Am I aware of the challenges of false generosity?
Am I reflective so as to avoid becoming a sub-opressor?
Do I challenge the "zero paradigm"?
Am I a living example of my politics?
Do I use my social mobility to uplift?
July 11, 2009
The Art of Critical Pedagogy... My Questions
Do I challenge the banking model?
Am I aware of the challenges of false generosity?
Am I reflective so as to avoid becoming a sub-opressor?
Do I challenge the "zero paradigm"?
Am I a living example of my politics?
Do I use my social mobility to uplift?
Am I aware of the challenges of false generosity?
Am I reflective so as to avoid becoming a sub-opressor?
Do I challenge the "zero paradigm"?
Am I a living example of my politics?
Do I use my social mobility to uplift?
The Art of Critical Pedagogy... Challenges
Society perpetuates the belief that someone has to fail academically. We buy into the “largely unchallenged pedagogical system of grading and testing that by its very design guarantees failure for some” (Andrade & Morrell, 2008, p. 2). Academic failure and success hinge on culture and as Andrade and Morrell (2008) noted, schools are where the socio-economic sorting begins because of deemed economic failure. “To a large degree, the public discourse recognizes but leaves unchallenged the fact that wealthier communities have better educational opportunities… The few exceptional students who… succeed play an important role in this myth making.. publicizing rags-to-riches stories” (Andrade & Morrell, 2008, p. 3). If these stories exist, than opportunity exists, and the lie of equal opportunity can continue. Schools are systems of “inequality by design” (Andrade and Morrell, 2008), “academic apartheid” (Akom, 2003), and a “crisis of civil rights” (Harvard Civil Rights Project, 2005). Essentially, our school systems perpetuate the false narrative of opportunity for all.
References:
Andrade, D. A., and Morrell, E. (2008) The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools. New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang Publishers.
References:
Andrade, D. A., and Morrell, E. (2008) The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools. New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang Publishers.
July 10, 2009
Critical Pedagogy
Freire's critical pedagogy is cyclical and asks that first that the problem be identified then analyzed. A plan of action has to be created to address the problem and of course the plan must then be implemented. Finally, the action must be analyzed and evaluated before the cycle is repeated again.
Engaging Sexual-Minority... Cultural Literacy Matters!
Cultural literacy is crucial if we are to engage all our students in the classroom. It heteronormativity is culturally engrained what are we prepared to do for our students to both support and enlighten them about the world around them?
Quotes of importance to me:
“Youth who grow into sustainable resilience value self-knowledge and have self-understanding that enables them to be reflexive as they make casual connections between their experiences and their resulting emotional impact” (Grace, 2009, p. 4).
“A transformation of heterosexualizing schools that have traditionally maintained the heteronormative status quo is necessary if there is to be systemic change to make learning and life better for sexual minorities” (Grace, 2009, p. 5).
“With school culture and the larger Canadian culture lagging behind legislation and the law in this inclusive approach, it is no wonder that more and more students feel the need to realize these legal and legislative protections in their everyday schooling and lives through their own efforts to fight heterosexism and homophobia in classrooms, corridors, and communities” (Grace & Wells, 2009, p. 28).
“Schooling has historically been about preserving the status quo and tradition, which, in regard to sex, sexuality, and gender, means assuming the exclusive morality of heterosexuality and the limited ontology of two biological sexes as cultural imperatives” (Grace & Wells, 2009 p. 29).
“Coming out is a lifelong process that involves consideration of individual comfort, safety, vulnerability, and perceived levels of support and acceptance” (Grace & Wells, 2009, p. 33).
"In reality, changes in law and legislation accepting and accommodating sexual minorities have been slow to permeate Canada’s dominant culture and society. In general, sexual orientations and gender identities that lie outside the confines of heteronormativity remain problematic and often unacceptable, especially to social conservatives” (Grace & Wells, 2007, p. 102).
