical sense (sensus allegoricus) explains the text with regard to the doctrinal content of church dogma, so that each literal element has a symbolic meaning; see also Typology (theology). The moral application of the text to the individual reader or hearer is the third sense, the sensus tropologicus or sensus moralis, while a fourth level of meaning, the sensus anagogicus, draws out of the text the implicit allusions it contains to secret metaphysical and eschatological knowledge, or gnosis. The hermeneutical terminology used here is in part arbitrary. For almost all three interpretations which go beyond the literal explanations are in a general sense "allegorical". The practical application of these three aspects of spiritual interpretation varied considerably. Most of the time, the fourfold sense of the Scriptures was used only partially, dependent upon the content of the text and the idea of the exegete.... We can easily notice that the basic structure is in fact a twofold sense of the Scriptures, that is, the distinction between the sensus literalis and the sensus spiritualis or mysticus, and that the number four was derived from a restrictive systematization of the numerous possibilities which existed for the sensus spiritualis into three interpretive dimensions. [13] Hermeneutics in the Middle Ages witnessed the proliferation of non-literal interpretations of the Bible. Christian commentators could read Old Testament narratives simultaneously as prefigurations of analogous New Testament episodes, as symbolic lessons about Church institutions and current teachings, and as personally applicable allegories of the Spirit. In each case, the meaning of the signs was constrained by imputing a particular intention to the Bible, such as teaching morality, but these interpretive bases were posited by the religious tradition rather than suggested by a preliminary reading of the text. The customary medieval exegetical technique commented on the text in glossae ("glosses" or annotations) written between the lines and at the side of the text which was left with wide margins for this very purpose. The text might be further commented on in scholia which are long, exegetical passages, often on a separate page. A similar fourfold categorization is also found in Rabbinic writings. The fourfold categorizations are: Peshat (simple interpretation), Remez (allusion), Derash (interpretive), and Sod (secret/mystical). It is uncertain whether or not the Rabbinic division of interpretation pre-dates the Patristic version. The medieval period saw the growth of many new categories of Rabbinic interpretation and explanation of the Torah, including the emergence of Kabbalah and the writings of Maimonides.
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Modern
The discipline of hermeneutics emerged with the new humanist education of the 15thcentury as a historical and critical methodology for analyzing texts. In a triumph of early modern hermeneutics, the Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla proved in 1440 that the "Donation of Constantine" was a forgery, through intrinsic evidence of the text itself. Thus hermeneutics expanded from its medieval role explaining the correct analysis of the Bible. However, Biblical hermeneutics did not die off. For example, the Protestant Reformation brought about a renewed interest in the interpretation of the Bible, which took a step away from the interpretive tradition developed during the Middle Ages back to the texts themselves. Martin Luther and John Calvin emphasized scriptura sui ipsius interpres. Especially Calvin used brevitas et facilitas as an aspect of theological hermeneutics. The rationalist Enlightenment led hermeneuts, especially Protestant exegetes, to view Scriptural texts as secular Classical texts. Scripture thus was interpreted as responses to historical or social forces, so that apparent contradictions and difficult passages in the New Testament, for example, might be clarified by comparing their possible meanings with contemporaneous Christian practices. Schleiermacher Friedrich Schleiermacher (November 21, 1768 February 12, 1834) explored the nature of understanding in relation not just to the problem of deciphering sacred texts, but to all human texts and modes of communication. The interpretation of a text must proceed by framing the content asserted in terms of the overall organization of the work. He distinguishes between grammatical interpretation and psychological interpretation. The former studies how a work is composed from general ideas, the latter considers the peculiar combinations that characterize the work as a whole. Schleiermacher said that every problem of interpretation is a problem of understanding. He even defined hermeneutics as the art of avoiding misunderstanding. He provides a solution to avoidance of misunderstanding: knowledge of grammatical and psychological laws in trying to understand the text and the writer. There arose in his time a fundamental shift from understanding not only the exact words and their objective meaning to the individuality of the speaker or author.[14][7] Dilthey Wilhelm Dilthey broadened hermeneutics even more by relating interpretation to all historical objectifications. Understanding moves from the outer manifestations of human action and productivity to explore their inner meaning. In his last important essay "The Understanding of Other Persons and Their Manifestations of Life" (1910), Dilthey makes it clear that this move from outer to inner, from expression to what is expressed, is not based on empathy. Empathy involves a direct identification with the other. Interpretation involves an indirect or mediated understanding that can only be attained by placing human expressions in their historical context. Understanding is not a process of reconstructing the state of mind of the author, but one of articulating what is expressed in the work. Dilthey divides the spiritual sciences into three structural levels: experience, expression, and comprehension. Experience means to feel the situation or thing personally. Dilthey suggests that we can always grasp the meaning of unknown thinking when we try to experience it. Dilthey's understanding of experience is very similar to that of phenomenologist Edmund Husserl. Expression converts experience into meaning because the discourse has an appeal to somebody outside of oneself. Every saying is an expression. Dilthey suggests that one can always return to an expression, especially its written form, and this practice has the same objective value as an experiment in sciences. The possibility of returning makes scientific analysis possible and therefore humanities may be labeled as science. Moreover, Dilthey assumes that expression may be saying more than the speaker intended because the expression brings forward meanings that the individual consciousness may not fully understand. The last structural level of spiritual sciences according to Dilthey is comprehension, which in Dilthey's context is a dimension which contains both comprehension and incomprehension. Incomprehension means more or less wrong understanding. Dilthey presumes that comprehension
Hermeneutics produces coexistence: He who understands, understand others; he who does not understand stays alone. According to Gadamer, Dilthey thought that one should decode our historical past, but he did not think about personal history.
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20th Century
Heidegger Since Dilthey, the discipline of hermeneutics has detached itself from this central task and broadened its spectrum to all texts, including multimedia.[15] In the 20thcentury, Martin Heidegger's philosophical hermeneutics shifted the focus from interpretation to existential understanding, which was treated more as a direct, non-mediated, thus in a sense more authentic way of being in the world than simply as a way of knowing.[16] For example, Heidegger called for a "special hermeneutic of empathy" to dissolve the classic philosophic issue of "other minds" by putting the issue in the context of the being-with of human relatedness; but then did not complete the inquiry.[17] Advocates of this approach claim that such texts, and the people who produce them, cannot be studied using the same scientific methods as the natural sciences, thus use arguments similar to that of antipositivism. Moreover, they claim that such texts are conventionalized expressions of the experience of the author; thus, the interpretation of such texts will reveal something about the social context in which they were formed, but, more significantly, provide the reader with a means to share the experiences of the author. The reciprocity between text and context is part of what Heidegger called the hermeneutic circle. Among the key thinkers who elaborated this approach is the sociologist Max Weber. Contemporary Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutics is a development of the hermeneutics of his teacher, Heidegger. Gadamer asserts that methodical contemplation is opposite to experience and reflection. We can reach the truth only by understanding or even mastering our experience. According to Gadamer, experience isn't fixed but rather changing and always indicating new perspectives. The most important thing is to unfold what constitutes individual comprehension. Gadamer points out in this context that prejudice is a (nonfixed) reflection of that unfolding comprehension, and is not per se without value. Being alien to a particular tradition is a condition of understanding. Gadamer points out that we can never step outside of our tradition; all we can do is try to understand it. This further elaborates the idea of the hermeneutic circle. Paul Ricoeur developed a hermeneutics based on Heidegger's concepts, although his own work differs in many ways from that of Gadamer. Andrs Ortz-Oss has developed his Symbolic Hermeneutics as the Mediterranean response to north European Hermeneutics. His main statement regarding the symbolic understanding of the world is that the meaning is the symbolic healing of the real injury. Bernard Lonergan's hermeneutics is less well-known, but in a series of masterly articles, Fred Lawrence has outlined a case for considering his work as the culmination and achievement of the postmodern hermeneutical revolution that began with Heidegger.[18] Karl-Otto Apel elaborated a hermeneutics based on American semiotics, and applies his model to discourse ethics with political motivations akin to critical theory. Mauricio Beuchot coined the term and discipline of "analogic hermeneutics", to refer to a particular kind of hermeneutics based on interpretation that takes into account the plurality of aspects of meaning. He draws categories both from analytic and continental philosophy, as well as from the history of thought. Important hermeneutic scholars include Jean Grondin and Maurizio Ferraris
Hermeneutics Critical theory Jrgen Habermas criticized the conservatism of previous hermeneutics, especially Gadamer, because the focus on tradition seemed to undermine possibilities for social criticism and transformation. Habermas also criticized Marxism and previous members of the Frankfurt School for missing the hermeneutical dimension of critical theory. Habermas incorporated the notion of the lifeworld and emphasized the importance of both interaction and communication as well as labor and production for social theory. For Habermas, hermeneutics is one dimension of critical social theory.
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21st Century
Objective Hermeneutics In one of the rare translated texts of this German grown school of hermeneutics its founders declared: "Our approach has grown out of the empirical study of family interactions as well as reflection upon the procedures of interpretation employed in our research. For the time being we shall refer to it as objective hermeneutics in order to distinguish it clearly from traditional hermeneutic techniques and orientations. The general significance for sociological analysis of objective hermeneutics issues from the fact that, in the social sciences, interpretive methods constitute the fundamental procedures of measurement and of the generation of research data relevant to theory. From our perspective, the standard, nonhermeneutic methods of quantitative social research can only be justified because they permit a shortcut in generating data (and research "economy" comes about under specific conditions). Whereas the conventional methodological attitude in the social sciences justifies qualitative approaches as exploratory or preparatory activities, to be succeeded by standardized approaches and techniques as the actual scientific procedures (assuring precision, validity, and objectivity), we regard hermeneutic procedures as the basic method for gaining precise and valid knowledge in the social sciences. However, we do not simply reject alternative approaches dogmatically. They are in fact useful wherever the loss in precision and objectivity necessitated by the requirement of research economy can be condoned and tolerated in the light of prior hermeneutically elucidated research experiences."[19] In 1992 the "Association for Objective Hermeneutics" [20] ("Arbeitsgemeinschaft objektive Hermeneutik" [21], "AGOH") was founded in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) by scholars of various disciplines, in the humanities and in the social sciences. Its goal is to provide all scholars using the methodology of objective hermeneutics with a means for steady and continual exchange and a platform spanning those disciplines in which the methodology is now being used.
Applications
Archaeology
In archaeology, hermeneutics means the interpretation and understanding of material by analyzing possible meanings or social use. Proponents argue that interpretation of artifacts is unavoidably hermeneutic as we cannot know for certain the meaning behind them, instead we can only apply modern value in the interpretation. This is most common in stone tools, for example, where using descriptions such as "scraper" can be highly subjective and unproven. Opponents claim that a hermeneutic approach is too relativist and that their own interpretations are based on common-sense evaluation.
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Architecture
Though the interpretation of buildings is clearly of abiding interest, there are several traditions of architectural scholarship that draw explicitly on the hermeneutics of Heidegger and Gadamer. Of note is the work of Lindsay Jones[22] on the way architecture is received and how that reception changes over time and according to context, i.e.,how a building is interpreted by critics, users, and historians. Dalibor Vesely situates hermeneutics within a critique of the application of overly scientific thinking to architecture.[23] This tradition fits within a critique of the Enlightenment,[24] but it has also informed design studio teaching. Snodgrass values historical study and the study of Asian cultures by architects as hermeneutical encounters with otherness.[25] He also deploys arguments from hermeneutics to explain design as a process of interpretation.[26] With Richard Coyne he extends the argument to a consideration of the nature of architectural education and design as a way of thinking.[27] The latter also expands to a consideration of the use of computers in design.[28]
International relations
Insofar as hermeneutics is a cornerstone of both critical theory and constitutive theory, both of which have made important inroads into the postpositivist branch of international relations theory and political science, hermeneutics has been applied to international relations. Steve Smith refers to hermeneutics as the principal way of grounding a foundationalist yet postpositivist IR theory such as critical theory. Radical postmodernism is an example of a postpositivist yet anti-foundationalist paradigm of international relations.
Law
Some scholars argue that law and theology constitute particular forms of hermeneutics because of their need to interpret legal tradition or scriptural texts. Moreover, the problem of interpretation is central to legal theory at least since the 11thcentury. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the schools of glossatores, commentatores and usus modernus distinguished themselves by their approach to the interpretation of "laws" (mainly, Justinian's Corpus Iuris Civilis). The University of Bologna gave birth to a "legal Renaissance" in the 11thcentury, when the Corpus Iuris Civilis was rediscovered and started to be systematically studied by people like Irnerius and Gratianus. It was an interpretative Renaissance. After that, interpretation has always been at the center of legal thought. Friedrich Karl von Savigny and Emilio Betti, among others, made significant contributions also to general hermeneutics. Legal interpretivism, most famously Ronald Dworkin's, might be seen as a branch of philosophical hermeneutics.
Political philosophy
Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo and Spanish philosopher Santiago Zabala in their book Hermeneutic Communism when talking about contemporary capitalist regimes say that "A politics of descriptions does not impose power in order to dominate as a philosophy; rather, it is functional for the continued existence of a society of dominion, which pursues truth in the form of imposition (violence), conservation (realism), and triumph (history)."[29] Vattimo and Zabala also manifest there that they see "Interpretation as Anarchy" and affirm that "existence is interpretation" and "hermeneutics is weak thought".
