The article this week by Gruenewald entitled The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place was hard to get through. I think this is mostly due to the culmination of fatigue and stress on my end; nonetheless, this was not a light read. I have decided to make this virtual blog a space where I can lay out all the major ideas from the reading to help myself better understand the themes, rather than necessarily critically examining the author’s viewpoints.
Firstly, the author begins by delving into the meanings of critical pedagogy and place-based education which allows for converging links to be made between these two ways of thinking. The main goal for the author in this text is to demonstrate that these pedagogies are not mutually exclusive; rather, that they can work together to form place-based pedagogy so that “the education of citizens might have some direct bearing on the wellbeing of the social and ecological places people actually inhabit”. The author demonstrates that critical pedagogy evolved from well-established discourses, while place-based education is not as clearly defined and is connected to an array of practices within education. Also, place-based education is usually associated with rural contexts, while critical pedagogy is focused on in more multicultural or urban settings. The author explains that place-based education can and should be focused on in an urban setting in the context of critical pedagogy. As an urban Ed teacher candidate, I think it is important to re-think about how spaces are shaped by education, and how spaces in an urban setting also shape a person’s educational experience. Furthermore, I think focusing of student involvement in their surrounding communities, regardless of physical location, can be an important way to promote student engagement, while teaching students in ways that are applicable to their own lives in and outside the classroom. To be honest, while reading this article it took me a bit of research before I was able to clearly define critical pedagogy and place-based education for myself. According to the Promise of Place, place-based education “immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences, using these as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum. PBE emphasizes learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community”. Critical pedagogy, on the other hand, I was more familiar with. In this philosophy, education goes beyond the surface of memorization and repetition. This philosophy makes connections between what is being taught and how it is being learned, where learning is a process that never ends. Indeed, as Ira Shor defines, critical pedagogy focuses on the “habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional clichés, 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). In seeing these two terms more clearly defined, I feel I am able to have a clearer understanding of how these pedagogies can work in unison in an urban context. By combining the ideas of place-based education and critical pedagogies, students can become more immersed into their communities and better relate their schooling to their lives; furthermore, the students can then make important connections between their physical space and the process of their learning experience. By connecting these pedagogies, we are better able to see how all things related to the process and underlying factors affecting what and how we teacher and learn affected by and relate to the environments in which teaching and learning take place. By reflecting upon and individual’s experience, we must consider their social situation, their personal history, and the spaces that they inhabit. Place, therefore, is an important factor in the human experience and should consequently be considered regardless of the places that are in question. In considering place when looking at critical pedagogy, we are better able to understand the ecological system in which human cultures, and human education, are nested. References Shor, I. (1992). Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. What is Place-Based Education? Promise of Place. Retrieved from: http://www.promiseofplace.org/what_is_pbe
0 Comments
The reading from this week, by Kennelly and Youniss, discuss in detail the importance and ability for students to participate, engage in their community and stand up for their individual beliefs and for what is right. Throughout the term, we have come to learn of the importance of youth engagement and civic activism so learning how we as teachers can help foster students to speak up and become involved has become more and more important in my eyes.
In the paper by Youniss, we see that education does play a vital role in youth’s likelihood to become civically involved. This is seen at the secondary level, but even more so at the University and college level, as these institutions are often at the centre of political debates and encourage political discussion. Even at the elementary and high school level, when students are given the opportunity to participate politically in their community (whether that be through civics class, debates with their colleagues, forming class governments and committees, etc.) they are more likely to see the importance in democratic politics and how their personal views can make an impact. In Learning to Protest, Kennelly is able to delve deeper into how Canadian youth personal identities can shape the way youth are able to visualize themselves participating in political issues. In a sense, the political atmosphere has become sub-cultured, making it so certain people may feel less inclined to participate, or that their voices are not as important. Past histories and current situations all play into a youth’s experience and their ability or likelihood to contribute to their community in a political way. Not only does a person’s experience shape whether or not they feel they can participate in their community, but it also reflects what individuals find important to their own experience. For example, students may feel that racism is not an issue because they have not experienced it or been exposed to it in their own experience. In order to understand the significance of race in another’s experience, that student would then need to have an avenue where they are able to not only speak for what they know, but are also able to critically examine situations outside of their own. In the classroom, it is the teacher’s job to provide an atmosphere that allows students to feel comfortable expressing their opinions and talking about their own personal experiences and beliefs to allow the students to act on what they believe in, but also to learn about the democratic process. Even more importantly, teachers must remain unbiased in their treatment of students, and must be open to hearing what everyone in the classroom wishes to say. If a classroom is respectful of everyone’s voice, students can learn how to share their opinions in a way that allows issues to be resolved and for