#reconceptualization

[gravitascivics]

CRITIQUE OF CRITICAL THEORY, III

Hopefully, the anecdote involving this blogger’s family and shared in the last posting serves as a basic grounding for the remaining points this blog makes concerning critical theory/pedagogy.  The claim here, in a few words, is that Marxian beliefs while having useful ideas and even ideals, is judged to be, in its basic assumptions, wrong and that goes a long way in explaining why polities guided by its precepts end up sacrificing liberties and relying on dictatorial governance.  

Yes, critical theory does not solely utilize Marxian precepts, but to the extent it does, there is this lingering concern.  And in that vein, implementing those arguments as a guiding force for civics education, at its basis, becomes highly suspect and this blogger believes, rightly so.  The challenge is:  how does one infuse instruction with a concern for the oppressed and their oppressive conditions,[1] yet maintain a strong commitment for liberalized, democratic rule?

With that note in mind, this blogger wishes to convey a foundational problem that critical pedagogues have created and in which they seem mired.  To a certain degree, they suffer from a contradictory foundation.  As such, these meaningful contradictions preclude this view from serving as a guiding force that its advocates strive to establish.

An example of this counterproductive element is that while the approach is influenced by the Marxian emphasis on class struggle, it is prone to adopt many elements of pedagogic ideas by such writers as Freire[2] (reviewed in a series of previous postings), along with post structural/postmodern concerns that directly attack, theoretically, such mega-theories as Marxism. In this line of thought, Cleo H. Cherryholmes writes:

 Critical pedagogy is a vague and ambiguous term. … [C]ritical pedagogy has referred to curriculum theory's “reconceptualist” movement … This movement has never been unified and continues to defy easy description. In the United States it is historically related to such “reconstructionist” educators of the pre-World War II period … It also exhibits influences from various western European intellectual developments that range from phenomenology to critical theory to post-structural and postmodern thought. Recently, critical pedagogy in the United States has incorporated ideas from literary criticism and theory, various strands of feminist thought and practice, and pragmatism.[3]

 This varied foundation means that its actual implementation has found it difficult to interpret their ideas toward developing definite curricular and instructional strategies.  To date, what seems to be the extent of their efforts is to make changes in the content they recommend or insert in textbooks – which have become easy targets for conservative policymakers (e.g., the governor of Florida) to attack and prohibit.

           To date, the effort has been made to argue that oppressive conditions either exist or have existed in the history of this nation.  A lot of the effort has centered on race – in how African Americans, Asians, and indigenous people have been exploited.  This has been done with content material depicting individual incidents of such occurrences – e.g., the events surrounding the Montgomery bus boycott in 1959.  

Or the lessons can inform students of statistics and descriptive accounts which document the maldistribution of income and wealth.  These accounts are analyzed according to race, gender, ethnicity, age, and other categories, proving that certain groups are marginalized; they are castigated as “others” in prevailing discourses.[4]

And yet another approach is that critical pedagogues use what are known as qualitative studies, usually utilizing interviewing techniques that uncover or shed light on social or school conditions which place some marginalized groups at a disadvantage.  While this blogger judges these approaches to have value, their use lacks solid connections to – heaven forbid – positivist studies which also have value.

But to date, one is hard pressed to find application of more substantive content reflecting the approach’s more theoretical concerns.  A great deal of attention of these writers is dedicated to epistemological questions. That is, critical literature invests a great deal of theorizing on the question of how students learn what they learn or how they know what they know.

Culture and language become, in these epistemological efforts, central concepts or factors. Lisa J. Cary captures the flavor of this literature:

 [For example, several writers in this vein] call for a study of the underlying epistemological assumptions and normalizing practices of anti-racist and multicultural education to work against the assimilationist tendencies of institutionalized efforts. Whiteness is a culturally constructed epistemological position of dominance. [It engages in othering] all considered non-white and creating the possibility of excluding them through objectifying and pathologizing their racial constructions. The epistemology of whiteness is a culturally advantaged standpoint from which to maintain positions of privilege and power.[5]

 Without a direct and clear exposition of how the nation exemplifies how oppressive these advocates claim the nation to be, the message is not effective and does not hit home with the prevailing student population.