References:
Grace, A. P. (2006). Writing the queer self: Using autobiography to mediate inclusive teacher education in Canada. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 826-834.
Grace, A. p. (2009, June 23-26). Resilient sexual minority youth as fugitive lifelong learners: Engaging is a strategic, asset-creating, community-based learning process to counter exclusion and trauma in formal schooling. Proceedings of the 2009 International Lifelong Learning Conference of the Scottish Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning Stirling, UK: CRLL, University of Stirling.
Grace, A.P. & Wells, K. (2009). Gay and bisexual male youth as educator activists and cultural workers: The queer critical praxis of three Canadian high-school students. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 13:1, 23-44.
Grace, A. P. & Wells, K. (2007a). Using Freirean pedagogy of just ire to inform critical social learning in arts-informed community education for sexual minorities. Adult Education Quarterly, 57:2, 95-114.
Quotes of importance to me:
“Youth who grow into sustainable resilience value self-knowledge and have self-understanding that enables them to be reflexive as they make casual connections between their experiences and their resulting emotional impact” (Grace, 2009, p. 4).
“A transformation of heterosexualizing schools that have traditionally maintained the heteronormative status quo is necessary if there is to be systemic change to make learning and life better for sexual minorities” (Grace, 2009, p. 5).
“With school culture and the larger Canadian culture lagging behind legislation and the law in this inclusive approach, it is no wonder that more and more students feel the need to realize these legal and legislative protections in their everyday schooling and lives through their own efforts to fight heterosexism and homophobia in classrooms, corridors, and communities” (Grace & Wells, 2009, p. 28).
“Schooling has historically been about preserving the status quo and tradition, which, in regard to sex, sexuality, and gender, means assuming the exclusive morality of heterosexuality and the limited ontology of two biological sexes as cultural imperatives” (Grace & Wells, 2009 p. 29).
“Coming out is a lifelong process that involves consideration of individual comfort, safety, vulnerability, and perceived levels of support and acceptance” (Grace & Wells, 2009, p. 33).
"In reality, changes in law and legislation accepting and accommodating sexual minorities have been slow to permeate Canada’s dominant culture and society. In general, sexual orientations and gender identities that lie outside the confines of heteronormativity remain problematic and often unacceptable, especially to social conservatives” (Grace & Wells, 2007, p. 102).
References:
Grace, A. P. (2006). Writing the queer self: Using autobiography to mediate inclusive teacher education in Canada. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 826-834.
Grace, A. p. (2009, June 23-26). Resilient sexual minority youth as fugitive lifelong learners: Engaging is a strategic, asset-creating, community-based learning process to counter exclusion and trauma in formal schooling. Proceedings of the 2009 International Lifelong Learning Conference of the Scottish Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning Stirling, UK: CRLL, University of Stirling.
Grace, A.P. & Wells, K. (2009). Gay and bisexual male youth as educator activists and cultural workers: The queer critical praxis of three Canadian high-school students. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 13:1, 23-44.
Grace, A. P. & Wells, K. (2007a). Using Freirean pedagogy of just ire to inform critical social learning in arts-informed community education for sexual minorities. Adult Education Quarterly, 57:2, 95-114.
July 9, 2009
What lens is used?
Who's literacy should matter? Who should get to set the standards or frames of literacy?
Being a Woman... The Underside of Schooling
This article was hard to read because of who I am… a woman, a student, a teacher and soon to be a single mother. Could my soon to be single-parent family be defective in comparison to the “normal” family? Will the preknowledge of my daughter be questioned because of it?
Quotes that made me think:
“A key component of this engine of inequality is an educational system that relies on supplementary unpaid work in the home to produce its curriculum objectives” (Smith, 1998, p. 24).
“An engine of inequality has been described, interlocking the unpaid labor of (middle-class) women in the home and the local practices of schools. What a teacher can achieve in the classroom depends on the general level of the background educational work contributed by the home” (Smith, 1998, p. 24).
