Response to “The Problem of Common Sense” by Kumashiro
Kumashiro defines commonsense in his work “The Problem of Common Sense” as the knowledge a group of people has that feels comfortable to them. Commonsense dictates the norms of daily life as they have been done in the past. When following these commonsense beliefs, we fail to question why we do these things or look critically at the belief. Commonsense understandings are foundational beliefs that are often not explicitly taught but are modelled in community, culture, and society.
It is essential to pay attention to ‘commonsense’ understandings as they limit our views. We fall into doing things the way we have seen them done, instead of trying new methods. We accept that the way things have been done must be the way they have to be done. Kumashiro shows this viewpoint when she says, “After all, common sense does not tell us that this is what schools could be doing, it tells us that this and only this is what schools should be doing.” (Page 35) Further, these commonsense understandings are oppressive in nature, and without addressing and changing the beliefs, we allow the oppression to continue. Kumashiro elaborates that ideas that challenge commonsense knowledge are often dismissed as bias, too political for schools, or too radical. People tend to cling to the commonsense because it is familiar to them, and a break from this normative narrative would shatter that they previously know about the world.
I come into this course with many commonsense understandings of curriculum and pedagogy. My knowledge of the curriculum is that it is a government document full of outcomes and indicators, and material that needs to be taught in specific grades. My understanding is that this document is used to create lessons, make sure each grade is taught similar content and that it is used as a guideline to assign grades. I was never sat down and told this; it is just what I gathered from context throughout my schooling years. My commonsense understanding of pedagogy involves learning methods such as note-taking, textbook reading/work, assignments, homework, quizzes, tests, and essays. This understanding came from the way I was taught. In one of my English classes, we attempted to break this commonsense understanding by participating in lessons inspired after Finland’s education system. Here we read aloud as a class, listened to stories, acted them out, and participated in group discussion rather than paper assignments after each reading. This learning method inspired me and showed that the way I understood learning was not the only way to learn. Trying new methods of teaching and learning, we were able to break the commonsense understanding, which helped to break the idea that every time we read a story, it had to be beaten to death with questions. When we break this commonsense understanding, we open our world to new information and new ways of learning and understanding.
Kumashiro. (2009). Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice, pp. XXIX – XLI).
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I enjoyed reading your blog and how much you came up with a lot of your own ideas for each section rather than only relating your thoughts to definitions of things. I agree with your definition of common sense but do you think common sense has stayed the same as it was in the past? Does common sense change with the times and if so how long does it take for common sense to be altered in society? Do you think “we accept that the way things have been done must be the way they have to be done” because it’s the way it must be done or because it has been normalized?
When you speak about common sense being done in the past, are you referring to it as traditions that have stuck around within society making it common sense?
I have the same idea of curriculum, the outcomes and indicators are what create the curriculum and the government is the creator and specifies what we must teach. Your definition of pedagogy, is it referring to the way you teach “note-taking, textbook reading/work, assignments, homework, quizzes, tests, and essays.” or are you just stating that pedagogy is these thing alone and not the way in which we teach them?
Thanks for your comment! I for sure think that common sense can change and has changed with the times. Often I think common sense changes when there is a push for it to be changed. For instance, the common sense used to be that women did not get to vote. It took the women’s suffrage movement to change that common sense idea. Much like the common-sense idea that women were to stay at home, which changed as women were needed to work in factories. I don’t know if there is a set timeline for when common sense will change, but it seems that it changes when people work to change it. Technology and innovation can also be a push to change common sense. Many things that to my grandparents on a farm would have been a common-sense understanding of daily chores are nothing like my understanding of daily chores today.
I believe that we accept that the way things have been done must be how they have to be done because it has been normalized. There are many other ways of doing one task, but we accept the common sense way because it has been normalized. Common sense that has been done in the past does not only refer to traditions per se. If you think about the example Katia had stated, the fact that school starts in September and goes until June has its roots in farming. We no longer need children to have these months off of school for farming (or at least many of us), but we continue to do things this way because it has always been done this way.
As for your question regarding pedagogy, I was stating what I had thought pedagogy had to be before I entered into the education program. Those were just my thoughts from throughout my schooling, on what I thought teaching had to look like. Now I believe that pedagogy is how we teach, our personal beliefs and teaching philosophy. Someone’s teaching philosophy can be more centred around what I had described, where personally, I enjoy hands-on learning.
I hope my long-winded response answers your questions! Have a great week!