This presentation focuses on the connections between learning theories and transformative pedagogies (i.e. feminist, critical, and ecojustice theories).
This presentation focuses on the connections between learning theories and transformative pedagogies (i.e. feminist, critical, and ecojustice theories).
Transformative
Pedagogies
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University
Docility or Democracy?
• Does current education policy and
curricula encourage docility or active
democracy?
• What are the actions of an active populace?
How can education produce these actions?
From Constructivism to
Critical Constructivism
• What are the major elements of
constructivism?
• What are the major elements of critical
constructivism?
3 Types of Curricula
• Mainstream Curriculum - Curriculum that is
explicit
• Hidden Curriculum - Messages that are implicit
• Null Curriculum - Messages that are silenced,
omitted, or just simply not included. These also
are critical views of the mainstream and hidden
curricula
3 Types of Curricula
• Mainstream Curriculum - Columbus was a strong, brave
“explorer” that opened the doors for European
colonization of the Americas.
• Hidden Curriculum - Europeans are more advanced and
sophisticated than the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Eurocentrism, patriarchy, technology over nature.
• Null Curriculum - Columbus violently exploited and
dominated the indigenous peoples of the Americas, which
was part of a larger European mindset that allowed for
genocide, enslavement, assimilation, colonization and in
contemporary settings, globalization (or global
Westernization).
Hidden Curriculum in a
Teacher’s Practice
Heterosexism
Sexism Naturism
Anthropocentrism Corporatism
Eurocentrism Classism
Patriotism/
Racism
Militarism
Teaching
Practice
Power & Knowledge
• The focus in critical constructivism is on
the relationships between power and
knowledge.
Evolution of Learning Theories
Behaviorism Can only see behaviors; thinking is a
mystery; mind is a “black box.”
Cognitivism Lots of thinking going on in the brain;
focused on the individual learner
Sociocognitivism Learning largely happen in a social context
Constructivism Learning is in a social context and interacts
with our prior knowledge and experiences
Critical
Includes a focus on power and knowledge
Constructivism relationships
Religionism Militarism Anthropocentrism
Traditional Teaching
Patriotism M
L U
Classism
Sexism
Heterosexism C U
R I
Racism R Religionism Militarism Anthropocentrism
U Patriotism
C Classism
Sexism U M
L
Heterosexism
C U
Racism R I
R
U
C
Docility
Christopher
Columbus was a Columbus is a neutral
great explorer who person in history
discovered the
New World Columbus was brave and
strong Docility
Transformative Teaching
Reading the World
Context For
Learning
Curriculum
How is Christopher Columbus seen by
different peoples? Movement
Who benefits from Columbus seen as a
“hero?”
Towards
Who benefits from Columbus seen as a
Social Justice Columbus seen as “hero” gives legitimacy
to Europeans who used colonization,
murderer & colonizer? genocide, and slavery for hundreds of years
in the Americas.
Hidden Curriculum in a
Teacher’s Practice
What did did you learnschool today, dear little boyboy mine?
What you learn in in school today, dear little of of
I learned that Washington never told a lie
mine?
I Ilearned that soldiersnot so bad
learned that war is seldom die
I learned about that great ones we have had
I learned the everybody's free
We fought in the teacher said to me
That's what Germany and in France
And that's what II learned in my chance
And someday might get school today
And that's what I Ilearned in school today
That's what learned in school
That's what I learned in school
What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,my friends boy of
I learned that policemen are dear little
I learned thatmine? never ends
justice
II learned that our government must becrimes
learned that murderers die for their strong
Even if we make a and never wrong
It's always right mistake sometimes
And that'sleaders learned finest men
Our what I are the in school today
That's what I learned in school
And we elect them again and again
And that's what I learned in school today
That's what I learned in school
What is Learning?
• Learning is a process of changing one’s
relationships with her/his community, which
consist of interconnections with nature and
society.
Assumptions:
• Information is diverse, culturally grounded, and a
representation of a value system (knowledge/power
relationship).
