Month: January 2023

According to the norms or the commonsense that most people adhere too, a good student is an individual who fits precisely into their role in society. They are good students by sitting and listening quietly and by fitting into a mold that does not ruffle any feathers to those around them. By taking in the content, learning the methods and producing good results in their evaluations. Commonsense tells us that a good student learns in school what’s necessary to be able to positively contribute in their future roles as workers, it tell us that this is what the education system and the person themselves should be striving for.

This way of thinking gives an advantage to students who are more “traditional” learners, students who come from backgrounds with more support and resources, students who have lived in the nation their whole life and speak the language. It disadvantages those who learn in different ways, new comers/new speakers of the language and those with tumultuous home and family lives. These students may not have someone to help with homework, the finances to get all they require for their education or may not have time to focus on their schoolwork because they work to support their family financially. The idea of the good student can only be detrimental because it is really impossible to fit people into one or two molds when research and personal experience shows us that people are incredibly unique and learn in many different ways.

The idea of the “good student” is rooted in historical stereotypes and ideas. The perception of the public has been historically that a student should learn in one certain way and that a teacher should teach in one certain way. Deviating from these standards or commonsense is often met with negative responses and hesitation. In “A History of Education,” they describe young student as helpless without a formal education, that they require assistance and direction for their physical and mental growths in order to achieve a worthy destiny. In order to be civilized and build character, a person must proceed successfully through the education system and if they don’t it is seen as a personal failure. These standards and ideals for education and students have been set since the beginning of our society; they remain strong in our society today although they may now be hidden or more subtle in how they are implemented.

Poetry and Patriotism (article)

In this article Maxine Greene Speaks about her experience at a slam poetry session with various urban teenage poets. She finds their performances and works intensely passionate and profound with the topics of the poetry ranging from outrage against discrimination to the war in Iraq. She asks us the reader, “Should schools be teaching these students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? – And allegiance to what? To the United States of America? To the President and his cronies?” She believed that it is up to the young people to change the world; that in order to get people to act and work towards improving society, we first need to get them out of their zones of complacency. At the end of the article Maxine states that such views may be part of an “emancipatory curriculum”, where the approach to education goes beyond the transfer of knowledge, encouraging the challenging of the dominant socio-economic and political norms/relations.

I also chose a few quotes that I found from Maxine that I felt got across a strong message in a few words or sentences. One of the quotes was one I believe we were shown in class as well, “The arts, it has been said, cannot change the world, but they may change human beings who might change the world.” This quote is one that stood out to me the most as I feel it shows how strongly she believes in the things she has faith in. Maxine Greene was known for her love of aesthetic education, confident that the arts could help foster the want for change in young people. For her, even if art isn’t the fix for all problems, it could lead those who were looking for direction down the right path to change. Another quote that I found interesting was, “Part of teaching is helping people create themselves,” and I interpreted that to mean that being a teacher isn’t just showing kids how to do addition, or write complete sentences or learning the periodic table. Being a teacher also means showing children how to be social/interact, how to critically think, how to distinguish from right and wrong and how to become confident, independent decision makers. As future teachers, we will have a big influence on youth during the years in their lives when they are finding out who they are.

For my first assignment, I plan on using Maxine Greene as one of my scholars and finding two other theorist who both agree and disagree with her stances. I have narrowed down my choices to a handful of articles by Maxine and her ideas on education. With these articles, I will address the similarities and differences in the arguments presented and how they connect with one another.

Greene, M. (2006). Poetry and Patriotism. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(8), 596–596. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170608700814

https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/emancipatory-education/72862

Throughout my time in the education system here in Saskatchewan I would say the majority of it has been spent experiencing the traditional idea of a curriculum or Tyler rationale. In elementary school especially, I remember classrooms, activities and events all felt very cookie cutter, sort of part of a bigger picture so everything had to be done in a certain way so nothing else in this “big picture” would be disturbed or thrown off. And most often the biggest emphasis was put on your evaluations and tests, to the point where students began to learn how to become masters at memorization and copying instead of critically thinking about and understanding a subject because that is what got them good results in their evaluations. I would say it wasn’t until I entered high school that I experienced what I could now recognize as a different type of curriculum approach being implemented (or attempted to be).

In my opinion some of the major limitations of the Tyler rationale are that it is too rigid and structured to be applied to all people. With education being something that is considered a basic human right and need we want to be able to deliver it to everyone, or as many people as possible. This is very difficult to do with a scientific, systematic approach to curriculum which values neutrality above other things. As it is stated in the article, this model places a lot of weight on measurability and assumes behavior can be objectively measured.  With such a massive variety of learners and educators with different behavior’s, how can we expect that one approach can work in all contexts from the perspective of the students or teachers?

On the other side, some of the benefits from this model could be its uniformity and the structure it can bring to a classroom. By making things more uniform and simple, this approach could prove to be useful in many different settings, being implemented fairly easily with different teachers and students. The success of this model has been partly attributed to its similarities to industrial management in how it is rational, efficient and orderly. The Tyler rationale also provides behavioral objectives that give a clear notion of outcomes so evaluation is clear and the same for everyone.

In  this article, Kumashiro describes “common sense”  and common sense ideas as varying depending on where you are and the people you are around.  Local customs, traditions, and norms will influence what common sense is to a group of people and that in turns becomes part of the identity of the people.  As we read, his transition from America to Nepal was one that made him adapt to much change and adapt to a new “common sense” that fit into the Nepalese lifestyle. His efforts to bring different methods of teaching and learning to the classroom were not met positively by students.

Kumashiro explains that its important to pay attention to what is considered common sense because often common sense goes unquestioned and unchallenged even though it can still be oppressive and make people feel marginalized.  The public is lead to believe that schools are neutral grounds but the reality is social, moral and political issues arise in the classroom settings whether we want them to or not. As it says in the article, common sense is not what should shape educational reform; instead it should be examined and looked at critically so we can improve the experiences of all students.

Coming into this course, my understanding of what curriculum and pedagogy were was limited. This being my second year of in the education program I was introduced to these concepts and learned about them during my first year but I know that there is much more to learn about both topics. What I would consider “common sense” for curriculum and pedagogy are things like curriculums being on a set schedule, with a clear set of content usually coming with expectations from students, parents, and the governments creating them. Curriculums are seen as what should be taught in schools and straying from them (the common sense) is generally not well received by the public. Pedagogy as I understand it is more the practices and methods you use as a teacher and how they approach teaching in general; their teaching style.