         Why?  It fails because:

 ·       There are just too many cases of success from humble beginnings to glibly rate the US as an oppressive nation.

·       The prevailing language of the nation supports this rags to riches discourse – e.g., it pervades the media.

·       While there are oppressive practices not just in the US but across the advanced nations, the common belief is that such is the way of the world – look at what exists in non-developed countries.

·       And part of the established view that while oppression is regrettable, there are governmental programs established to assuage the more egregious aspects of its ongoing condition (read welfare programs and the like).

 While such messaging might be considered wanting – such provisions do not solve the inherent problems – one might be hard pressed to classify the US and other Western nations as oppressive societies albeit the oppressive conditions and practices they sustain.

Relative to this discussion, defining the terms oppression and oppressive society would be helpful. Here, the concern is what critical pedagogues might offer as a definition: Oppression is any condition in which an individual or group is subjected to unjust treatment and that holds down those affected in terms of economic, social, and/or political conditions. All societies have, within their state of affairs, suffered from examples of oppressive acts or conditions.

That is, the definition offers a low standard for allocating an oppressive status to a nation – it pertains to all nations.  Here is what this blogger believes is a better definition: An oppressive society is one in which acts of oppression occur and the victimized party(ies) have no political, legal, economic or other means, short of violent revolution, to effectively fight against the offensive condition(s).  

Such a definition can easily be applied to southern states through slavery and after during pre-civil rights movement years – some would argue the term still applies to all of the US in how it treats African Americans.[6]  Yet, one can also argue extensive policies have been put in place to address what is offensive with existing conditions.  The only point here is that there exists some level of nuance and one is hard pressed to comment without being categorized as supporting oppression or fighting it.

But generally, through the 1990s, the nation was meeting many of the conditions that one could consider oppressive. In the new millennium, though, one can argue that a regression has been taking place in those efforts. This blogger has cited many of the income and wage shifts in favor of upper classes that characterize that development.

The nation now has an extended and what seems to be chronic unemployment among certain groups that adds to the concern, and these extend to white groups who manned many manufacturing jobs. But still, there are significant, institutionalized means by which people can do things to meet their disadvantages.

For example, what is being offered?  There are meaningful self-improvement opportunities.  The community college movement, for example, is no small contribution – it has opened college level education to many who otherwise would not consider such an option.  And of course, there are political means toward changing government policies that either provide opportunities or are influential in promoting them in the private sector.  Other types of actions or policies can be listed, but for the purposes here, the point is made.

That is, given the definition and how one measures things (highly influenced by one’s biases), one can make the argument that while the US has oppressive qualities, this blogger believes that it is not an oppressive society. Perhaps a review of a recent historical development would be of further help in describing what this blogger believes exists.  That is the economic downturn that started in 2008.  

Back then, the nation had just had an enormous blow to the economic system. Part of that condition was caused by monumental debt in the private sector. That included households.  It led the nation to a recovery period that lasted about eight years – some think that the nation is still recovering.  But within common conditions, with complete stabilization, the economy would not be able to generate the level of demand that will allow Americans the level of economic growth to meet the oppressive conditions that seem to be in place.

As long as conditions improved within the US, this blogger believes the nation would regain its march toward becoming a more perfect union. But critical education makes the claim that under the current system, oppression has been a reality and is chronic and institutionalized.  They claim that society needs to be transformed, although to what is often not clear as well as how to get there.  By relying on a more unrestricted definition of oppressive society, they believe a useful curriculum, under such a construct, should be geared toward such a transformation.

And with that targeted purpose, such a definition would skew efforts to address oppression in the classroom to only conditions where injustice is practiced. This is not a complete study of the US and demeans the successful efforts of those people and their sacrifices to make this a more just society.  For example, relating such information as ranking of nations according to median income is telling statistic.  

Behind only Luxembourg, UAE (oil rich country), Norway, and Switzerland, the US has the highest level of median income based on international dollars – a fictitious domination created for purposes of such comparisons.[7]  The US leads in many of the efforts to promote and institutionalize just practices, to provide securities and opportunities extended to marginalized groups, and to advance just practices abroad.  