“Reassembled or retooled, the pieces of the old engine pull parents who have time, resources, and skills into intensifying their unpaid labor to supplement the work of schooling while dumping the children of those who don’t into an educational underclass” (Smith, 1998, p. 27).
References:
Smith, D. (1998) The Underside of Schooling. Restructuring, Privatization, and Women’s Unpaid Work. Journal for a Just and Caring Education, 4:1, 11-29.
Quotes that made me think:
“A key component of this engine of inequality is an educational system that relies on supplementary unpaid work in the home to produce its curriculum objectives” (Smith, 1998, p. 24).
“An engine of inequality has been described, interlocking the unpaid labor of (middle-class) women in the home and the local practices of schools. What a teacher can achieve in the classroom depends on the general level of the background educational work contributed by the home” (Smith, 1998, p. 24).
“Reassembled or retooled, the pieces of the old engine pull parents who have time, resources, and skills into intensifying their unpaid labor to supplement the work of schooling while dumping the children of those who don’t into an educational underclass” (Smith, 1998, p. 27).
References:
Smith, D. (1998) The Underside of Schooling. Restructuring, Privatization, and Women’s Unpaid Work. Journal for a Just and Caring Education, 4:1, 11-29.
July 8, 2009
Literate Citizenship
Both Phillis Wheatley and Helen Keller struggled to have their voices heard by a society that deemed them voiceless. Both these literate women were thought to be unable to grow mentally and they were perceived as less than or not part of normal society. Wheatley's colour of skin and Keller's deafness and blindness were enough to have their literate selves questioned.
July 7, 2009
What is missing?
This cartoon gives us something to think about. The medical model gives us plenty of information to use but at what cost? When discussing the future of education and taking differences into account, do we not need to use a social model to dialogue effectively and do what is best for our students?
Dewey's Contributions
There is a divide in the view of special education. Is special education to be viewed under the lens of medical model or social model? The models contrast and for the most part it is the medical model which has taken precedence.
Danforth clearly presents John Dewey as a major contributor to the educational philosophy of intellectual disability and promoter of the social model.
Consider the following quotes:
“Rather than conducting an evaluation based on the actual activities that an individual undertakes in daily life, intelligence tests simple classify a person based on a series of contextually disconnected activities, thereby providing no insight into the current or potential talents of an individual” (Danforth, 2008, p. 48).
“Given that different purposes or outcomes would require different standards of evaluation, it struck Dewey as illogical that one test could conduct a universal scale of value that somehow applied to all life’s contests and goals. Additionally, he noted that, given the difference social positions and cultures of various ethnic and racial groups, a test that demonstrates the superiority of one over another is merely failing to evaluate life activities engaged in by the supposedly inferior group” (Danforth, 2008, p. 49).
“Within a society cultivating a deep commitment to equality and an appreciation for the unique individuality of each citizen, a so-called universal test the creates hierarchical classes of citizens is as useful as a porous soup bowl” (Danforth, 2008, p. 50).
References:
Danforth, S. (2008) John Dewey’s Contributions To An Educational Philosophy Of Intellectual Disability. Educational Theory 58:1, 45-62.
Danforth clearly presents John Dewey as a major contributor to the educational philosophy of intellectual disability and promoter of the social model.
Consider the following quotes:
“Rather than conducting an evaluation based on the actual activities that an individual undertakes in daily life, intelligence tests simple classify a person based on a series of contextually disconnected activities, thereby providing no insight into the current or potential talents of an individual” (Danforth, 2008, p. 48).
“Given that different purposes or outcomes would require different standards of evaluation, it struck Dewey as illogical that one test could conduct a universal scale of value that somehow applied to all life’s contests and goals. Additionally, he noted that, given the difference social positions and cultures of various ethnic and racial groups, a test that demonstrates the superiority of one over another is merely failing to evaluate life activities engaged in by the supposedly inferior group” (Danforth, 2008, p. 49).