Psychology
Similarly to computer scientists, psychologists have recently become interested in hermeneutics, especially as alternatives to cognitivism. Hubert Dreyfus' critique of conventional artificial intelligence has been influential not only in AI but in psychology, and psychologists are increasingly interested in hermeneutic approaches to meaning and interpretation as discussed by philosophers such as Heidegger (cf Embodied cognition) and the later Wittgenstein (cf discursive psychology). Hermeneutics is also influential in Humanistic Psychology.[30]
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Safety science
In the field of Safety Science, especially the study of Human Error, scientists have become increasingly interested in hermeneutic approaches. It has been proposed by the ergonomist Donald Taylor that mechanist models of human behaviour will only take us so far in terms of accident reduction, and that safety science must look at the meaning of accidents for conscious human beings.[31] Other scholars in the field have attempted to create safety taxonomies that make use of hermeneutic concepts, in terms of their categorisation of qualitative data.[32]
Sociology
In sociology, hermeneutics means the interpretation and understanding of social events by analysing their meanings to the human participants and their culture. It enjoyed prominence during the sixties and seventies, and differs from other interpretative schools of sociology in that it emphasizes the importance of the context[33] as well as the form of any given social behaviour. The central principle of hermeneutics is that it is only possible to grasp the meaning of an action or statement within the context of the discourse or world-view from which it originates. For instance, putting a piece of paper in a box might be considered a meaningless action unless put in the context of democratic elections, and the action of putting a ballot paper in a box. One can frequently find reference to the "hermeneutic circle": that is, relating the whole to the part and the part to the whole. Hermeneutics in sociology was most heavily influenced by German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer.[34] The field of marketing has adopted this term from sociology, using the term to refer to qualitative studies in which interviews with (or other forms of text from) one or a small number of people are closely read, analyzed, and interpreted.
References
[1] Ferguson, Sinclair B; David F Wright, J. I. (James Innell) Packer (1988). New Dictionary of Theology. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press. ISBN0-8308-1400-0. [2] Grondin, Jean (1994). Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics. Yale University Press. ISBN0-300-05969-8. p. 2 [3] Couzen-Hoy, David (1981). The Critical Circle. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04639 [4] Grondin, Jean (1994). Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05969-8. Pg. 21 [5] Grondin, Jean (1994). Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05969-8. Pg. 2122 [6] Klein, Ernest, Dr., A complete etymological dictionary of the English language: dealing with the origin of words and their sense development thus illustrating the history of civilization and culture, Elsevier, Oxford, 2000, p.344 [7] Bjorn Ramberg Kristin Gjesdal. "Hermeneutics" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ hermeneutics/ ). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . Retrieved 2007-12-04. [8] see, e.g., Rambam Hilkhot Talmud Torah 4:8 [9] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III.21, http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ schaff/ anf01. ix. iv. xxii. html?scrBook=Jer& scrCh=22& scrV=24#ix. iv. xxiip34. 1, see also as examples II.34 and IV.9 [10] Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 103, http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ schaff/ anf01. viii. iv. ciii. html?scrBook=Hos& scrCh=10& scrV=6#viii. iv. ciiip4. 1, see also 111, http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ schaff/ anf01. viii. iv. cxi. html?scrBook=Isa& scrCh=53& scrV=7#viii. iv. cxip2. 1 [11] Martin Jan Mulder, ed., Mikra: Text Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990), 743. [12] http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ schaff/ npnf214. html [13] Ebeling, Gerhard, The New Hermeneutics and the Early Luther, page 38 [14] Forster, Michael. "Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ schleiermacher/ ). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . [15] Reeves, Byron & Clifford Nass (1996). The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places. CSLI Publications and Cambridge University Press. p. 301 [16] Heidegger, Martin (1927/1962). Being and Time. Harper and Row. p. H125
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[17] Agosta, Lou (2010). Empathy in the Context of Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 20 [18] Frederick G. Lawrence, "Martin Heidegger and the Hermeneutic Revolution", "Hans-Georg Gadamer and the Hermeneutic Revolution", "The Hermeneutic Revolution and Bernard Lonergan: Gadamer and Lonergan on Augustine's Verbum Cordis - the Heart of Postmodern Hermeneutics", "The Unknown 20th-Century Hermeneutic Revolution: Jerusalem and Athens in Lonergan's Integral Hermeneutics", Divyadaan: Journal of Philosophy and Education 19/12 (2008) 730, 3154, 5586, 87118. [19] Oevermann, Ulrich, Tilman Allert, Elisabeth Konau, and Jrgen Krambeck. 1987. Structures of meaning and objective Hermeneutics. Pp. 436447 in Modern German sociology, European Perspectives: a Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism, edited by Volker Meja, Dieter Misgeld, and Nico Stehr. New York: Columbia University Press. [20] http:/ / www. agoh. de/ en/ [21] http:/ / www. agoh. de/ de/ [22] Jones, L. 2000. The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture: Experience, Interpretation, Comparison, p.263;Volume Two: Hermeneutical Calisthenics: A Morphology of Ritual-Architectural Priorities, Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press [23] Vesely, D. 2004. Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. [24] Perez-Gomez, A. 1985. Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. [25] Snodgrass, A., and Coyne, R. 2006. Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking, London: Routledge, pp 165180. [26] Snodgrass, A., and Coyne, R. 2006. Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking, London: Routledge, pp. 2955 [27] Snodgrass, A.B., and Coyne, R.D. 1992. "Models, Metaphors and the Hermeneutics of Designing." Design Issues, 9(1): 56 74. [28] Coyne, R. 1995. Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age: From Method to Metaphor, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. [29] Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala. Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx Columbia University Press. 2011. Pg. 12 [30] David L. Rennie (2007). "Hermeneutics and Humanistic Psychology" (http:/ / www. apa. org/ divisions/ div32/ pdfs/ hermeneutics. pdf). The Humanistic Psychologist 35 (1). . Retrieved 2009-07-07. [31] Donald Taylor (1981). "The hermeneutics of accidents and safety" (http:/ / www. informaworld. com/ smpp/ 678312573-78650925/ content~content=a775985337~db=all~order=page). Ergonomics 24 (6): 487495. doi:10.1080/00140138108924870. . Retrieved 2009-10-09. [32] Wallace,B., Ross, A., & Davies, J.B. (2003). "Applied Hermeneutics and Qualitative Safety Data" (http:/ / hum. sagepub. com/ content/ 56/ 5/ 587. abstract=page). Human Relations 56 (5): 587607. doi:10.1177/0018726703056005004. . Retrieved 2009-07-10. [33] Willis, W. J., & Jost, M. (2007). Foundations of qualitative research; Interpretive and critical approaches. London: Sage. Page 106 [34] see Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method, 1960
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Text of On Interpretation (http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/a8/intrpret.html), as translated by E. M. Edghill Aristotle, On Interpretation, Harold P. Cooke (trans.), in Aristotle, vol.1 (Loeb Classical Library), pp.111179. London: William Heinemann, 1938. Ebeling, Gerhard, "The New Hermeneutics and the Early Luther", Theology Today, vol. 21.1, April 1964, pp.3446. Eprint (http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1964/v21-1-article3.htm). Plato, Ion, Paul Woodruff (trans.) in Plato, Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997, pp.937949. Alcalay, Reuben, The complete HebrewEnglish dictionary Vol.1, Chemed Books, New York, 1996
Further reading
De La Torre, Miguel A., "Reading the Bible from the Margins," Orbis Books, 2002. Fellmann, Ferdinand, "Symbolischer Pragmatismus. Hermeneutik nach Dilthey", rowohlts enzyklopdie, 1991. Kchler, Hans, "Zum Gegenstandsbereich der Hermeneutik", in Perspektiven der Philosophie, vol. 9 (1983), pp.331341. Kchler, Hans, "Philosophical Foundations of Civilizational Dialogue. The Hermeneutics of Cultural Self-comprehension versus the Paradigm of Civilizational Conflict." International Seminar on Civilizational Dialogue (3rd: 1517 September 1997: Kuala Lumpur), BP171.5 ISCD. Kertas kerja persidangan / conference papers. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Library, 1997. Peirce, C.S., Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vols. 16, Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss (eds.), vols. 78, Arthur W. Burks (ed.), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 19311935, 1958. Cited as CP vol.para. Peirce, C.S. (c. 1903), "Logical Tracts, No. 2", in Collected Papers, CP 4.418509. Eprint (http://www. existentialgraphs.com/peirceoneg/existentialgraphs4.418-529.htm).
Hermeneutics Khan, Ali, "The Hermeneutics of Sexual Order". Eprint (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers. cfm?abstract_id=979394). Mantzavinos, C. "Naturalistic Hermeneutics", Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0-521-84812-1 Masson, Scott. "The Hermeneutic Circle" ISBN 978-0-7546-3503-1
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External links
Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy (http://www.metajournal.org/ display_page.php?title=home) International peer-reviewed journal Palmer, Richard E. (http://www.mac.edu/faculty/richardpalmer/), "The Liminality of Hermes and the Meaning of Hermeneutics", Eprint (http://www.mac.edu/faculty/richardpalmer/liminality.html) Palmer, Richard E., "The Relevance of Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics to Thirty-Six Topics or Fields of Human Activity", Lecture Delivered at the Department of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, 1 April 1999, Eprint (http://www.mac.edu/faculty/richardpalmer/relevance.html) Quintana Paz, Miguel ngel, "On Hermeneutical Ethics and Education" (http://www.uned.es/dpto_fil/revista/ polemos/articulos/MA_Quintana_On Hermeneutical Ethics &Education (Internet)2.doc), a paper on the relevance of Gadamer's Hermeneutics for our understanding of Music, Ethics and our Education in both. Szesnat, Holger, "Philosophical Hermeneutics", Webpage (http://biblicalhermeneutics.wordpress.com/ hermeneutics-links/philosophical-hermeneutics/) Law and Hermeneutics in Rabbinic Jurisprudence: A Maimonidean Perspective (http://faur.derushah.com/ articlesbyhakhamjosefaur.html#law) by Jose Faur, describing the legal theory and hermeneutical process in rabbinic jurisprudence Abductive Inference and Literary Theory Pragmatism, Hermeneutics and Semiotics (http://www.digitalpeirce. fee.unicamp.br/p-infwir.htm) written by Uwe Wirth (http://www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/wirth.htm) Objective Hermeneutics Bibliographic Database (http://www.agoh.de/en/bibliography/ bibliographic-database.html) provided by the Association for Objective Hermeneutics (http://www.agoh.de/ en/)
Thomas Kuhn
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Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn
Born July 18, 1922 Cincinnati, Ohio June 17, 1996 (aged73) Cambridge, Massachusetts 20th-century philosophy Western Philosophy Analytic
Died
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (pron.: /kun/; July 18, 1922 June 17, 1996) was an American physicist, historian, and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was deeply influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term "paradigm shift", which has since become an English-language staple. Kuhn made several notable claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge: that scientific fields undergo periodic "paradigm shifts" rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way; that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding that scientists would never have considered valid before; and that the notion of scientific truth, at any given moment, cannot be established solely by objective criteria but is defined by a consensus of a scientific community. Competing paradigms are frequently incommensurable; that is, they are competing accounts of reality which cannot be coherently reconciled. Thus, our comprehension of science can never rely on full "objectivity"; we must account for subjective perspectives as well.
Life
Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Samuel L. Kuhn, an industrial engineer, and Minette Stroock Kuhn. He graduated from The Taft School in Watertown, CT, in 1940, where he became aware of his serious interest in mathematics and physics. He obtained his B.S. degree in physics from Harvard University in 1943, where he also obtained M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics in 1946 and 1949, respectively. As he states in the first few pages of the preface to the second edition of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, his three years of total academic freedom as a Harvard Junior Fellow were crucial in allowing him to switch from physics to the history (and philosophy) of science. He later taught a course in the history of science at Harvard from 1948 until 1956, at the suggestion of university president James Conant. After leaving Harvard, Kuhn taught at the University of California, Berkeley, in both the philosophy department and the history department, being named Professor of the History of Science in 1961. Kuhn interviewed and tape recorded Danish physicist Niels Bohr the day before Bohr's death.[1] At Berkeley, he wrote and published (in 1962) his best known and most influential work:[2] The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In 1964, he joined Princeton University as the M.Taylor Pyne Professor of Philosophy and History of Science. In 1979 he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy, remaining there until 1991. In 1994 Kuhn was diagnosed with lung cancer. He passed away in 1996.
Thomas Kuhn Thomas Kuhn was married twice, first to Kathryn Muhs (with whom he had three children), and later to Jehane Barton Burns (Jehane R. Kuhn).