• The learner is constantly challenging their own
location in relationship to culture, ideology, power
structures, technology, and nature.
Model of...
Learning as a process of changing one’s relationships with
her/his community, which consist of interconnections with
nature and society
Teacher and students
use dialogue to
create learning
Adults view knowledge
Teacher treats knowledge as as subject to critical
produced and located in questioning based on its
culture, history, ideology, and cultural, historical,
power relationships with Students see their own ideological, and ecological
relationships with a curriculum locations and power
society and our relationships that is culturally, historically,
relationships
with nature ideologically, ecologically
located
Power & Education
Power-Over Power
Power-With
Domination Nature Ecological
over nature, sustainability,
social injustice, human-nature
docile & connection,
oppressed Education social justice,
student students
engaged in
creating social
Community and ecological
justice
Nature
Power & Community
• Power-Over & Community:
• Conformity, consumerism, & inequality
• Power-With & Community:
• Democratic equality
• Vibrant cultural commons
Power & Education
• Power-Over & Education:
• Students become “good workers” and
participate in oppression of people and
nature
• Power-With & Education:
• Students create knowledge, engage in
socially just communities, and promote
ecologically sustainable practices &
relationships
Power-Over to Power-With
What is Hegemony?
• Hegemony is the perpetuation of social injustices
(i.e. classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism).
• Hegemony allows for the powerful elites to retain
their power while non-violently controlling the less
powerful groups.
• Hegemony is perpetuated through social consensus,
social forms, and social structures including schools,
church, media, political system, and family.
Different Pedagogies
Power Spiritual?
Eco-Justice
Nature Traditional
Pedagogy
Pedagogy
Critical Education
Pedagogy
Multicultural Community Feminist
Education Pedagogy
Pedagogies of Hegemony
• Traditional Pedagogy - maintain the current power
structures (social stratifications & power imbalances) via
conveying information that was constructed through the
same power imbalances
• Multicultural Pedagogy - The dominant group
permitting (or tolerating) marginalized groups to have a
place in society ONLY if there is no inclusion on power
issues in cultural and social differences.
Transformative Pedagogies
• Feminist Pedagogy - Critique the patriarchical
conditions that are embedded and often invisible in
curriculum and teaching practices
• Critical Pedagogy - Critique the power structures that
produce knowledge and are embedded and invisible in
curriculum and teaching practices
Transformative Pedagogies
• Eco-justice pedagogy - Resist(Western of the
processes of Western Globalization
the formation
Monoculture) by engaging in the revitalization of the
cultural commons (practices that are not dependent on a
monetized system)
Major Feminist
Critiques of Education
Feminist Theory
• History of patriarchy
• Objectivity
• Objectification of nature
• Isolationism, individualism
• Embedded in language
WHAT IS FEMINISM?
What do you think that feminism is?
Come up with as many examples of patriarchy that
you can think of.
Are only men capable of acting in a patriarchal way?
Can only women be feminists?
A LITTLE HISTORY...
First Wave Feminism - Late 1800’s in U.S. and Western
Europe, focused on women’s suffrage and how men control women
in the home.
Second Wave Feminism - 1960’s-1970’s in U.S. and Western
Europe, focused on “body politics,” what’s private is public/political,
women’s movement
Backlash - During the 1980’s in the U.S., strong patriarchal figures
(Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh, Rambo, Rocky, and Andrew “Dice”
Clay) gained popularity and provided a discourse against the civil
rights movements of the previous twenty years.
A LITTLE HISTORY...
Third Wave Feminism - 1990’s - Present globally,
focused on intersectional analysis of race, gender, class, and
geopolitical location
Critique: These “waves” are from the perspective of
White, middle class women in the U.S. and in Western
Europe. Black females in the U.S. argued that they have been
working on all three “waves” since the late 1800’s.
Furthermore, White females often instituted racist
conditions against Black women during the first and second
waves.
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF
PATRIARCHY
Daily Living - Most visible
(Car dealerships, service people, church, pay scales,
etc.)