“Within a society cultivating a deep commitment to equality and an appreciation for the unique individuality of each citizen, a so-called universal test the creates hierarchical classes of citizens is as useful as a porous soup bowl” (Danforth, 2008, p. 50).
References:
Danforth, S. (2008) John Dewey’s Contributions To An Educational Philosophy Of Intellectual Disability. Educational Theory 58:1, 45-62.
Experiences with Paraprofessional Support
Broer, Doyle and Giangreco’s (2005) study examines the perspective of students with intellectual disabilities experiences with paraprofessional support.
Four themes emerged from the study:
1. Paraprofessional as Mother
2. Paraprofessional as Friend
3. Paraprofessional as Protector From Bullying
4. Paraprofessional as Primary Teacher
Each theme is interrelated and has both positive and negative aspects for the consumer, the student. Thus, there are implications for practice.
“What these students sought was so simple and yet foundational to quality education. They wanted to belong. They wanted to feel that they were worthy of the teacher’s time. They wanted to have friends. They wanted to go about their school day without fear or embarrassment. They wanted to learn. In too many cases they did not experience these basics, despite the fact that the attended general education classes and had the support of the paraprofessionals” (Broer, Doyle & Giangreco, 2005, p. 427).
References:
Broer, S., Doyle, M.B. & Giangreco, M. (2005) Perspectives of Students With Intellectual Disabilities About Their Experiences With Paraprofessional Support, Exceptional Children, 71:4, 415-430.
Four themes emerged from the study:
1. Paraprofessional as Mother
2. Paraprofessional as Friend
3. Paraprofessional as Protector From Bullying
4. Paraprofessional as Primary Teacher
Each theme is interrelated and has both positive and negative aspects for the consumer, the student. Thus, there are implications for practice.
“What these students sought was so simple and yet foundational to quality education. They wanted to belong. They wanted to feel that they were worthy of the teacher’s time. They wanted to have friends. They wanted to go about their school day without fear or embarrassment. They wanted to learn. In too many cases they did not experience these basics, despite the fact that the attended general education classes and had the support of the paraprofessionals” (Broer, Doyle & Giangreco, 2005, p. 427).
References:
Broer, S., Doyle, M.B. & Giangreco, M. (2005) Perspectives of Students With Intellectual Disabilities About Their Experiences With Paraprofessional Support, Exceptional Children, 71:4, 415-430.
Social Model of Literacy and Disability
Quotes of importance:
“Where the autonomous model regards literacy as an individual achievement, the medical model views disability as an individual problem” (Brewster, 2004, p. 46).
“The social model of disability acknowledges the oppression shared by all disabled people despite the widely differing nature of their intellectual, sensory or physical impairments” (Brewster, 2004, p. 47).
“If one adopts a social model of disability, the barriers to certain activities are often revealed to be not as a result of the impairments themselves” (Brewster, 2004, p. 49).
“A social perspective provides a useful framework for the study of disability and literacy. The approach brings into sharper focus the shortcomings of the traditional conceptualizations of the ‘medical model’ and of literacy being merely a set of cognitive skills. If these traditional models are retained, practitioners in both the disability and literacy fields will not be equipped to address these coexisting sources of disadvantage” (Brewster, 2004, p. 51).
References:
Brewster, S. (2004) Insights from a Social Model of Literacy and Disability. Literacy, UKLA
“Where the autonomous model regards literacy as an individual achievement, the medical model views disability as an individual problem” (Brewster, 2004, p. 46).
“The social model of disability acknowledges the oppression shared by all disabled people despite the widely differing nature of their intellectual, sensory or physical impairments” (Brewster, 2004, p. 47).
“If one adopts a social model of disability, the barriers to certain activities are often revealed to be not as a result of the impairments themselves” (Brewster, 2004, p. 49).