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Thomas Kuhn He then goes on to show how, although these criteria admittedly determine theory choice, they are imprecise in practice and relative to individual scientists. According to Kuhn, "When scientists must choose between competing theories, two men fully committed to the same list of criteria for choice may nevertheless reach different conclusions."[6] For this reason, the criteria still are not "objective" in the usual sense of the word because individual scientists reach different conclusions with the same criteria due to valuing one criterion over another or even adding additional criteria for selfish or other subjective reasons. Kuhn then goes on to say, "I am suggesting, of course, that the criteria of choice with which I began function not as rules, which determine choice, but as values, which influence it."[6] Because Kuhn utilizes the history of science in his account of science, his criteria or values for theory choice are often understood as descriptive normative rules (or more properly, values) of theory choice for the scientific community rather than prescriptive normative rules in the usual sense of the word "criteria", although there are many varied interpretations of Kuhn's account of science.
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PolanyiKuhn debate
Although they used different terminologies, both Kuhn and Michael Polanyi believed that scientists' subjective experiences made science a relativized discipline. Polanyi lectured on this topic for decades before Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Supporters of Polanyi charged Kuhn with plagiarism, as it was known that Kuhn attended several of Polanyi's lectures, and that the two men had debated endlessly over the epistemology of science before either had achieved fame. In response to these critics, Kuhn cited Polanyi in the second edition of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions",[7] and the two scientists agreed to set aside their differences. Despite this intellectual alliance, Polanyi's work was constantly interpreted by others within the framework of Kuhn's paradigm shifts, much to Polanyi's (and Kuhn's) dismay.[8]
Honors
Kuhn was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1954, and in 1982 was awarded the George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society. He has also received numerous honorary doctorates.
Bibliography
Bird, Alexander. Thomas Kuhn. Princeton and London: Princeton University Press and Acumen Press, 2000. ISBN 1-902683-10-2 Fuller, Steve. Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN 0-226-26894-2 Sal Restivo, The Myth of the Kuhnian Revolution. Sociological Theory, Vol. 1, (1983), 293-305. Hoyningen-Huene, Paul (1993): Reconstructing Scientific Revolutions: Thomas S. Kuhn's Philosophy of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kuhn, T.S. The Copernican Revolution: planetary astronomy in the development of Western thought. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957. ISBN 0-674-17100-4 Kuhn, T.S. The Function of Measurement in Modern Physical Science. Isis, 52(1961): 161-193. Kuhn, T.S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. ISBN 0-226-45808-3
Thomas Kuhn Kuhn, T.S. "The Function of Dogma in Scientific Research". pp.34769 in A.C.Crombie (ed.). Scientific Change (Symposium on the History of Science, University of Oxford, 915 July 1961). New York and London: Basic Books and Heineman, 1963. Kuhn, T.S. The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1977. ISBN 0-226-45805-9 Kuhn, T.S. Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. ISBN 0-226-45800-8 Kuhn, T.S. The Road Since Structure: Philosophical Essays, 1970-1993. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN 0-226-45798-2
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References
[1] "Last interview with Niels Bohr by Thomas S. Kuhn, Leon Rosenfeld, Aage Petersen, and Erik Rudinger at Professor Bohr's Office, Carlsberg, Copenhagen, Denmark Saturday morning, November 17, 1962" (http:/ / www. aip. org/ history/ ohilist/ 4517_5. html). Oral History Transcript Niels Bohr. Center for History of Physics. 1962-11-17. . Retrieved 2010-02-28. [2] Alexander Bird (2004), Thomas Kuhn, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ thomas-kuhn/ [3] Horgan, John (May 1991). "Profile: Reluctant Revolutionary". Scientific American: 40. http:/ / lilt. ilstu. edu/ gmklass/ foi/ readings/ horgan. htm. [4] Kuhn, Thomas (2000). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The University of Chicago Press. pp.2425. ISBN978-1-4432-5544-8. [5] Dyson, Freeman (May 6, 1999). The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolutions. Oxford University Press, Inc.. pp.144. ISBN978-0-19-512942-7. [6] Kuhn, Thomas (1977). The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. University of Chicago Press. pp.32039 http:/ / commonsenseatheism. com/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2010/ 04/ Kuhn-Objectivity-Value-Judgment-and-Theory-Choice. pdf. [7] See Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996 (3rd ed.), p.44. [8] Moleski, Martin X. "Polanyi vs. Kuhn: Worldviews Apart." The Polanyi Society. Missouri Western State University. Accessed 20 March 2008. http:/ / www. missouriwestern. edu/ orgs/ polanyi/ TAD%20WEB%20ARCHIVE/ TAD33-2/ TAD33-2-fnl-pg8-24-pdf. pdf [9] "Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award" (http:/ / web2011. acscomp. org/ awards/ thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift-award). American Chemical Society. . Retrieved September 19, 2012. [10] "Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award" (http:/ / webapps. acs. org/ findawards/ detail. jsp?ContentId=WPCP_012540). American Chemical Society. . Retrieved September 19, 2012.
External links
Thomas Kuhn (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn) entry by Alexander Bird in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Thomas Kuhn (http://des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhnsnap.html) (Biography, Outline of Structure of Scientific Revolutions) "Thomas Kuhn, 73; Devised Science Paradigm" (http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/kuhnobit.html) (obituary by Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times, 19 June 1996) Thomas S. Kuhn (http://tech.mit.edu/V116/N28/kuhn.28n.html) (obituary, The Tech p.9 vol 116 no 28, 26 June 1996) Review in the New York Review of Books (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/vl/notes/weinberg.html) Color Portrait (http://stanstudio.com/Boston_Photo_Blog/photo-of-thomas-samuel-kuhn) History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science (http://www.philsci.com) BOOK VI: Kuhn on Revolution and Feyerabend on Anarchy - with free downloads for public use. article on his Road Since Structure: Philosophical Essays (http://www.shvoong.com/books/ 98090-road-structure-philosophical-essays/) Thomas Khun's Theory of incommensurability (http://www.ariannascuola.eu/joomla/filosofia/ i-problemi-della-filosofia/epistemologia/301-thomas-khun-incommensurability.html) John Horgan's Interview http://www.stevens.edu/csw/cgi-bin/shapers/kuhn/ Thomas S. Kuhn, post-modernism and materialist dialectics (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/ kuhn-o28.shtml)
Thomas Kuhn Errol Morris, The Ashtray: The Ultimatum (Part 1 [of 5 parts]), a critical view and memoir of Kuhn. (http:// opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/the-ashtray-the-ultimatum-part-1/?scp=1&sq=ashtray&st=cse)
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Cyril Burt
Cyril Burt
Cyril Burt in 1930 Born 3 March 1883 [1] Westminster, London 10 October 1971 (aged88)
Died
Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt (3 March 1883 10 October 1971) was an English educational psychologist who made contributions to educational psychology and statistics. Burt is known for his studies on the heritability of IQ. Shortly after he died, his studies of inheritance and intelligence came into disrepute after evidence emerged indicating he had falsified research data. Some scholars have asserted that Burt did not commit fraud.
Cyril Burt In 1890, the family briefly moved to Jersey then to Snitterfield, Warwickshire in 1893, where Burt's father opened a rural practice.[5] Early in Burt's life he showed a precocious nature, so much so that his father, a physician, often took the young Burt with him on his medical rounds.[6] One of the elder Burt's more famous patients was Darwin Galton, brother of Francis Galton. The visits the Burts made to the Galton estate not only allowed the young Burt to learn about the work of Francis Galton, but also allowed Burt to meet him on multiple occasions and to be strongly drawn to his ideas; especially his studies in statistics and individual differences, two defining characters of the London School of Psychology whose membership includes both Galton and Burt. He attended King's School, Warwick, from 1892 to 1895, and later won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital, then located in London, where he developed his interest in psychology.[7] From 1902, he studied at Jesus College, Oxford, where he specialized in philosophy and psychology, the latter under William McDougall. McDougall, knowing Burt's interest in Galton's work, suggested that he focus his senior project on psychometrics, thus giving Burt his initial inquiry into the development and structure of mental tests, an interest that would last the rest of his life. Burt was one of a group of students who worked with McDougall, which included William Brown, John Carl Frugel, May Smith, who all went on to have distinguished careers in psychology.[8] Burt graduated with second-class honours in 1906 which he supplemented by a teaching diploma. In 1907, McDougall invited Burt to help with a nation-wide survey of physical and mental characteristics of the British people, proposed by Francis Galton, in which he was to work on the standardization of psychological tests. This work brought Burt into contact with eugenics, Charles Spearman, and Karl Pearson. In the summer of 1908, Burt visited the University of Wrzburg, Germany, where he first met the psychologist Oswald Klpe.[9]
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Later career
In 1931, Burt resigned his position at the LCC and the LDTC after he was appointed Professor and Chair of Psychology at University College, London, taking over the position from Charles Spearman, thus ending his almost 20-year career as a school psychological practitioner. While at London, Burt influenced many students, including Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck, and toward the end of his life, Arthur Jensen and Chris Brand. Burt was a consultant with the committees that developed the Eleven plus examinations. This issue, and the allegations of fraudulent scholarship against him, are discussed in various books and articles listed below, including Cyril Burt: Fraud or Framed and The Mismeasure of Man.
Cyril Burt In 1942, Burt was elected President of the British Psychological Society. In 1946, he became the first British psychologist to be knighted for his contributions to psychological testing and for making educational opportunities more widely available, according to an account by J. Philippe Rushton.[12] Burt was a member of the London School of Differential Psychology, and of the British Eugenics Society. Because he had suggested on radio in 1946 the formation of an organization for people with high IQ scores, he was made honorary president of Mensa in 1960. He officially joined Mensa soon thereafter.[13] At age 68, Burt retired but continued writing articles and books. He died of cancer at age 88 in London on 10 October 1971.
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Cyril Burt sense science in general and behavior genetics in particular were profoundly harmed by the Burt Affair, leading to an unjustified general rejection of genetic studies of intelligence and a drying up of funding for such studies.[31]
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Further reading
Biographies
Burt, C.L. (1949). An autobiographical sketch. Occupational Psychology, 23, 9-20. Fancher, R.E. (1985) The intelligence men: Makers of the I.Q. controversy. New York: Norton. Hearnshaw, L. (1979). Cyril Burt: Psychologist. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. Also published London: Hodder and Stoughton, (1979). (1983) "Sir Cyril Burt". AEP (Association of Educational Psychologists) Journal, 6 (1) [Special issue] Scarr, S. (1994). "Burt, Cyril L.", in R.J. Sternberg (ed.), Encyclopedia of intelligence (Vol. 1, pp.231234). New York: Macmillan .
Books by Burt
Burt, C.L. (1921). Mental and scholastic tests London: P. S. King. Republished and revised (4th ed.). London: Staples, (1962). Burt, C.L. (1923). Handbook of tests for use in schools. London: P. S. King. Republished (2nd ed.) London: Staples, (1948). Burt, C.L. (1925). The young delinquent. London: University of London. Republished and revised (3rd ed.) London: University of London Press, (1938); (4th ed.) Bickley: University of London Press, (1944). Burt, C.L. (1930). Study of the Mind. London: BBC. Burt, C.L. (1935). The subnormal mind. London: Oxford University Press. Republished London: Oxford University Press, (1937). Burt, C.L. (1937). The Backward Child. London: University of London Press. Republished (5th ed.) London: University of London Press, (1961). Burt, C.L. (1940). The factors of the mind: An introduction to factor analysis in psychology. London: University of London. Burt, C.L. (1945). How the mind works. London : Allen & Unwin. Burt, C.L. (1946). Intelligence and fertility. London. Burt, C.L. (1957). The causes and treatments of backwardness (4th ed.). London: University of London. Burt, C.L. (1959). A psychological study of typography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Burt, C.L. (1975). The gifted child. New York: Wiley and London: Hodder and Stoughton Burt, C.L. (1975). ESP and psychology. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Edited by Anita Gregory.
Articles by Burt
Burt, C.L. (1972). "Inheritance of general intelligence", American Psychologist, 27, 175-190. Burt, C.L. (1971). "Quantitative genetics in psychology", British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology, 24, 1-21 Burt, C.L. (1963). Is Intelligence Distributed Normally? [32]. Burt, C.L., & Williams, E.L. (1962). "The influence of motivation on the results of intelligence tests", British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 15, 129-135. Burt, C.L. (1961). "Factor analysis and its neurological basis", British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 14, 53-71. Burt, C.L. (1960). "The mentally subnormal", Medical World, 93, 297-300.
Cyril Burt Burt, C.L. (1959). "General ability and special aptitudes", Educational Research, 1, 3-16. Burt, C.L. (1959). "The Examination at Eleven Plus", British Journal of Education Studies, 7, 99-117. Burt, C.L., & Gregory, W.L. (1958). "Scientific method in psychology: II", British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 11, 105-128. Burt, C.L. (1958). "Definition and scientific method in psychology", British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 11, 31-69. Burt, C.L. (1958). "The inheritance of mental ability", American Psychologist, 13, 1-15.
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Primary sources
Archival collections related to Burt in the United Kingdom.[34] Liverpool University Special Collection and Archives holds Burt's personal papers (Ref: D191), and the papers of his secretary Margarethe Archer, (Ref: D432). The British Psychological Society History of Psychology Centre holds Burt's correspondence and reprints, c1920-1971 [35]. Oxford University: Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts holds Burt's correspondence with CD Darlington, 19601966, and correspondence with Society for Protection of Science and Learning, 193-1934 (Ref: SPSL) [36].