Research & Construction of Knowledge -
Less Visible
(Carol Gilligan, heart attacks, Puerto Rico)
Social Construction of Reality - Least Visible
(Language, scientific philosophy, worldviews, ideologies)
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Since birth, women and men are driven down rigid
paths of gender roles which not only encompass
actions and behaviors, but thoughts and emotions.
Science and math are continually seen as rational,
independent, objective, impersonal, unemotional, and
competitive. Thus, the production of knowledge has
gone through a very narrow lens that has been
legitimized by a patriarchal lens.
SCIENCE & OBJECTIVITY
Can objectivity ever exist?
Objectivity claims that we can somehow separate
ourselves from our history, location, gender, culture,
class, race, etc. and “relocate” to a “neutral” position
from which to see the universe, nature, and
phenomena.
Donna Haraway calls this process a “god-trick.”
WHERE ARE WE?
Sandra Harding’s “Strong Objectivity”
Bring in as many different peoples into scientific
research which can strengthen “objectivity.”
Donna Haraway’s “Situated Knowledge”
Researchers need to bring in their positions(i.e.
race, history, culture, gender, location, class, etc.)
into their work because knowledge is always
constructed through who we are.
STANDPOINT THEORY
The acknowledgement that we can never be neutrally
located. With that, we need to always be aware of
how social, historical, and cultural processes are
constructing us, our thoughts, and our knowledge
production processes such as research.
Our knowledge is always produced from someone’s
or a group’s “standpoint.”
FEMINIST PEDAGOGY
What does this mean for your practice?
What are some concrete examples of how you would
tap into feminist theory as a way to make decisions
about your own activities, lesson plans, curriculum,
etc.?
WAYS OF KNOWING
What are the different ways that we come to know
information and construct knowledge?
Observation Relationships Measurement
Experience Historically Power Relations
Intuition Intergenerationally Media
Spiritually Emotionally Senses
THE EARTH
Western Science:
The Earth is a collection of materials, minerals, and
chemicals in systems.
Which “ways of knowing” construct this
knowledge?
Which “ways of knowing” are excluded?
What is missing from this description of the Earth?
THE EARTH
Indigenous Science:
The Earth is an integrated, interdependent,
interconnected, nurturing and spiritual being that
reciprocates life through balance and sustainability.
Which “ways of knowing” construct this
knowledge?
Which “ways of knowing” are excluded?
What is missing from this description of the Earth?
Major Critical Critiques of
Education
Critical Theory
• Power is concentrated in the production
of knowledge
• Subjects seen as disconnected from power
and as a result are viewed as neutral.
• Subject areas perpetuate hegemony of
socioeconomic classes and race
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Critical Pedagogy
Major Focus:
Understanding and disrupting power imbalances that are present in
educational settings especially as affected by issues of class
Critical Pedagogy: Major Principles
Liberatory Education: An educational experience that allows
for students to question power in society.
Class Struggle: The primary mode of analysis comes from
looking at how socioeconomics limits people’s power. Jean Anyon’s
study of how knowledge is treated differently based on the class of
the students.
Hegemony: Power concentrated with the dominant elites and
maintained nonviolently through social structures.
Critical Pedagogy: Major Principles
Cultural Capital: Those knowledges that are valued by the
dominant elites
Reading the World vs. Reading the Word:
Understanding and investigating social justice issues vs. having
technical decontextualized knowledge
Naming: Exposing and identifying those social processes that
promote hegemony and social injustice
Critical Pedagogy: Major Principles
Cognizable Objects: An object from every day life that is used
for deconstructing social processes that create social injustice.
Generative Themes: Topics that students raise that become
classroom topics for investigation and exploration.
Major Ecojustice Critiques of
Education
Eco-justice Theory
• Nature seen as for-profit only
• Consistent reduction of the cultural
commons and commons-based
practices
• Knowledge as decontextualized
• Language based on metaphors that
supports competition and individualism
Roots of Ecojustice Theory
& Pedagogy
Ecofeminism - a feminist theory that describes the
relationship between nature and women; includes an
analysis of the added burden that women face,
especially in third-world nations, when environment is
compromised.