While many of these are continuously under attack, they are part of US policy.  These aspects of the American story are valid, and an honest curriculum should include these more equalizing efforts along with portrayals of those incidences and institutions that have created and sustained injustices which have besmirched this nation's history.

Let this posting add one last word concerning this focus on unjust conditions within this nation’s politics and history. A critical approach seems to assume that students have an innate concern for justice. The reasoning seems to be that once students are exposed to the socialization practices of dominant agents in the learning processes of a culture, when they depict exploitive practices, they will naturally be offended and motivated to find remedies for such conditions.

This is particularly true, they say, if students are negatively affected by any oppressive practices. Appeals to their sense of justice and their realization that all of society is negatively affected when groups are victimized by such acts and discourses will motivate students to participate in any effort to right the wrongs.

Critical pedagogues rely on relevancy and empathy to involve students in the value questions they ask in inquiry exercises that these teachers facilitate in class. This blogger is afraid that this assumed, almost automatic response underestimates the psychological factors involved and he finds this to be a dubious assumption. His next posting will address this last shortcoming.

           [1]This blogger writes “infuse instruction with a concern for the oppressed,” if readers recall. Marx himself, at least in his theorizing, did not see socialism take hold until conditions predicated that it was in the self-interest of labor or the working class to institute a socialist state. That is why the theory was seen as scientific and foretold an inevitable outcome. It did not depend on the altruistic motives of the participants or on them realizing that their participation would fulfill their true sense of themselves – their humanization. This latter aspect would come about only after socialism took some hold and the opportunities to have such growth were naturally present.

[2] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York, NY: Continuum Publishing Company, 1999).

[3]Cleo H. Cherryholmes, “Critical Pedagogy and Social Education.” in Handbook on Teaching Social Issues: NCSS Bulletin 93, eds. Ronald W. Evans and David Warren Saxe (Washington, DC: National Council of the Social Studies, 1996), 75-80, 75.  Efforts to unite the movement under a set of ideas persist to this day.  See for example, “Critical Pedagogy: 8 Key Concepts You Need to Know,” The Necessary Teacher Training College, November 4, 2022, accessed May 18, 2023, https://www.dns-tvind.dk/critical-pedagogy/.

[4] See, for example, Donna M. Gollnick. and Philip C. Chinn, Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, 1998) OR Michael Apple, Cultural Politics and Education (New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 1996).

[5] Lisa J. Cary, “The Refusals of Citizenship: Normalizing Practices in Social Education Discourses,” Theory and Research in Social Education, 29, 3 (Summer), 405-430, 422-423.

[6] One very convincing argument in this vein is offered by Isabel Wilkerson.  See Isabel Wilkerson, Caste:  The Origins of Our Discontents (New York, NY:  Random House, 2020).

[7] “Median Income by Country 2023,” World Population Review (n.d.), accessed May 17, 2023, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-income-by-country.

[seoafin]

love love love writing geto as a kind loving indulgent lover who is so soft and gentle and enamored with you despite his cult leader inclinations and manipulative tendencies

[rollercoasterwords]

honestly thinking abt "i got mom'd" again in light of recent discoveries....imagine spending ur whole life trying to be a daughter who is a son who is trying to become her father so that maybe he'll be proud of her who like. so desperately does not want to turn into her mother. and then ur dad dies and ur no longer a daughter, and ur husband betrays u so ur no longer a wife, and ur brothers begin to close ranks so ur no longer a sister....shiv literally gets mom'd in this episode. all the other threads are being cut and the only one left is a growing umbilical cord

[lollytea]

Remember in Hollow Mind when Hunter said "I'll be home soon, Flapjack, stay safe. I love you, over and out." Crazy.

[bisekcual]

i had a realization a little under four hours ago that i hadn't seen anyone try to come up with a map of the bloom grounds, and i was like, hey, that'd probably be pretty handy, but i don't have time to rewatch the whole series right now to take notes. then someone in the ruehob discord said to skim the transcripts instead, so i did, annnd here we are. this is my third draft of this map and, for now, the best i can offer. i highly recommend opening this in a new tab on desktop to read the notes on the sides, because i realized while doing this that i forgot SO. MUCH. about the bloom grounds. so i ended up writing a lot down.

anyway enjoy lol

[gifti3]

i started playing mystic messenger in 2017 so its been forever since i first experienced everything and reading ur liveblogging of it reminds me how wild this game is so.. its great to read ur liveblogging im so excited for u to see what comes next

Ahh im glad!