Cyril Burt Imperial College, University of London, Archives and Corporate Records Unit holds Burt's correspondence with Herbert Dingle, 1951-1959 (Ref: H Dingle collection) [37]. University College London (UCL), University of London, Special Collections holds letters from Burt to LS Penrose, (Ref: Penrose) [38].
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References
[1] Arthur R. Jensen, "Sir Cyril Burt (18831971)", Psychometrika 37, Number 2 (1972), 115-117. [2] Hearnshaw, Leslie Spencer (1979). Cyril Burt, psychologist. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN0-8014-1244-7. [3] Hearnshaw, (1979), p2. Mazumdar, Pauline H.. "Burt, Sir Cyril Lodowic". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30880. (subscription or UK public library membership (http:/ / www. oup. com/ oxforddnb/ info/ freeodnb/ libraries/ ) required). Joynson, Robert Billington (1989). The Burt affair. London: Routledge. ISBN0-415-01039-X. [4] The birth of Cyril Lodowic Burt was recorded in the General Register Office (now part of the Office for National Statistics) index of births in England and Wales for the June quarter of 1883:-BURT, Cyril Lodowic St. Geo. H. Sq. 1a 486 (The Registration district was St. Georges, Hanover Square, which included parts of Westminster) [5] Hearnshaw, (1979), p2 [6] Hearnshaw, (1979), p7 [7] "Burt, Sir Cyril Lodowic (18831971)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2006. [8] Hearnshaw, (1979), p11 [9] Hearnshaw, (1979), p13 [10] Hearnshaw (1979) p44 [11] Aldrich, Richard (2002). The Institute of Education 1902-2002 : a centenary history. London: Institute of Education. ISBN0-85473-635-2. [12] " Victim of scientific hoax Cyril Burt and the genetic IQ controversy (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20041013222543/ http:/ / www. mugu. com/ cgi-bin/ Upstream/ rushton-burt?embedded=yes& cumulative_category_title=J. + Phillipe+ Rushton& cumulative_category_id=Rushton)" J. Philippe Rushton, Society, MarchApril 1994, v.31(3), p. 40(5) [13] "What is Mensa and what does it do?" (http:/ / www. cbrmensa. org/ index. cfm?page=mensa). Charlotte/Blue Ridge Mensa. . Retrieved 2 August 2009. [14] Plucker, Jonathan. "The Cyril Burt Affair" (http:/ / www. indiana. edu/ ~intell/ burtaffair. shtml). Human Intelligence. Indiana University (http:/ / www. indiana. edu/ ~intell/ index. shtml). . Retrieved July 2007. Samelson, F. (1997). "What to do about fraud charges in science; or, will the Burt affair ever end?". Genetica 99 ((2-3)): 14551.. doi:10.1023/A:1018302319394. PMID9463070. "Two Views of The Bell Curve" (http:/ / en. scientificcommons. org/ 3778919). Contemporary Psychology 40 (5). May 1995. . Retrieved July 2007. [15] Joynson, R. B. (1989). The Burt Affair. London: Routledge. [16] Fletcher, R. (1991). Science, Ideology and the Media: The Cyril Burt Scandal. New Brunswick, USA: Transaction Publishers. [17] Mackintosh, N. J. (1995). Cyril Burt: Fraud or Framed? Oxford: Oxford University Press. [18] "Sir Cyril Burt." (http:/ / concise. britannica. com/ ebc/ article-9358363/ Sir-Cyril-Burt) Encyclopdia Britannica. 2007. Britannica Concise Encyclopdia. 19 Apr. 2007. "Burt, Cyril Lodowic." (http:/ / www. bartleby. com/ 65/ bu/ Burt-Cyr. html) The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2005. [19] Kamin, L.J. (1974). The Science and Politics of IQ. Potomac, Maryland: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [20] Gillie, O. (24 October 1976). Crucial data was faked by eminent psychologist. London: Sunday Times. [21] *Hearnshaw, L. (1979). Cyril Burt: Psychologist. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. [22] John Philippe Rushton: "New evidence on Sir Cyril Burt: His 1964 Speech to the Association of Educational Psychologists". Intelligence 30 (2002) 555567 [23] Fletcher, Ronald 1991 Science, ideology & the media: The Cyril Butt affair. New Brunswick, N J: Transaction Publishers. [24] http:/ / www3. interscience. wiley. com/ cgi-bin/ abstract/ 45746/ ABSTRACT [25] Fancher, Raymond. "Fixing it For Heredity" (http:/ / www. lrb. co. uk/ v11/ n21/ raymond-fancher/ fixing-it-for-heredity). London Review of Books. . Retrieved 7 December 2012. [26] "Science, Ideology and the Media" (http:/ / books. google. com. au/ books/ about/ Science_Ideology_and_the_Media. html?id=8kyDmgeFsEMC& redir_esc=y). Google Books. . Retrieved 7 December 2012. [27] Publisher's book description. http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Cyril-Burt-N-J-Mackintosh/ dp/ 019852336X [28] Miele, Frank (2002). Intelligence, Race, And Genetics: Conversations with Arthur R. Jensen, p. 99103. Oxford: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-4274-0 [29] Rushton, J. P. (1997). "Race, Intelligence, And The Brain." (http:/ / www. ssc. uwo. ca/ psychology/ faculty/ rushtonpdfs/ Gould. pdf) Personality and Individual Differences 23: 169-180. [30] W. D. Hamilton (July 2000). "A review of Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations". Annals of Human Genetics 64 (4): 363374. doi:10.1046/j.1469-1809.2000.6440363.x. [31] Hunt, Earl (2011). Human Intelligence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 234235. [32] http:/ / www. abelard. org/ burt/ burt-ie. asp [33] http:/ / psychology. uwo. ca/ faculty/ rushtonpdfs/ Burt2002. pdf
Cyril Burt
[34] National Register of Archives (http:/ / www. nationalarchives. gov. uk/ nra/ searches/ subjectView. asp?ID=P4317), Accessed 18 August 2007. [35] http:/ / www. bps. org. uk/ hopc [36] http:/ / www. bodley. ox. ac. uk/ dept/ scwmss/ [37] http:/ / www3. imperial. ac. uk/ recordsandarchives [38] http:/ / www. ucl. ac. uk/ Library/ special-coll/
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External links
Twin study Concise summary of Cyril Burt (http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/burt.shtml) "Sir Cyril Burt." Encyclopdia Britannica. 2007 (http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9358363/ Sir-Cyril-Burt). The London School of Differential Psychology: Cyril L. Burt (http://www.individualdifferences.info/ LondonBurt.htm,) National Register of Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp). The Cyril Burt Archives at University of Liverpool Special Collections (http://sca.lib.liv.ac.uk/collections/ archive/burt.html). The British Psychological Society History of Psychology Centre (http://www.bps.org.uk/history/resources/ resources_home.cfm). Oxford University: Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts (http://www.bodley.ox.ac. uk/dept/scwmss/) University College London (UCL), University of London, Special Collections (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/ special-coll/). Imperial College London Archives and Corporate Records (http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/recordsandarchives). Likenesses of Burt in the National Portrait Gallery (http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person. asp?search=ss&sText=cyril+burt&LinkID=mp58783).
Critical thinking
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Critical thinking
Critical thinking is reflective reasoning about beliefs and actions.[1][2] It is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true, sometimes true, partly true, or false. Critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic method of Ancient Greece and in the East, to the Buddhist kalama sutta and Abhidharma. Critical thinking is an important component of most professions. It is a part of the formal education process and is increasingly significant as students progress through university to graduate education, although there is debate among educators about its precise meaning and scope.[3]
Definitions
Different sources define critical thinking variously as: "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"[2] "the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action"[4] "purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based"[5] "includes a commitment to using reason in the formulation of our beliefs"[6] Within the philosophical frame of critical social theory, critical thinking is commonly understood to involve commitment to the social and political practice of participatory democracy, willingness to imagine or remain open to considering alternative perspectives, willingness to integrate new or revised perspectives into our ways of thinking and acting, and willingness to foster criticality in others.[7]
Meaning
Critical thinking clarifies goals, examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, accomplishes actions, and assesses conclusions. "Critical" as used in the expression "critical thinking" connotes involving skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc. "Critical" in this context does not mean "disapproval" or "negative." There are many positive uses of critical thinking, for example formulating a workable solution to a complex personal problem, deliberating as a group about what course of action to take, or analyzing the assumptions and the quality of the methods used in scientifically arriving at a reasonable level of confidence about a given hypothesis.
Critical thinking To add further clarification on what is meant by thinking critically, Richard Paul (1995) articulated critical thinking as either weak or strong. The weak-sense critical thinker is a highly skilled but selfishly motivated pseudo-intellectual who works to advance one's personal agenda without seriously considering the ethical consequences and implications. Conceived as such, the weak-sense critical thinker is often highly skilled but uses those skills selectively so as to pursue unjust and selfish ends (Paul, 1995). Conversely, the strong-sense critical thinker skillfully enters into the logic of problems and issues to see the problem for what it is without egocentric and/or socio-centric bias. Thus conceived, the strong-sense mind seeks to actively, systematically, reflectively, and fair-mindedly construct insight with sensitivity to expose and address the many obstacles that compromise high quality thought and learning. Using strong critical thinking we might evaluate an argument, for example, as worthy of acceptance because it is valid and based on true premises. Upon reflection, a speaker may be evaluated as a credible source of knowledge on a given topic. Critical thinking can occur whenever one judges, decides, or solves a problem; in general, whenever one must figure out what to believe or what to do, and do so in a reasonable and reflective way. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening can all be done critically or uncritically. Critical thinking is crucial to becoming a close reader and a substantive writer. Expressed in most general terms, critical thinking is "a way of taking up the problems of life."[10]
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Skills
The list of core critical thinking skills includes observation, interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and meta-cognition. There is a reasonable level of consensus among experts that an individual or group engaged in strong critical thinking gives due consideration to establish: Evidence through observation Context Relevant criteria for making the judgment well Applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment Applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand
In addition to possessing strong critical-thinking skills, one must be disposed to engage problems and decisions using those skills. Critical thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, and fairness.[11]
Procedure
Critical thinking calls for the ability to: Recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those problems Understand the importance of prioritization and order of precedence in problem solving Gather and marshal pertinent (relevant) information Recognize unstated assumptions and values Comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and discernment Interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments Recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions Draw warranted conclusions and generalizations Put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives Reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience Render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life
In sum:
Critical thinking "A persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends."[12]
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Example thinker
Irrespective of the sphere of thought, "a well-cultivated critical thinker":[13] raises important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems, without being unduly influenced by others' thinking on the topic.
Reflective thought
In reflective problem solving and thoughtful decision making using critical thinking, one considers evidence (like investigating evidence), the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making the judgment well, the applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand. The deliberation characteristic of strong critical thinking associates critical thinking with the reflective aspect of human reasoning. Those who would seek to improve our individual and collective capacity to engage problems using strong critical thinking skills are, therefore, recommending that we bring greater reflection and deliberation to decision making. Critical thinking is based on self-corrective concepts and principles, not on hard and fast, or step-by-step, procedures.[15]
Critical thinking
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Competence
Critical thinking employs not only logic (either formal or, much more often, informal) but also broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance and fairness.
Importance
Critical thinking is an important element of all professional fields and academic disciplines (by referencing their respective sets of permissible questions, evidence sources, criteria, etc.). Within the framework of scientific skepticism, the process of critical thinking involves the careful acquisition and interpretation of information and use of it to reach a well-justified conclusion. The concepts and principles of critical thinking can be applied to any context or case but only by reflecting upon the nature of that application. Critical thinking forms, therefore, a system of related, and overlapping, modes of thought such as anthropological thinking, sociological thinking, historical thinking, political thinking, psychological thinking, philosophical thinking, mathematical thinking, chemical thinking, biological thinking, ecological thinking, legal thinking, ethical thinking, musical thinking, thinking like a painter, sculptor, engineer, business person, etc. In other words, though critical thinking principles are universal, their application to disciplines requires a process of reflective contextualization. Critical thinking is considered important in the academic fields because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, explain, and restructure their thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of adopting, acting on, or thinking with, a false belief. However, even with knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, mistakes can happen due to a thinker's inability to apply the methods or because of character traits such as egocentrism. Critical thinking includes identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self-deception, distortion, misinformation, etc. Given research in cognitive psychology, some educators believe that schools should focus on teaching their students critical thinking skills and cultivation of intellectual traits. Socratic method is defined as "a prolonged series of questions and answers which refutes a moral assertion by leading an opponent to draw a conclusion that contradicts his own viewpoint."[17] Critical thinking skills through Socratic method taught in schools help create leaders. Instructors that promote critical thinking skills can benefit the students by increasing their confidence and creating a repeatable thought process to question and confidently approach a solution. Students also accomplish follower-ship skills that can be used to probe the leader's foundations. Critical thinking skills through Socratic method serve to produce professionals that are self-governing. However, Socratic method for critical thinking skills can become confusing if an instructor or leader uses the method too rigidly, the student may not know what the instructor or leader wants from him. An instructor or leader may disillusion the students if he uses particular style of questioning. Instructors must reveal their reasoning behind the questions in order to guide the students in the right direction. "Socratic method can serve twenty-first-century leaders to instruct students, mentor protgs, motivate followers, advise other leaders, and influence peers."[17] Critical thinking skills can help nurses apply the process of examination. Nurses through critical thinking skills can question, evaluate, and reconstruct the nursing care process by challenging the established theory and practice. Critical thinking skills can helps nurse problem solve, reflect, and make a conclusive decision about the current
Critical thinking situation they face. Critical thinking creates "new possibilities for the development of the nursing knowledge."[18] Due to the sociocultural, environmental, and political issues that are affecting healthcare delivery, it would be helpful to embody new techniques in nursing. Nurses can acquire critical thinking skills through the Socratic method of dialogue and reflection. Critical thinking also is considered important for human rights education for toleration. The Declaration of Principles on Tolerance adopted by UNESCO in 1995 affirms that "education for tolerance could aim at countering factors that lead to fear and exculsion of others, and could help young people to develop capacities for independent judgement, critical thinking and ethical reasoning."[19] There is currently a growing recognition that the Western emphasis on critical thinking has a broader and deeper impact than relates simply to cognitive skills. Le Cornu (2009) argues a case which links critical thinking to a heightened individualism which she considers is not so prevalent in the East, and suggests that education at all levels should train people in three principal types of thinking and reflection: receptive, appreciative and critical.