“A social perspective provides a useful framework for the study of disability and literacy. The approach brings into sharper focus the shortcomings of the traditional conceptualizations of the ‘medical model’ and of literacy being merely a set of cognitive skills. If these traditional models are retained, practitioners in both the disability and literacy fields will not be equipped to address these coexisting sources of disadvantage” (Brewster, 2004, p. 51).
References:
Brewster, S. (2004) Insights from a Social Model of Literacy and Disability. Literacy, UKLA
Competence
Biklen and Kliewer’s (2006) perspective of Blatt (1966) is powerful. I too know of no one who wants to be labeled in a way that disenfranchises them from society but yet I know people who will label others in a way to do so.
“Mainstreaming or integration were not for science to anoint. Whether or not to support integration was a matter of morality, not of science” (Biklen & Kliewer, 2006, p. 174).
Consider the idea of intelligence. Consider the idea of competence. Who sets the “norm” and what set of competences are being looked at? To often performance is the judged factor for intellect and competence.
Biklen and Kliewer (2006) present three principles so that we may consider that dis/ability and competence are socially constructed:
1. Disability Professionals have used labels that have become fixed with “medical abnormality” and are therefore loaded labels.
2. To understand the labelled person we need to understand the social context the label is being used in.
3. It is important to presume competence and abandon the negative lens of incompetence.
References:
Biklen, D. & Kliewer, C. (2006) Constructing Competence: Autism, Voice and the ‘Disordered’ Body. International Journal of Inclusive Education, Vol. 10:2, 169-188.
“Mainstreaming or integration were not for science to anoint. Whether or not to support integration was a matter of morality, not of science” (Biklen & Kliewer, 2006, p. 174).
Consider the idea of intelligence. Consider the idea of competence. Who sets the “norm” and what set of competences are being looked at? To often performance is the judged factor for intellect and competence.
Biklen and Kliewer (2006) present three principles so that we may consider that dis/ability and competence are socially constructed:
1. Disability Professionals have used labels that have become fixed with “medical abnormality” and are therefore loaded labels.
2. To understand the labelled person we need to understand the social context the label is being used in.
3. It is important to presume competence and abandon the negative lens of incompetence.
References:
Biklen, D. & Kliewer, C. (2006) Constructing Competence: Autism, Voice and the ‘Disordered’ Body. International Journal of Inclusive Education, Vol. 10:2, 169-188.
Inclusion
Biklen (2000) challenges us to consider how we “conceptualize and practice inclusive schooling in light of critical disability narratives” (p. 337). Disability, after all, can be socially constructed.
Four themes to consider:
•resisting a static understanding of disability
•creating and finding context for experiencing competence
•resistance to normate narratives
•honouring the experiences of disability
“The good teacher always sees his or her task as that of finding a better strategy, where the teacher is a coach rather than a judge, someone who looks for and fosters dialogue, and where demonstrated ability evolves through a reflective process rather than a contested one” (Biklen, 2000, p. 345). This is not a new idea… so why hasn’t beneficial inclusion become the norm or happened? Do we as educator’s help perpetuate the educational bias?
The one thing I am certain about is that fostering self advocacy in our students is very important.
References:
Biklen, D. (2000) Constructing Inclusion: Lessons from Critical, Disability Narratives. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 4:4, 337-353.
Four themes to consider:
•resisting a static understanding of disability
•creating and finding context for experiencing competence
•resistance to normate narratives
•honouring the experiences of disability
“The good teacher always sees his or her task as that of finding a better strategy, where the teacher is a coach rather than a judge, someone who looks for and fosters dialogue, and where demonstrated ability evolves through a reflective process rather than a contested one” (Biklen, 2000, p. 345). This is not a new idea… so why hasn’t beneficial inclusion become the norm or happened? Do we as educator’s help perpetuate the educational bias?
The one thing I am certain about is that fostering self advocacy in our students is very important.
References:
Biklen, D. (2000) Constructing Inclusion: Lessons from Critical, Disability Narratives. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 4:4, 337-353.
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