Im so so late to the party cause i finished half of the routes all the way back when mystic messanger was new but stopped after jumins route so a lot of the heavier lore, im experiencing it myself for the 1st time

And i heard a major spoiler about rika some time ago but out of context i didnt think much about it

But now im like "oh wait this is crazy actually" lol

[druidgroves]

since mara & i are going to be evil wives & my necromancer is gonna be an evil durge what if rouzia was my denial durge 😳

[blissfali]

im never gonna be the same btw

[gravitascivics]

JUDGING CRITICAL THEORY, XVI

An advocate of critical theory continues his/her presentation[1] …

With the last posting describing one school of thought under the general construct critical theory – that being reconstructionism – this posting will describe the second school, reconceptualization.  Of the two, reconstructionism has a more collectivist orientation, while reconceptualization leans more toward an individualistic perspective. Yes, the two share many aims, but the latter emphasizes addressing more directly questions of consciousness.

         How do the two, more specifically, share in the goals and claims they make?  Here is a list of overarching, common attributes:

 ·       they both have an organic and holistic view of people and society,

·       they have a constructional view of knowledge as explained by this blogger in his explanation of constructs,[2]

·       they place an emphasis on personal experiential knowledge,

·       they recognize the power of pre-conscious knowledge,

·       they use the humanities as a source of knowledge (more so with reconceptualization),

·       they place in priority personal liberty with responsibility and higher levels of consciousness (driving one’s consciousness toward self-actualization – again, more so with reconceptualization),

·       they value diversity and pluralism as both a means and ends,

·       they advocate a need to reconstruct social and political processes, and

·       they set forth a new language.

 But here is how reconceptualization differs from reconstructionism.  During the later years of the twentieth century, life and culture changed drastically from the Great Depression years of the 1930s.  And in those later years, reconceptualization picked up steam.  For one, it applied more recent curricular approaches and adopted its language to a new set of sensitivities and insights (for example, using terms such as “deconstruct”).

         It also employed different categories of consciousness such as gender, race, and sexual orientation as well as socio-economic class, this last category being what reconstruction featured in its arguments.  Reconceptualization advocates point out how these other groups have their own views concerning oppression and oppressive conditions – some are like class-based ideas and views of realities and others differ.  That is, in particular they often vary from class-based views in their consciousnesses regarding oppression.

         Other points of difference include:

 ·       in terms of curriculum, reconceptualization does not hold it as a final product but as an experience, preferring the verb form of curriculum, currere,

·       its advocates rely to a greater degree on psychoanalytic (preconscious) study in analyzing pedagogic conditions and needs,

·       and these advocates are leery of scientific efforts at “discovering” targeted explanations and instead depend on more holistic, as opposed to analytic, understanding.

 On this last point, reconceptualization advocates see science, as it is mostly practiced, to be overly aimed at problem-solving and tends to support bureaucratic, shallow efforts.  As such, it is a research approach that seriously tends to obfuscate efforts at forming enriched understandings or meanings.  In this, with his problem-posing form of study, the late Paulo Freire can be considered more of a reconceptualization educator who promoted holistic research.  

Irrespective of what their critics claim regarding their approach, reconceptualization advocates argue that their work is value free and not meant or aimed at indoctrinating their audiences, be they students or social activists.  They also boast of broadening their perspective by freely incorporating a larger array of literature such as poems, novels, short stories, and plays – do not be surprised if one finds in their work references to visual arts as well.

         Other points of distinction with reconstructionism are that reconceptualization often relies heavily on existentialism[3] and phenomenology.[4]  It is more focused on individual development as it often centers on self-actualization. There, the theoretical ideas of Abraham Maslow are recurringly employed.