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Research
Edward Glaser proposed that the ability to think critically involves three elements:[12] 1. An attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one's experiences 2. Knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning 3. Some skill in applying those methods. Educational programs aimed at developing critical thinking in children and adult learners, individually or in group problem solving and decision making contexts, continue to address these same three central elements. Contemporary cognitive psychology regards human reasoning as a complex process that is both reactive and reflective.[20] The relationship between critical thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions is an empirical question. Some people have both in abundance, some have skills but not the disposition to use them, some are disposed but lack strong skills, and some have neither. Two measures of critical thinking dispositions are the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory[21] and the California Measure of Mental Motivation.[22]
In schooling
John Dewey is just one of many educational leaders who recognized that a curriculum aimed at building thinking skills would be a benefit not only to the individual learner, but to the community and to the entire democracy. The key to seeing the significance of critical thinking in academics is in understanding the significance of critical thinking in learning. There are two meanings to the learning of this content. The first occurs when learners (for the first time) construct in their minds the basic ideas, principles, and theories that are inherent in content. This is a process of internalization. The second occurs when learners effectively use those ideas, principles, and theories as they become relevant in learners' lives. This is a process of application. Good teachers cultivate critical thinking (intellectually engaged thinking) at every stage of learning, including initial learning. This process of intellectual engagement is at the heart of the Oxford, Durham, Cambridge and London School of Economics tutorials. The tutor questions the students, often in a Socratic manner (see Socratic questioning). The key is that the teacher who fosters critical thinking fosters reflectiveness in students by asking questions that stimulate thinking essential to the construction of knowledge. As emphasized above, each discipline adapts its use of critical thinking concepts and principles (principles like in school). The core concepts are always there, but they are embedded in subject-specific content. For students to learn content, intellectual engagement is crucial. All students must do their own thinking, their own construction of knowledge. Good teachers recognize this and therefore focus on the questions, readings, activities that stimulate the mind to take ownership of key concepts and principles underlying the subject.
Critical thinking In the UK school system, Critical Thinking is offered as a subject that 16- to 18-year-olds can take as an A-Level. Under the OCR exam board, students can sit two exam papers for the AS: "Credibility of Evidence" and "Assessing and Developing Argument". The full Advanced GCE is now available: in addition to the two AS units, candidates sit the two papers "Resolution of Dilemmas" and "Critical Reasoning". The A-level tests candidates on their ability to think critically about, and analyze, arguments on their deductive or inductive validity, as well as producing their own arguments. It also tests their ability to analyze certain related topics such as credibility and ethical decision-making. However, due to its comparative lack of subject content, many universities do not accept it as a main A-level for admissions.[23] Nevertheless, the AS is often useful in developing reasoning skills, and the full Advanced GCE is useful for degree courses in politics, philosophy, history or theology, providing the skills required for critical analysis that are useful, for example, in biblical study. There used to also be an Advanced Extension Award offered in Critical Thinking in the UK, open to any A-level student regardless of whether they have the Critical Thinking A-level. Cambridge International Examinations have an A-level in Thinking Skills.[24] From 2008, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance has also been offering an A-level Critical Thinking specification;[25] OCR exam board have also modified theirs for 2008. Many examinations for university entrance set by universities, on top of A-level examinations, also include a critical thinking component, such as the LNAT, the UKCAT, the BioMedical Admissions Test and the Thinking Skills Assessment.
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References
[1] Ennis, R. H. (1987). A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions. In J. B. Baron and R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice (pp. 9-26). New York: Freeman. ISBN 9780716717911 [2] Ennis, Robert (20 June 2002). "A Super-Streamlined Conception of Critical Thinking" (http:/ / faculty. education. illinois. edu/ rhennis/ SSConcCTApr3. html). faculty.education.illinois.edu. . Retrieved January 18, 2013. [3] Brookfield, S.D. "Contesting criticality: Epistemological and practical contradictions in critical reflection" in Proceedings of the 41st Annual Adult Education Research Conference (2000) [4] Scriven, M., and Paul, R.W., Critical Thinking as Defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking (http:/ / www. criticalthinking. org/ aboutCT/ define_critical_thinking. cfm) (1987) [5] Facione, Peter A. Critical Thinking: What It is and Why It Counts (http:/ / www. insightassessment. com/ CT-Resources/ Teaching-For-and-About-Critical-Thinking/ Critical-Thinking-What-It-Is-and-Why-It-Counts/ Critical-Thinking-What-It-Is-and-Why-It-Counts-PDF), Insightassessment.com, 20011, p. 26 [6] Mulnix, J. W. (2010). Thinking critically about critical thinking. Educational Philosophy and Theory. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00673.x, p. 471 [7] Raiskums, B.W. (2008). An Analysis of the Concept Criticality in Adult Education. Capella University. ISBN 0549778349 [8] See wikt:critical [9] Ruggerio, V.R., "Neglected Issues in the Field of Critical Thinking" in Fasko, D. Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Current Research, Theory, and Practice(2003). ISBN 978-1-57273-460-9 [10] Sumner, William (1906). Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals. New York: Ginn and Co.. p.633. [11] See NCES 95-001, page 1415. [12] Edward M. Glaser (1941). An Experiment in the Development of Critical Thinking. New York, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University. ISBN0-404-55843-7. [13] Paul, Richard; Linda Elder (2006). "The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking, Concepts and Tools" (http:/ / www. criticalthinking. org/ files/ Concepts_Tools. pdf) (PDF). Foundation for Critical Thinking. p.4. . Retrieved 2 June 2012.
Critical thinking
[14] Hindery, Roderick. Indoctrination and Self-Deception or Free and Critical Thought? Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-7734-7407-9 [15] Paul, Richard; and Elder, Linda. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools. Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking Press, 2008, p. 4. ISBN 978-0-944583-10-4 [16] The National Assessment of College Student Learning: Identification of the Skills to be Taught, Learned, and Assessed, NCES 94286, US Dept of Education, Addison Greenwod (Ed), Sal Carrallo (PI). See also, Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. ERIC Document No. ED 315423 [17] Leadership by the Socratic Method(2007) http:/ / www. airpower. maxwell. af. mil/ airchronicles/ apj/ apj07/ sum07/ tucker. html [18] Catching the wave: understanding the concept of critical thinking (1999) http:/ / web. ebscohost. com. ezproxy. socccd. edu/ ehost/ pdfviewer/ pdfviewer?sid=1b19c3f2-920e-4e59-b63d-c8a0ca4260a1%40sessionmgr15& vid=5& hid=17 [19] Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, Article 4, 3 [20] Solomon, S.A. (2002) "Two Systems of Reasoning," in Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment, Govitch, Griffin, Kahneman (Eds), Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79679-8; Thinking and Reasoning in Human Decision Making: The Method of Argument and Heuristic Analysis, Facione and Facione, 2007, California Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-891557-58-3 [21] About The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (http:/ / liberalarts. wabash. edu/ assessment-notes-cctdi/ ) by Thomas F. Nelson Laird, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research [22] Research on Sociocultural Influences on Motivation and Learning (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=OT12dZ0binIC& pg=PA46& lpg=PA46& dq="california+ measure+ of+ mental+ motivation"& source=web& ots=nAonFnIHoS& sig=bfnOuCC7HAk1zQulf06YlvlzO0I& hl=en), p. 46 [23] Critical Thinking FAQs (http:/ / www. ocr. org. uk/ qualifications/ asa_levelgceforfirstteachingin2008/ critical_thinking/ faqs. html) from Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations [24] "Thinking Skills" (http:/ / www. cie. org. uk/ qualifications/ academic/ uppersec/ alevel/ subject/ aleveldetails?assdef_id=765_804), University of Cambridge Local Examinations [25] "New GCEs for 2008" (http:/ / www. aqa. org. uk/ qual/ gce/ critical_thinking_new. php), Assessment and Qualifications Alliance [26] Lion Gardiner, Redesigning Higher Education: Producing Dramatic Gains in Student Learning, in conjunction with: ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, 1995
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Le Cornu, Alison. (2009), "Meaning, Internalization and Externalization: Towards a fuller understanding of the process of reflection and its role in the construction of the self", Adult Education Quarterly 59 (4): 279297
Further reading
Cederblom, J & Paulsen, D.W. (2006) Critical Reasoning: Understanding and criticizing arguments and theories, 6th edn. (Belmont, CA, ThomsonWadsworth). Damer, T. Edward. (2005) Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 6th Edition, Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-60516-8 Dauer, Francis Watanabe. Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning, 1989, ISBN 978-0-19-504884-1 Facione, P. 2007. Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts 2007 Update (http://www. insightassessment.com/articles.html) Hamby, B.W. (2007) The Philosophy of Anything: Critical Thinking in Context. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque Iowa. ISBN 978-0-7575-4724-9 Fisher, Alec and Scriven, Michael. (1997) Critical Thinking: Its Definition and Assessment, Center for Research in Critical Thinking (UK) / Edgepress (US). ISBN 0-9531796-0-5 Vincent F. Hendricks. (2005) Thought 2 Talk: A Crash Course in Reflection and Expression, New York: Automatic Press / VIP. ISBN 87-991013-7-8 Moore, Brooke Noel and Parker, Richard. (2012) Critical Thinking. 10th ed. Published by McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-803828-6. Mulnix, J. W. (2010). Thinking critically about critical thinking. Educational Philosophy and Theory. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00673.x. Paul, Richard. (1995) Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World. 4th ed. Foundation for Critical Thinking. ISBN 0-944583-09-1. Paul, Richard and Elder, Linda. (2006) Critical Thinking Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Publishing. ISBN 0-13-114962-8. Paul, Richard; Elder, Linda. (2002) Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life. Published by Financial Times Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-064760-8.