the community to move toward positive change. These skills will be able to move with students throughout their educational journey, and will provide students the experience and opportunity to participate more attentively with their communities in the future. From these reading, I have come to realize that focusing on civic engagement can benefit all students, regardless of the path they take. Classroom discussion, school governments, debates and other forms of civics in a school help students develop essential skills such as how to properly and respectfully debate or argue, turn-taking, rebutting, revising, persuading, collaborating and compromising and respect. All of these essential skills are critical in politics, but they are also applicable in many other subjects such as science, philosophy, religion and more. By giving students the opportunity to build these skills in an organized and inclusive class, students will be able to more easily and better apply these skills in other components of their life. On top of learning skills, civic engagement in the classroom will also allow students the opportunity to better understand what causes are important to them and to fight for these causes in a meaningful way. By working in a school setting where democratic practices and systems are in place, students are able to work toward sustaining the system for themselves and for others, thereby obtaining a better understanding of how politics, community evolvement and activism work outside the classroom. As educators, it is our job to not only foster the academic success for students, but also to foster student well-being, allowing students to develop into free-thinking, active, passionate citizens. Who students become is as important, if not more important, then what they learn. Both what we teach students day to day, and how we interact with and build relationships with students will contribute to what they are able to get out of their educational experience. Throughout elementary and secondary school, teachers also play a role in developing student’s sense of citizenship, and their willingness and methodology of engaging in their community. The amount and type of student engagement is seen to be shaped by changing factors in school and society, including that of digital literacy. In the reading by Bennett, the issues around changing levels and types of youth engagement are discussed in detail, and are seen to be shifting cross-nationally and generationally.
In the reading, two paradigms – youth engagement and youth disengagement - are compared in terms of the changing roles youth play in democratic citizenship. From these differing perspectives, I have come to ask the question; has the digital world made youth more engaged on different platforms, or more individualistic and less civically engaged all together? In the youth disengagement argument, I found Bennett made an interesting point by making the distinction between social engagement and democratic engagement. Just because youth are receiving more information, we cannot necessarily say that they are becoming more genuinely interesting in making positive changes in their communities. Nonetheless, I feel that increased digital citizenship can make a large and positive impact in the evolvement of youth in democratic issues. I think both theories of youth engagement and disengagement are valid in their own right and can be applied to different people or at different times. Regardless of which theory is being used as the lens at which we examine the issue around student engagement, there are noticeable declines or a lack of participation from youth in a formal political context. Youth have always been one of the least active groups in politics, and this has remained true even through the development of digital media. Therefore, as educators, I think it is crucial for us to ask ourselves how we can work with students to encourage the use of formal politics as a way to make social change. Another component mentioned in the article that is important to this point is the distinction between dutiful citizens and actualizing citizens. These differ models indicate that a lack in formal political participation does not necessarily indicate a lack of interest or engagement. Rather, youth may simply feel their actions are more meaningful in a more personal form. As with the paradigms of youth engagement, I don’t think these types of citizenship are necessarily opposing or that one type is more correct than the other. If youth feel they are making a difference through actualized citizenship, I don’t think it is right to devalue their efforts. Nonetheless, I also feel that education can be used as a platform to promote different forms of expressing citizenship for youth. Youth should become aware of the importance of activism in a formal political perspective and should be presented ways to make change in both individual to private and public or governmental platforms. It is evident that the education system plays a major role in shaping the ways in which students are able to view youth engagement. I find the biggest message I was able to take away from reading about this topic was the importance of developing a classroom atmosphere that gets kids excited about getting involved in their community. Whether this involvement is formal or informal, youth are able to make the biggest difference when they genuinely care about the issues that face them, their communities and the world. So, one of the best ways we can make positive change toward promoting youth engagement would be to make civics a main priority in our schools. As with many of the stories I have heard in readings and in discussion with my peers, civics classes are often last priority in schools. Teachers are placed in these classrooms because they were given the short end of the stick, not because they want to be there. Activism is seen as something you read about in a textbook, not something that people actually participated in. My civics class focused solely on the structure of the government, with no indication of how that would apply to my life at all. I left the class even less interested in politics than when I began. Quite honestly, it was only after I was able to experience university classes that I formed strong opinions about controversial topics, that I became more aware of the realities in my community and that I realized that I was a part of something bigger than myself. When I was exposed to different issues, I was able to find passion. Through passion, I have found myself engaging both formally and informally. I have experienced firsthand how education can contribute to the development of civic engagement in youth. I hope that one day, as a teacher, I am able to contribute to students finding this sense of civic engagement in elementary and secondary school, so they feel not just obligated to get involved, but feel passion toward interacting more deeply with their communities. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2017
Categories |