         This blog has observed that reconceptualization tends to be more in line with the natural rights view than what reconstructionism has been and probably not more so than when its advocates rely on perceptional claims of Carl Rogers and Arthur Combs.  These advocates, while still maintaining the moral and theoretical differences with the natural rights view, do take on a more individualistic view than the more traditional reconstructionist approach.  More concretely, they tend to cater to individuals’ whims and biases.

         Beyond these differences, critical pedagogy overall has had significant influence on higher education in both the US and Europe.  Starting in the 1960s (coinciding with the protests against the Vietnam conflict), its corps of supporters have engaged in various healthy – sometimes unhealthy – debates over various concerns.  Those concerns include community, diversity, social justice, and a host of other concerns over perceived instances of oppression.  Often their discourses relate these concerns to establishing or maintaining societal health.

         For those readers who follow the news of late, they can verify that these issues are or are becoming more central to the national discourse.  Various “red” states are taking a more proactive approach to counter the efforts of critical theorists and have taken on the ill-defined term “anti-woke” to summarize the concerns and antagonism for what critical advocates tend to favor.  And some of this has been affecting civics curricular efforts including the banning of books and other media.

[1] This posting heavily relies on the work of William Schubert.  See William H. Schubert, Curriculum:  Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility (New York, NY:  MacMillan Publishing Company, 1986).

[2] This blogger has in several postings given a definition for the term, construct. For example, posting dated November 22 or 23, 2010, “A Default Construct,” and can be found in Blog Book First Hundred, accessed May 6, 2023, BLOG BOOK FIRST HUNDRED - Google Docs, 67.  It gives a shortened definition.

[3] General belief in individual existence – investigative effort to determine what is the nature of being, particularly as it applies to individual human beings, as one experiences reality in this ultimately indeterminable world – and in total freedom and responsibility.

Existentialists point out that people are constantly faced with choices in which there are no known laws, ethical standards, or traditions to show the way. This makes life a state of being that inevitably produces anxiety.

[4] Study of consciousness as it relates to being. Founded by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger; it can be a somewhat opaque philosophy. For the purposes here, though, the interest is in its contributions to how one’s mental acts, consciousness, handle   the very nature of things in the practical world. It therefore is an alternative to empirical sciences.

[bloomburnburial]

i always come to the conclusion that autism does not seem like a useful way of describing my personal experiences but god damn if it hasn’t been a running theme throughout my lifetime. schrodinger’s autism…

i guess it’s more “this doesn’t fully encapsulate my experiences but I do gain insight into myself when I look through this lens and that can be useful sometimes; however I have other experiences that make me feel as though using that label for myself would be somehow disingenuous”. I mean I’m pro using what fits and discarding what doesn’t quite, and this has always felt like it doesn’t quite. thought not fully formed, honestly. one of those things that I don’t need to make a decision about. can remain a running theme without requiring commitment either way

[confused-pie]

Literally this person:

scrunching my face real hard rn

[isdalinarhot]

the way I am Inspired to do tbhwo writing but im too drunk for it to not suck ass

[shakespearean-fish]

two hours ago I found out that my parents are making plans to move here to the town where I live and I AM going to need 5-7 business days to process this one

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Early visual development for Wish (2023) by Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay and Brittney Lee.

An earlier version of the film saw Star take on a human form as a magical, glowing character inspired by Peter Pan. Ultimately, the creative team reconceptualized Star as an ethereal, playful entity resembling Mickey Mouse. "Now Star and Asha have an emotional journey. They are soulmates." -Allison Moore.

[fem-frazzled]

Guess who just got diagnosed with adhd at the ripe age of 21✌️

If anyone has any good tips for managing transitions/adulting with adhd pls share! Trying to build a better toolbox leading up to graduation now that I have some context

[pssarahwins]

Wanting to create art but not having the skill or motivation to learn how to do it. Wanting to see a piece of art, only to soon realize it doesn't exist, and you can't make it. Wanting something to exist, but not being able to make it simply appear, realizing you're going to have to work hard to see if you can make your vision come to life. And you'll probably fail, you almost definitely won't be able to recreate the idea you've cooked up in your head, but no one else is going to do it, so either you learn and you try or you just don't get the thing.