Critical thinking Twardy, Dr. Charles R. (2003) Argument Maps Improve Critical Thinking (http://cogprints.org/3008/). Teaching Philosophy 27:2 June 2004. van den Brink-Budgen, R (2010) 'Critical Thinking for Students', How To Books. ISBN 978-1-84528-386-5 Whyte, J. (2003) Bad Thoughts A Guide to Clear Thinking, Corvo. ISBN 0-9543255-3-2. Theodore Schick & Lewis Vaughn "How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age" (2010) ISBN 0-7674-2048-9 Pavlidis, Periklis. (2010) Critical Thinking as Dialectics: a Hegelian-Marxist Approach (http://www.jceps.com/ index.php?pageID=article&articleID=194). Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies.Vol.8(2)
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External links
Critical thinking (http://philpapers.org/browse/critical-reasoning) at PhilPapers Critical thinking (https://inpho.cogs.indiana.edu/taxonomy/2410) at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project Informal logic (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-informal) entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Critical thinking (http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Science_in_Society/Skeptical_Inquiry/Critical_Thinking/) at the Open Directory Project Critical Thinking Skill Test (http://www.exforsys.com/iq/critical-thinking-skill-test.html) Critical Thinking Quiz Critical Thinking Web (http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/) Online tutorials and teaching material on critical thinking. Critical Thinking: What Is It Good for? (In Fact, What Is It?) (http://www.csicop.org/si/2006-02/thinking. html) by Howard Gabennesch, Skeptical Inquirer magazine. The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (http://www.getfeedback.net/assets/com_casestudy/00051/ Watson_Glaser_a_critical_friend.pdf) An independent critical evaluation Asking the right question A Guide to Critical Thinking (http://content.yudu.com/Library/A18lwz/ BrowneKeeleyAskingth/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http://www.yudu.com/item/details/61785/ Browne-Keeley---Asking-the-Right-Questions--A-Guide-to-Critical-Thinking--8th-Ed.pdf) A book authored by M. Neil Browne And Stuart M. Keeley, What "Critical" means in "Critical Thinking" (http://www.citigraphics.net/jenner/djenner/archive/ CritiqueAndCriticalThinking.pdf) by Donald Jenner Critical Thinking Means Business (http://www.talentlens.com/en/downloads/whitepapers/ Pearson_TalentLens_Critical_Thinking_Means_Business.pdf) A guide to developing critical thinking ability by Pearson
Information literacy
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Information literacy
The National Forum on Information Literacy defines information literacy as ...the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand. [1][2] This is the most common definition; however, others do exist. For example, another conception defines it in terms of a set of competencies that an informed citizen of an information society ought to possess to participate intelligently and actively in that society. A number of efforts have been made to better define the concept and its relationship to other skills and forms of literacy. Although other educational goals, including traditional literacy, computer literacy, library skills, and critical thinking skills, are related to information literacy and important foundations for its development, information literacy itself is emerging as a distinct skill set and a necessary key to one's social and economic well-being in an increasingly complex information society.[3]
Information literacy On May 28, 2009, U.S. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-06-09 establishing a California ICT Digital Literacy Leadership Council, which, in turn, is directed to establish an ICT Digital Literacy Advisory Committee. "The Leadership Council, in consultation with the Advisory Committee, shall develop an ICT Digital Literacy Policy, to ensure that California residents are digitally literate." The Executive Order states further: " ICT Digital Literacy is defined as using digital technology, communications tools and/or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information in order to function in a knowledge-based economy and society..." The Governor directs "...The Leadership Council, in consultation with the Advisory Committee... [to] develop a California Action Plan for ICT Digital Literacy (Action Plan)." He also directs "The California Workforce Investment Board (WIB)... [to] develop a technology literacy component for its five-year Strategic State Plan." His Executive Order ends with the following: " I FURTHER REQUEST that the Legislature and Superintendent of Public Instruction consider adopting similar goals, and that they join the Leadership Council in issuing a "Call to Action" to schools, higher education institutions, employers, workforce training agencies, local governments, community organizations, and civic leaders to advance California as a global leader in ICT Digital Literacy".[11] Information literacy rose to national consciousness in the U.S. with President Barack Obama's Proclamation designating October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month.[12] President Obama's Proclamation stated that "Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation... Though we may know how to find the information we need, we must also know how to evaluate it. Over the past decade, we have seen a crisis of authenticity emerge. We now live in a world where anyone can publish an opinion or perspective, whether true or not, and have that opinion amplified within the information marketplace. At the same time, Americans have unprecedented access to the diverse and independent sources of information, as well as institutions such as libraries and universities, that can help separate truth from fiction and signal from noise." Obama's proclamation ended with: "Now, therefore, I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month. I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the important role information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact."[12]
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Information literacy students' becoming information literate"; to include information literacy concerns in teacher education; and to promote public awareness of the relationship between information literacy and the more general goals of "literacy, productivity, and democracy."[13] In March 1998 the Presidential Committee on Information Literacy re-evaluated its Final Report and published an update. The update looks at what the Final Report set out to accomplish, its six main goals, and how far it had come to that point in meeting those objectives. Before identifying what still needs to be done, the updated report recognizes what the previous report and the National Forum were able to accomplish. In realizing it still had not met all objectives, it set out further recommendations to ensure all were met. The updated report ends with an invitation, asking the National Forum and regular citizens to recognize that "the result of these combined efforts will be a citizenry which is made up of effective lifelong learners who can always find the information needed for the issue or decision at hand. This new generation of information literate citizens will truly be America's most valuable resource", and to continue working toward an information literate world.Link text [14] One of the most important things to come out of the Presidential Committee on Information Literacy was the creation of the National Forum on Information Literacy.
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Information literacy recommended the formation of a coalition of national organizations to promote information literacy. Thus, in 1989, the A.L.A. Presidential Committee established the National Forum on Information Literacy, a volunteer network of organizations committed to raising public awareness on the importance of information literacy to individuals, to our diverse communities, to our economy, and to engaged citizenship participation.
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Information literacy
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Bibliography
Prague Declaration: Towards an Information Literate Society - http://www.infolit.org/2003.html Alexandria Proclamation: A High Level International Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning, http://www.infolit.org/2005.html (archive copy [16]) 2006 Information Literacy Summit: American Competitiveness in the Internet Age http:/ / www. infolit. org/ reports. html 1989 Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ acrl/ publications/whitepapers/presidential.cfm 1983 A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html Gibson, C. (2004). Information literacy develops globally: The role of the national forum on information literacy. Knowledge Quest. http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/kqweb/kqarchives/vol32/324TOC2.cfm Breivik P.S. and Gee, E.G. (2006). Higher education in the internet age: Libraries creating a strategic edge. Westport,CT: Greenwood Publishing
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United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Media and Information Literacy
According to the UNESCO website, this is their "action to provide people with the skills and abilities for critical reception, assessment and use of information and media in their professional and personal lives."[18] Their goal is to create information literate societies by creating and maintaining educational policies for information literacy. They work with teachers around the world, training them in the importance of information literacy and providing resources for them to use in their classrooms. UNESCO publishes studies on information literacy in many countries, looking at how information literacy is currently taught, how it differs in different demographics, and how to raise awareness. They also publish pedagogical tools and curricula for school boards and teachers to refer to and use.[19]
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Educational schemata
One view of the components of information literacy
Based on the Big6 by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz.[22] 1. The first step in the Information Literacy strategy is to clarify and understand the requirements of the problem or task for which information is sought. Basic questions asked at this stage: 1. What is known about the topic? 2. What information is needed? 3. Where can the information be found? 2. Locating: The second step is to identify sources of information and to find those resources. Depending upon the task, sources that will be helpful may vary. Sources may include books, encyclopedias, maps, almanacs, etc. Sources may be in electronic, print, social bookmarking tools, or other formats. 3. Selecting/analyzing: Step three involves examining the resources that were found. The information must be determined to be useful or not useful in solving the problem. The useful resources are selected and the inappropriate resources are rejected. 4. Organizing/synthesizing: It is in the fourth step this information which has been selected is organized and processed so that knowledge and solutions are developed. Examples of basic steps in this stage are: 1. Discriminating between fact and opinion 2. Basing comparisons on similar characteristics 3. Noticing various interpretations of data 4. Finding more information if needed 5. Organizing ideas and information logically 5. Creating/presenting: In step five the information or solution is presented to the appropriate audience in an appropriate format. A paper is written. A presentation is made. Drawings, illustrations, and graphs are presented. 6. Evaluating: The final step in the Information Literacy strategy involves the critical evaluation of the completion of the task or the new understanding of the concept. Was the problem solved? Was new knowledge found? What could have been done differently? What was done well? The Big6 skills have been used in a variety of settings to help those with a variety of needs. For example, the library of Dubai Womens College, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates which is an English as a second language institution, uses the Big6 model for its information literacy workshops. According to Story-Huffman (2009), using Big6 at the college has transcended cultural and physical boundaries to provide a knowledge base to help students become information literate (para. 8). In primary grades, Big6 has been found to work well with variety of cognitive and language levels found in the classroom. Differentiated instruction and the Big6 appear to be made for each other. While it seems as though all children will be on the same Big6 step at the same time during a unit of instruction, there is no reason students cannot work through steps at an individual pace. In addition, the Big 6 process allows for seamless differentiation by interest (Jansen, 2009, p.32). A number of weaknesses in the Big6 approach have been highlighted by Philip Doty: This approach is problem-based, is designed to fit into the context of Benjamin Blooms taxonomy of cognitive objectives, and aims toward the development of critical thinking. While the Big6 approach has a great deal of power, it also has serious weaknesses. Chief among these are the fact that users often lack well-formed statements of information needs, as well as the models reliance on problem-solving rhetoric. Often, the need for information and its use are situated in circumstances that are not as well-defined, discrete, and monolithic as problems (Doty, 2003).
Information literacy Eisenberg (2004) has recognized that there are a number of challenges to effectively applying the Big6 skills, not the least of which is information overload which can overwhelm students. Part of Eisenbergs solution is for schools to help students become discriminating users of information.
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Information literacy As the Presidential Committee report points out, members of these disadvantaged groups are often unaware that libraries can provide them with the access, training and information they need. In Osborne (2004) many libraries around the country are finding numerous ways to reach many of these disadvantaged groups by discovering their needs in their own environments (including prisons) and offering them specific services in the libraries themselves.
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These changes will require that workers possess information literacy skills. The SCANS (1991) report identifies the skills necessary for the workplace of the future. Rather than report to a hierarchical management structure, workers of the future will be required to actively participate in the management of the company and contribute to its success. To survive in this information society, workers will need to possess skills beyond those of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Effect on education
The rapidly evolving information landscape means that education methods and practices must evolve and adapt accordingly. Information literacy must become a key focus of educational institutions at all levels. This requires a commitment to lifelong learning and an ability to seek out and identify innovations that will be needed to keep pace with or outpace changes.[23] Educational methods and practices, within our increasingly information-centric society, must facilitate and enhance a student's ability to harness the power of information. Key to harnessing the power of information is the ability to evaluate information, to ascertain among other things its relevance, authenticity and modernity. The information evaluation process is crucial life skill and a basis for lifelong learning.[24] Evaluation consists of several component processes including metacognition, goals, personal disposition, cognitive development, deliberation, and decision-making. This is both a difficult and complex challenge and underscores the importance of being able to think critically. Critical thinking is an important educational outcome for students.[24] Education institutions have experimented with several strategies to help foster critical thinking, as a means to enhance information evaluation and information literacy among students. When evaluating evidence, students should be encouraged to practice formal argumentation.[25] Debates and formal presentations must also be encouraged to analyze and critically evaluate information. Education professionals must underscore the importance of high information quality. Students must be trained to distinguish between fact and opinion. They must be encouraged to use cue words such as "I think" and "I feel" to help distinguish between factual information and opinions. Information related skills that are complex or difficult to comprehend must be broken down into smaller parts. Another approach would be to train students in familiar contexts. Education professionals should encourage students to examine "causes" of behaviors, actions and events. Research shows that people evaluate more effectively if causes are revealed, where available.[23] Such initiatives
Information literacy would aid educators help people become more Information Literate. As a society, we must critically evaluate information to establish a public demand for high information quality. Because information literacy skills are vital to future success: Information literacy skills must be taught in the context of the overall process. Instruction in information literacy skills must be integrated into the curriculum and reinforced both within and outside of the educational setting.
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Education in the US
Standards
National content standards, state standards, and information literacy skills terminology may vary, but all have common components relating to information literacy. Information literacy skills are critical to several of the National Education Goals outlined in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, particularly in the act's aims to increase "school readiness", "student achievement and citizenship", and "adult literacy and lifelong learning".[26] Of specific relevance are the "focus on lifelong learning, the ability to think critically, and on the use of new and existing information for problem solving", all of which are important components of information literacy.[27] In 1998, the American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology published "Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning", which identified nine standards that librarians and teachers in K-12 schools could use to describe information literate students and define the relationship of information literacy to independent learning and social responsibility: Standard One: The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively. Standard Two: The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and competently. Standard Three: The student who is information literate uses information accurately and creatively. Standard Four: The student who is an independent learner is information literate and pursues information related to personal interests. Standard Five: The student who is an independent learner is information literate and appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information. Standard Six: The student who is an independent learner is information literate and strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge generation. Standard Seven: The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and recognizes the importance of information to a democratic society. Standard Eight: The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and practices ethical behavior in regard to information and information technology. Standard Nine: The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information.[5]
In 2007 AASL expanded and restructured the standards that school librarians should strive for in their teaching. These were published as "Standards for the 21st Century Learner" and address several literacies: information, technology, visual, textual, and digital. These aspects of literacy were organized within four key goals: that "learners use of skills, resources, & tools" to "inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge"; to "draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge"; to "share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society"; and to "pursue personal and aesthetic growth".[28] In 2000, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), released "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education", describing five standards and
Information literacy numerous performance indicators considered best practices for the implementation and assessment of postsecondary information literacy programs. The five standards are: Standard One: The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed. Standard Two: The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently. Standard Three: The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system. Standard Four: The information literate student, individually or as a member of a group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose. Standard Five: The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.[29] These standards are meant to span from the simple to more complicated, or in terms of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, from the "lower order" to the "higher order". Lower order skills would involve for instance being able to use an online catalog to find a book relevant to an information need in an academic library. Higher order skills would involve critically evaluating and synthesizing information from multiple sources into a coherent interpretation or argument.
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Technology
Information Technology is the great enabler. It provides, for those who have access to it, an extension of their powers of perception, comprehension, analysis, thought, concentration, and articulation through a range of activities that include: writing, visual images, mathematics, music, physical movement, sensing the environment, simulation, and communication (Carpenter, 1989, p.2). Technology, in all of its various forms, offers users the tools to access, manipulate, transform, evaluate, use, and present information. Technology in schools includes computers, televisions, video cameras, video editing equipment, and TV studios. Two approaches to technology in K-12 schools are technology as the object of instruction approach, and technology as the tool of instruction approach. Schools are starting to incorporate technology skills instruction in the context of information literacy skills. This is called technology information literacy [39] Technology is changing the way higher education institutions are offering instruction. The use of the Internet is being taught in the contexts of subject area curricula and the overall information literacy process. There is some empirical indication that students who use technology as a tool may become better at managing information, communicating, and presenting ideas.