Indigenous Education - rooted in Native American
cultures and philosophies; includes a focus on humans
as part of nature living with reciprocity.
Summary Points of Ecojustice Theory
Eliminating eco-racism
Revitalizing the commons to create a balance between
market and non-market aspects of community life
Ending the industrialized nations’ exploitation and
cultural colonization of third-world nations
Summary Points of Ecojustice Theory
Ensure that the hubris and ideology of Western
industrial culture does not diminish future generations’
ways of living and quality of life
Support an “Earth Democracy”--the right of nature to
flourish rather than be contingent upon the demands of
humans
Footpath = Your View of Reality?
House Building
Nature?
Sidewalk Sidewalk
Driveway Parking Lot
Car
Our View of Ecology
Creates Our Culture
Our ecology is anthropocentric
Our daily living ecology is seen as being separate from
nature.
Our technology is our ecology!
Because our culture is separate from nature, our
culture is separate from ancient wisdoms which are
sustainable practices of living with each other and
living with the Earth and all its inhabitants.
Technology = Ecology
What happens to people when technology replaces
ecology as a constant viewpoint and the main viewpoint of
“reality”?
What becomes of culture? knowledge? economics? value
systems? health? relationships? views of dependence and
interdependence? views of interconnectedness? systems of
power? equity?equality? religion? sex? spirituality?
Teacher-as-Mediator
Different from the constructivist view of teacher-as-facilitator
Teacher-as-mediator - Teacher provides opportunities for
students to explore two or more cultures, lifestyles, and
relationships. The purpose is not only to compare, and
understand the differences, but to ultimately consider what
should be conserved from each for their own practices and
lifestyles, as well as for their communities.
Thick description - The complex act of studying, researching,
and experiencing knowledge deeply.
Context is Everything!
❖ Traditional teachers often ask: “What facts and concepts
do my students need to know?” Curriculum viewed as a
package of facts to learn.
❖ Critical teachers ask: “What are the social, political,
power-based, cultural, historical, and ecological issues that
are happening in the world that are creating injustice?” The
contextual problem that is posed in the classroom will have
many, many pieces of the curriculum that will be covered.
The “Critical” Teacher
Preparing Lessons
❖ “What are the social, political, historical, ecological issues
that are current in the world that are creating injustice?”
❖ “Are the ways of bringing these critical contexts into the
classroom that will naturally give way to covering the
curriculum?”
❖ Constantly looking at the contextual problem and looking
for connections to the curriculum.
Example: Global Warming
Critical context:
Global Warming
Curriculum content that naturally
comes out of Global Warming:
Radiation, convection, conduction
Atmospheric sciences Chemical Changes
Fluid dynamics Chemical Equations
Thermodynamics Stoichiometry
Pollution Recycling & Conservation
Chemical properties Fossil Fuels
Caring for Environments
Radiation, convection, conduction
What is Learning?
• Learning is a process of changing one’s
relationships with her/his community, which
consist of interconnections with nature and
society.
Assumptions:
• Information is diverse, culturally grounded, and a
representation of a value system (knowledge/power
relationship).
• The learner is constantly challenging their own
location in relationship to culture, ideology, power
structures, technology, and nature.
Critical Education Resources
❖ Social Studies: Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States of
America, James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me
❖ Mathematics: Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson’s Rethinking
Mathematics
❖ English: Patrick Finn’s Literacy with an Attitude, anything on
Critical Literacy (schedule an appointment with Dr. Cara Mulcahy in
the Reading and Literacy department)
❖ Science: Kurt Love’s work, Angela Calabrese Barton’s Teaching
Science for Social Justice, Wendell Berry, Sandra Harding, Donna
Haraway, C. A. Bowers, Vandana Shiva
Khaled Islaih
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