Distance education
Now that information literacy has become a part of the core curriculum at many post-secondary institutions, it is incumbent upon the library community to be able to provide information literacy instruction in a variety of formats, including online learning and distance education. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) addresses this need in its Guidelines for Distance Education Services (2000): Library resources and services in institutions of higher education must meet the needs of all their faculty, students, and academic support staff, wherever these individuals are located, whether on a main campus, off campus, in distance education or extended campus programsor in the absence of a campus at all, in courses taken for credit or non-credit; in continuing education programs; in courses attended in person or by means of electronic transmission; or any other means of distance education. Within the e-learning and distance education worlds, providing effective information literacy programs brings together the challenges of both distance librarianship and instruction. With the prevalence of course management systems such as WebCT and Blackboard, library staff are embedding information literacy training within academic programs and within individual classes themselves (Presti, 2002).
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References
[1] "What is the NFIL?" (http:/ / infolit. org/ about-the-national-forum/ what-is-the-nfil/ ). National Forum on Information Literacy. . Retrieved 2012-10-25. [2] "Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report" (http:/ / www. ala. org/ acrl/ publications/ whitepapers/ presidential). January 10, 1989. . Retrieved 2012-10-25. [3] Carol Collier Kulthau (Dec 1987). "Information Skills for an Information Society: A Review of Research" (http:/ / www. eric. ed. gov/ ERICDocs/ data/ ericdocs2sql/ content_storage_01/ 0000019b/ 80/ 1c/ ba/ 3d. pdf). ERIC. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [4] Paul G. Zurkowski (Nov 1974). "The Information Service Environment: Relationships and Priorities" (http:/ / www. eric. ed. gov/ ERICDocs/ data/ ericdocs2sql/ content_storage_01/ 0000019b/ 80/ 36/ a8/ 87. pdf). National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [5] "Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning" (http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ aasl/ guidelinesandstandards/ informationpower/ InformationLiteracyStandards_final. pdf). American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. 1998. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [6] http:/ / www. sconul. ac. uk/ groups/ information_literacy/ sp/ model. html [7] Moira Bent (November 2007). "The Seven Pillars of Information Literacy Original model" (http:/ / www. sconul. ac. uk/ groups/ information_literacy/ sp/ model. html). SCONUL. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [8] "The Prague Declaration 'Toward an Information Literate Society'" (http:/ / portal. unesco. org/ ci/ en/ files/ 19636/ 11228863531PragueDeclaration. pdf/ PragueDeclaration. pdf). Information Literacy Meeting of Experts. September 2003. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [9] http:/ / www. webcitation. org/ 68gfMAeC1 [10] "The Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning" (http:/ / archive. ifla. org/ III/ wsis/ BeaconInfSoc. html). IFLA. 9 November 2005. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [11] "EXECUTIVE ORDER S-06-09" (http:/ / gov. ca. gov/ news. php?id=12393). Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [12] Barack Obama (2009). "National Information Literacy Awareness Month" (http:/ / www. whitehouse. gov/ assets/ documents/ 2009literacy_prc_rel. pdf). . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [13] "Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report" (http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ acrl/ publications/ whitepapers/ presidential. cfm). ACRL. January 10, 1989. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [14] http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ acrl/ publications/ whitepapers/ progressreport. cfm [15] Duke, N. K. (2000). "3.6 minutes per day: The scarcity of informational texts in first grade". Reading Research Quarterly 35: 202224. [16] http:/ / www. webcitation. org/ 68gh6PUQv [17] "International Alliance" (http:/ / infolit. org/ about-the-national-forum/ international-alliance-2/ ). The National Forum of Information Literacy. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [18] "Media and Information Literacy" (http:/ / portal. unesco. org/ ci/ en/ ev. php-URL_ID=15886& URL_DO=DO_TOPIC& URL_SECTION=201. html). UNESCO. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [19] "Media and Information Literacy: Documents" (http:/ / portal. unesco. org/ ci/ en/ ev. php-URL_ID=22445& URL_DO=DO_TOPIC& URL_SECTION=-465. html). UNESCO. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [20] Jeremy J. Shapiro and Shelley K. Hughes (Mar/Apr 1996). "Information Literacy as a Liberal Art" (http:/ / net. educause. edu/ apps/ er/ review/ reviewArticles/ 31231. html). Educom Review 31 (2). . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [21] Ira Shor (Fall 1999). "What is Critical Literacy?" (http:/ / www. lesley. edu/ journals/ jppp/ 4/ shor. html). The Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, & Practice 4 (1). . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [22] "Welcome to the Big6" (http:/ / big6. com/ ). . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [23] Eisenberg, B. M., Lowe, C., & Spitzer, K. (2004). Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age. 2nd. edition. Libraries Unlimited. [24] Fitzgerald, M. A.. "Evaluating information: An information literacy challenge" (http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ aasl/ aaslpubsandjournals/ slmrb/ slmrcontents/ volume21999/ ALA_print_layout_1_202785_202785. cfm). School Library Media Research, 2. . Retrieved 2012-10-28. [25] Kuhn, D. (1991). The skills of argument. New York: Cambridge University Press. [26] United States Congress, " Goals 2000: Educate America Act (http:/ / www. ed. gov/ legislation/ GOALS2000/ TheAct/ index. html)", Jan 1994, H.R.1804. [27] Eric Plotnick, " Information Literacy (http:/ / www. ericdigests. org/ 1999-4/ information. htm)", ERIC Digests, Feb 1999, ED427777. [28] American Association of School Librarians, " Standards for the 21st Century Learner (http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ aasl/ guidelinesandstandards/ learningstandards/ AASL_LearningStandards. pdf)", 2007. [29] Association of College and Research Libraries, " Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ acrl/ standards/ standards. pdf)", Jan 2000. [30] Eisenberg, B. M. (2008). Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age. Journal of Library & Information Technology, Vol. 28, No. 2, March 2008, pp. 39-47, Retrieved July 10, 2009, from :http:/ / publications. drdo. gov. in/ ojs/ index. php/ djlit/ article/ viewFile/ 288/ 182
Information literacy
[31] http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ aasl/ guidelinesandstandards/ learningstandards/ AASL_Learning_Standards_2007. pdf [32] http:/ / weblink. scsd. us/ ~liblinks/ AASLstandards. pdf [33] http:/ / old. oslis. org/ teacherResources/ highGatherOrganize/ aaslstandards1. html [34] Blake, P. (2006). Restructuring Relationships in Virginia. Change, 38(1), 26-33. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from Alt-Press Watch (APW). (Document ID: 975373301). [35] Endrizzi, L. (2006). Information Literacy. Lettre dinformation - VST, n 17 April 2006 , Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http:/ / www. inrp. fr/ vst/ LettreVST/ english/ pdf/ april2006_EN. pdf, [36] (http:/ / tilt. lib. utsystem. edu/ nf/ intro/ internet. htm) [37] Miller, C. W.; M. D. Chabot, and T. C. Messina (2009). "A student's guide to searching the literature using online databases". Am. J. Phys. 77 (12): 1112. doi:10.1119/1.3213525. [38] (http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ mgrps/ divs/ acrl/ issues/ infolit/ standards/ accred/ accreditation. cfm). [39] http:/ / en. wikibooks. org/ wiki/ Instructional_Technology/ Technology_Information_Literacy [40] http:/ / www. ets. org/ portal/ site/ ets/ menuitem. 1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/ ?vgnextoid=159f0e3c27a85110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD& vgnextchannel=e5b2a79898a85110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD [41] https:/ / www. projectsails. org/ [42] http:/ / www. jmu. edu/ assessment/ resources/ prodserv/ instruments_ilt. htm [43] http:/ / rrsa. cmich. edu/ twiki/ bin/ view/ RRSA/ Versions [44] http:/ / rrsa. cmich. edu/ twiki/ bin/ view/ RRSA/ Publications [45] http:/ / jonathan. mueller. faculty. noctrl. edu/ infolitassessments. htm
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Further reading
Association of College Research Libraries (2007). The First-Year Experience and Academic Libraries: A Select, Annotated Bibliography. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from http://www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/is/ publicationsacrl/tmcfyebib.cfm Barner, R. (1996, March/April). Seven changes that will challenge managers-and workers. The Futurist, 30(2), 14-18. Breivik. P. S., & Senn, J. A. (1998). Information literacy: Educating children for the 21st century. (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Education Association. Carpenter, J. P. (1989). Using the new technologies to create links between schools throughout the world: Colloquy on computerized school links. (Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom, 1720 October 1988). Doty, P. (2003). Bibliographic instruction: The digital divide and resistance of users to technologies. Retrieved July 12, 2009, from http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~l38613dw/website_spring_03/readings/ BiblioInstruction.html Doyle, C.S. (1992). Outcome Measures for Information Literacy Within the National Education Goals of 1990. Final Report to National Forum on Information Literacy. Summary of Findings. Eisenberg, M. (2004). Information literacy: The whole enchilada [PowerPoint Presentation]. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://www.big6.com/presentations/sreb/ Eisenberg, M., Lowe, C., & Spitzer, K. (2004). Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age. 2nd. edition. Libraries Unlimited. Grassian, E. (2004) Information Literacy: Building on Bibliographic Instruction. American Libraries, 35(9), 51-53. National Commission of Excellence in Education. (1983). A Nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. (ED 226 006) National Hispanic Council on Aging. (nd). Mission statement. Retrieved July 13, 2009, from National Forum on Information Literacy Web site. Obama, B. (2009). Presidential Proclamation: National Information Literacy Awareness Month, 2009. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved October 27, 2009 from http://www.whitehouse. gov/assets/documents/2009literacy_prc_rel.pdf
Information literacy Osborne, R. (Ed.). (2004). From outreach to equity: Innovative models of library policy and practice. Chicago: American Library Association. Presti, P. (2002). Incorporating information literacy and distance learning within a course management system: a case study. Ypsilanti, MI: Loex News, (29)2-3, 3-12-13. Retrieved February 3, 2004 from http://www.emich. edu/public/loex/news/ln290202.pdf Ryan, J., & Capra, S. (2001). Information literacy toolkit. Chicago: American Library Association. Schwarzenegger, S. (2009). Executive order S-06-09. Sacramento, CA. Retrieved October 27, 2009 from http:// gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=12393 SCONUL. (2007). The Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model. Retrieved November 3, 2010 from http:// www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/sp/model.html Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills.
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External links
ELD information literacy wiki, U. Cal. Davis (http://eldwiki.lib.ucdavis.edu/index.php/ Information_Literacy)
Exegesis
Exegesis (from the Greek from 'to lead out') is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used for greater specificity. Exegesis includes a wide range of critical disciplines: textual criticism is the investigation into the history and origins of the text, but exegesis may include the study of the historical and cultural backgrounds for the author, the text, and the original audience. Other analysis includes classification of the type of literary genres present in the text, and an analysis of grammatical and syntactical features in the text itself. The terms exegesis and hermeneutics have been used interchangeably. However, hermeneutics is a more widely defined discipline of interpretation theory: hermeneutics includes the entire framework of the interpretive process, encompassing all forms of communication: written, verbal and nonverbal, while exegesis focuses primarily on the written text.
Word usage
One who practices exegesis is called an exegete (from Greek ). The plural of exegesis is exegeses. Adjectives are exegetic or exegetical (e.g., exegetical commentaries). In Biblical exegesis, the opposite of exegesis (to draw out) is eisegesis (to draw in), in the sense of an eisegetic commentator "importing" or "drawing in" his or her own purely subjective interpretations in to the text, unsupported by the text itself. Eisegesis is often used as a derogatory term.
Christianity
Views of Christian exegesis
Different Christians have different views on how to perform Biblical Exegesis. The two most common views are revealed and rational.
Exegesis Revealed exegesis considers that the Holy Spirit (God) inspired the authors of the scriptural texts, and so the words of those texts convey a divine revelation. In this view of exegesis, the principle of sensus plenior applies that because of its divine authorship, the Bible has a "fuller meaning" than its human authors intended or could have foreseen. Rational exegesis bases its operation on the idea that the authors have their own inspiration (in this sense, synonymous with "artistic inspiration"), so their works are completely and utterly a product of the social environment and human intelligence of their authors.
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Bible commentaries
A common published form of a biblical exegesis is known as a 'Bible commentary' and typically takes the form of an encyclopedia-like set of books each of which are devoted to the exposition of one or two books of the Bible, in the order they appear in the Bible (although often published over a decade or longer, out of order). Long books or those that contain much material either for theological or historical-critical speculation such as Genesis, Psalms may be split over 2 or 3 volumes as a matter of course, some, such as the or the Four Gospels may be multiple- or single-volume, while short books such as the deuterocanonical portions of Daniel, Esther, and the Jeremiah (i.e. Book of Susanna, Prayer of Azariah, Bel and the Dragon, Additions to Esther, Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremiah), or the Pastoral or Johannine epistles are often condensed into one volume. The form of each book may be identical or allow for variations in methodology between the many authors which collaborate to write a full commentary. Each book's commentary generally consists of a background and introductory section, followed by detailed commentary of the book in a pericope-by-pericope or verse-by-verse basis (split up either into chapters or smaller units of text). Before the 20th century, a commentary would be written by a sole author, but today a publishing board will commission a team of scholars to write a commentary, with each volume being divided out among them. A single commentary will generally attempt to give a coherent and unified view on the Bible as a whole, for example, from a Catholic or Reformed (Calvinist) perspective, or a commentary that focuses on textual criticism or historical criticism from a secular point of view. However, each volume will inevitably lean toward the personal emphasis of its author, and within any commentaries there may be great variety in the depth, accuracy, and critical or theological strength of each volume.
Catholic traditions
Catholic centres of biblical exegesis include: the cole Biblique of Jerusalem founded in 1890 by the Dominican order's Marie-Joseph Lagrange. The school became embroiled in the modernist crisis, and had to curtail its New Testament activities until after Vatican II the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome practises exegesis in a more canonical way
Protestant traditions
For more than a century, German universities such as Tbingen have had reputations as centers of exegesis; in the USA, the Divinity Schools in Chicago, Harvard and Yale became famous. Robert A. Traina's book Methodical Bible Study[1] is an example of Protestant Christian exegesis. See also InterVarsity Press.
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Judaism
Traditional Jewish forms of exegesis appear throughout rabbinic literature, which includes the Mishnah, the two Talmuds, and the midrash literature. Jewish exegetes have the title meforshim ( commentators).
Midrash
The Midrash is a homiletic method of exegesis and a compilation of homiletic teachings or commentaries on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), a Biblical exegesis of the Pentateuch and its paragraphs related to the Law or Torah, which also forms an object of analysis. It comprises the legal and ritual Halakha, the collective body of Jewish laws, and exegesis of the written Law; and the non-legalistic Aaggadah, a compendium of Rabbinic homilies of the parts of the Pentateuch not connected with Law. Biblical interpretation by the Tannaim and the Amoraim, which may be best designated as scholarly interpretations of the Midrash, was a product of natural growth and of great freedom in the treatment of the words of the Bible. However, it proved an obstacle to further development when, endowed with the authority of a sacred tradition in the Talmud and in the Midrash (collections edited subsequently to the Talmud), it became the sole source for the interpretation of the Bible among later generations. Traditional literature contains explanations that are in harmony with the wording and the context. It reflects evidence of linguistic sense, judgment, and an insight into the peculiarities and difficulties of the Biblical text. But side by side with these elements of a natural and simple Bible exegesis, of value even today, the traditional literature contains an even larger mass of expositions removed from the actual meaning of the text. Halakha and Aggadah In the halakhic as well as in the haggadic exegesis the expounder endeavored not so much to seek the original meaning of the text as to find authority in some Bible passage for concepts and ideas, rules of conduct and teachings, for which he wished to have a Biblical foundation. To this were added, on the one hand, the belief that the words of the Bible had many meanings, and, on the other, the importance attached to the smallest portion, the slightest peculiarity of the text. Because of this move towards particularities the exegesis of the Midrash strayed further and further away from a natural and common-sense interpretation. Midrash Midrash exegesis was largely in the nature of homiletics, expounding the Bible not in order to investigate its actual meaning and to understand the documents of the past. This was done to find religious edification, moral instruction, and sustenance for the thoughts and feelings of the present. The contrast between explanation of the literal sense and the Midrash, that did not follow the words, was recognized by the Tannaim and the Amoraim, although their idea of the literal meaning of a Biblical passage may not be allowed by more modern standards. The above-mentioned tanna, Ishmael b. Elisha said, rejecting an exposition of Eliezer b. Hyrcanus: "Truly, you say to Scripture, 'Be silent while I am expounding!'" (Sifra on Lev. xiii. 49). Tannaim Tannaitic exegesis distinguishes principally between the actual deduction of a thesis from a Bible passage as a means of proving a point, and the use of such a passage as a mere mnemonic device a distinction that was also made in a different form later in the Babylonian schools. The Babylonian Amoraim were the first to use the expression "Pesha" ("simple" or face value method) to designate the primary sense, contrasting it with the "Drash," the Midrashic exegesis. These two terms were later on destined to become important features in the history of Jewish Bible exegesis. In Babylonia was formulated the important principle that the Midrashic exegesis could not annul the primary sense. This principle subsequently became the watchword of commonsense Bible exegesis. How little it was known or recognized may be seen from the admission of Kahana, a Babylonian amora of the fourth century, that while at 18 years of age he had already learned the whole Mishnah, he had only heard of that principle a great many
Exegesis years later (Shab 63a). Kahana's admission is characteristic of the centuries following the final redaction of the Talmud. The primary meaning is no longer considered, but it becomes more and more the fashion to interpret the text according to the meaning given to it in traditional literature. The ability and even the desire for original investigation of the text succumbed to the overwhelming authority of the Midrash. It was, therefore, providential that, just at the time when the Midrash was paramount, the close study of the text of the Bible, at least in one direction, was pursued with rare energy and perseverance by the Masorites, who set themselves to preserving and transmitting the pronunciation and correct reading of the text. By introducing punctuation (vowel-points and accents) into the Biblical text, in the seventh century, they supplied that protecting hedge which, according to Rabbi Akiba's saying, the Masorah was to be for the words of the Bible. Punctuation, on the one hand, protected the tradition from being forgotten, and, on the other, was the precursor of an independent Bible science to be developed in a later age.
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Mikra
The Mikra, the fundamental part of the national science, was the subject of the primary instruction. It was also divided into the three historic groups of the books of the Bible: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, called in traditional Hebrew attribution the Torah (the Law or Teaching), the Nevi'im (the Prophets) and the Kethuvim (the Writings) respectively. The intelligent reading and comprehension of the text, arrived at by a correct division of the sentences and words, formed the course of instruction in the Bible. The scribes were also required to know the Targum, the Aramaic translation of the text. The Targum made possible an immediate comprehension of the text, but was continuously influenced by the exegesis taught in the schools. The synagogues were preeminently the centers for instruction in the Bible and its exegesis. The reading of the Biblical text, which was combined with that of the Targum, served to widen the knowledge of the scholars learned in the first division of the national science. The scribes found the material for their discourses, which formed a part of the synagogue service, in the second division of the several branches of the tradition. The Haggadah, the third of these branches, especially furnished the material for the sermon. Jewish exegesis did not finish with the redaction of the Talmud, but continued during ancient times, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; it remains a subject of study today. Jews have centres for exegetic studies around the world, in each community: they consider exegesis an important tool for the understanding of the Scriptures.
Indian philosophy
The Mimamsa school of Indian philosophy, also known as Prva Mms ("prior" inquiry, also Karma-Mms), in contrast to Uttara Mms ("posterior" inquiry, also Brahma-Mms), is strongly concerned with textual exegesis, and consequently gave rise to the study of philology and the philosophy of language. Its notion of shabda "speech" as indivisible unity of sound and meaning (signifier and signified) is due to Bhartrhari (7th century).[2]
Islam
Tafsir (Arabic: ,tafsr, "interpretation") is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. An author of tafsr is a mufassir (Arabic: ' ,mufassir, plural: Arabic: ,mufassirn). Tafsir does not include esoteric or mystical interpretations, which are covered by the related word Ta'wil. Shi'ite organization Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project cites the prophet Muhammad as stating that the Qur'an has an inner meaning, and that this inner meaning conceals an even deeper inner meaning, in support of this view.[3] While adherents of Sufism and Ilm al-Kalam concur with the Shi'a, most mainstream Sunni Muslims do not.
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Footnotes
[1] [2] [3] [4] Traina, Robert A. (1985). Methodical Bible Study. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Francis Asbury Press. ISBN978-0-310-31230-7. see also chapter 3.2 in Peter M. Scharf, The Denotation of Generic Terms in Ancient Indian Philosophy (1996) Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project, The Teachings of the Qur'an (http:/ / www. al-islam. org/ quraninislam/ 2. htm). Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Section des Sciences Religieuses (http:/ / www. ephe. sorbonne. fr/ index. php?option=com_content& task=view& id=164& Itemid=244) [5] Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR) (http:/ / www. universiteitsgids. leidenuniv. nl/ index. php3?c=169) [6] Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etude des Religions et de la Lacit (CIERL) (http:/ / www. ulb. ac. be/ philo/ cierl/ ) [7] Krauth, Nigel (2011). "Evolution of the exegesis: the radical trajectory of the creative writing doctorate in Australia" (http:/ / www. textjournal. com. au/ april11/ krauth. htm). Text: Journal of writing and writing courses 15 (1). .
Further reading
Alexander, T. Desmond; Brian S Rosner (2000). New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Leicester: Inter-Varsity. ISBN0-8308-1438-8. Peter Barenboim, "Biblical Roots of Separation of Powers", Moscow : Letny Sad, 2005, ISBN 5-94381-123-0, http://lccn.loc.gov/2006400578 Bock, Darrell L; Buist M. Fanning (2006). Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books. ISBN1-58134-408-2. Corley, Bruce; Steve Lemke, Grant Lovejoy (2002). Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Introduction to Interpreting Scripture. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman. ISBN0-8054-2492-X. De La Torre, Miguel A., (2002) Reading the Bible from the Margins, Maryknoll: New York: Orbis Books. ISBN1-57075-410-1. Doriani, Daniel (1996). Getting the message : a plan for interpreting and applying the Bible. Phillipsburg New Jersey: P&R Pub.. ISBN978-0-87552-238-8. Evans, John (2010). A Guide to Biblical Commentaries & Reference Works: for students and pastors. Oakland, Tennessee: Doulos Resources. ISBN978-0-9828715-6-0. Fee, Gordon D.; Douglas Stuart (2003-11-01). How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (3 Revised ed.). Zondervan. pp.288. ISBN0-310-24604-0. Fee, Gordon D (2001). To What End Exegesis?: Essays Textual, Exegetical, and Theological. Grand Rapids, Michigan; Cambridge, UK: W.B. Eerdmans. ISBN0-8028-4925-3. Hendricks, Howard G. (1991). Living by the Book. Chicago: Moody Press. pp.349. ISBN0-8024-0743-9. Kaiser, Walter C; Moiss Silva (2007). Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning (Revised and expanded edition ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. ISBN0-310-27951-8. Kaiser, Walter C (1998). Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching (1st paperback edition ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books. pp.268. ISBN0-8010-2197-9. Klein, William W. William Wade; Craig Blomberg, Robert L Hubbard, Kermit Allen Ecklebarger (1993). Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Dallas, Texas: Word Pub. ISBN0-8499-0774-8. Glynn, John (2003). Commentary & Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Academic & Professional. ISBN0-8254-2736-3. Hayes, John Haralson; Carl R Holladay (2007). Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner's Handbook. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN978-0-664-22775-3.
Exegesis Osborne, Grant R (2006). The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. InterVarsity Press. ISBN0-8308-2826-5. Ryken, Leland (1984). How to read the Bible as literature. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Academie Books. ISBN978-0-310-39021-3. Traina, Robert (1952). Methodical Bible study : a new approach to hermeneutics.. Ridgefield Park, New Jersey; New York: [distributed by] Biblical Seminary in New York. VanGemeren, Willem (1997). New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House. ISBN0-310-48170-8. Wald, Oletta (2002). The new joy of discovery in Bible study (Newly revised ed.). Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. ISBN978-0-8066-4429-5. Zuck, Roy B (1991). Basic Bible Interpretation. Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books. pp.324. ISBN0-89693-819-0. Rightly Divided: Readings in Biblical Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications. 1996. pp.320. ISBN0-8254-4099-8.
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Other works
Bertholet and A. Meyer, article "Bibelwissenschaft" in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Tbingen, 1909). Diestel, Geschichte des Alten Testaments in der chrislichen Kirche (Jena, 1869) Farrar, The History of Interpretation (London, 1886) Frst, Bibliotheca Judaica (Leipzig, 1863) Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen (Breslau, 1857) Ginsburg, Introduction to the Massoretic Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible (London, 1897) Hody, De Bibliorum Textibus (Oxford, 1705) Nestle, Einfhrung in das griechische Neue Testament (Leipzig, 1897, 1909) Pfleiderer, Das Urchristenum (Berlin, 1886, 1902) Rosenmller, Historia Interpretationis Librorum Sacrorum in Ecclesia Christiana (Hildsburgshausen, 17951814) Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (London, 1900) Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraica (Jena, 171533), continued by Kcher as Nova Bibliotheca hebraica (Jena, 178384) Zckler, Handbuch der theologischen Wissenschaften Nrdlingen, 1890)
External links
Exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures By Overall Context and Convergence of Verses From Different Places (http:// thesufferingservant.com/index.php?p=1_2) Biblical Interpretation and Application Reading Room (http://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/mtsmodular/ reading-rooms/interpretation): Extensive online resources for biblical exegesis (Tyndale Seminary) JewishEncyclopedia.com (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/index.jsp) Basic Rules for New Testament Exegesis by Brian Knowles (http://www.godward.org/archives/BS Notes/ Basic rules for NT exegesis.htm) Inerrancy and New Testament Exegesis by R. T. France (http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/ article_inerrancy_france.html) A type of Biblical Exegesis called arcing (http://www.biblearc.com) VBVBC.org (http://www.vbvbc.org): Website where visitors can give their personal Bible commentary on all Bible verses Biblical Exegesis (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05692b.htm) at Catholic Encyclopedia
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License
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