TftF 64: The Politics of Education
Today's episode was originally going to be my way of prepping myself for Beyond Broadcast 2007. I could not get this show out before my conference, but a lot of my ideas still remain the same. The conference was a way for academics and the media to get together and discuss the changing nature of communication and the role of new media. A lot of the conference dealt with ideas of Participatory Culture and participatory democracy. How can we use new media and social networking as a tool for political activism and social change. I think these issues are really important and I have spent a lot of time talking about them on Teaching for the Future. But how do we harness our new participatory culture and turn that into pedagogy? Well that's what I want to talk about today.
This past week Patty Bode, from the MFA, came to run a workshop in one of my classes. Patty teaches at the MFA's art education department and she had been a classroom teacher for several years. Her presentation was about using important topics and events as a way of getting students to become more involved in the art curriculum. Patty talked about a project she did with a group of 7th graders about Hurricane Katrina. She talked about her motivations and how students used their artwork to explore their ideas. Students were able to discuss issues surrounding Katrina and as a way for raising awareness and advocating for victims of the devastation.
A lot of the student work centered around the images that were being used in the media. The students would critique photographs that they collected and ask important questions. A lot of the questions looked at who was being depicted and who was not, which related to who was effected most by the hurricane. They began to deal with issues of race and class in their work.
Patty's presentation showed how students can connect to curriculum, but really illustrated how education can be a tool for political activism and social change. Not only was she generating interest in current events in her classroom, she was empowering students to think critically and help others in need.
All of this got me thinking and reflecting on what I've been doing here on the Podcast. I would not categorize Teaching for the Future as a political podcast at first glance, but I think it is fair to say that all education is political. How we structure our schools and our curricula are decisive political acts that can be made to include or exclude certain individuals. The teachers we hire and the books that we choose all serve to frame the debate and influence. Even the way we teach can effect who will struggle to meet state standards and who is able to succeed. (If you want evidence of this you should listen to the LD Podcast)
Some of these ideas are also illustrated in two very interesting articles written by Patty Bode at RethinkingSchools.org: A Letter from Kaeli and The Puerto Rican Vejigante. These articles are really good illustrations of what you leave out is as important as what you leave in.
A Letter from Kaeli deals with how people of color and minorities are often excluded from books. Though this may seem innocent enough, but this can be damaging to a child's education. Under representing minorities implies that they are not important or not worth writing about.
The Puerto Rican Vejigante is an article that deals with issues of multicultural education and how schools will exoticise the other. Exoticising a culture means examining that culture only on it's obvious or basic features, without any real depth. This also deals with issues of equity that I think I should devote a who podcast episode.
Final Thought:
This brings me right back to the whole point of new media. New media is about giving anyone a voice. The goal is to bring equity back to public discourse so that we can better understand each other. If you were tuning in to Beyond Broadcast or PodCamp Toronto, don't forget that the whole point of these events is to get people to have a voice and to participate in the conversation.
Upcoming:
I'm going to talk a little bit about Steve Job's comments about education.
I know that among podcasters there is always a lot of shoptalk. I'm beginning to wonder if we're too geeky for our own good. On an upcoming episode I want to ask... Are we focusing too much on how to communicate to be able to communicate effectively?
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Tags: Dave LaMorte, teaching for the future, technology, education, podcast, teaching, media literacy, visual literacy, new media literacy, beyondbroadcast2007
Labels: dave lamorte, education, media literacy, mobile technology, new media literacy, podcast, teaching, technology
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Politics, a political science professor of mine told me years ago, is the science of determining who gets what in an economy of scarcity.
If education isn't getting the money it needs to be successful (and in the US, this is largely true compared to other nations) then educators can attempt to tackle this in one of three ways:
1. Suck it up and live with it.
2. Petition politicians to give more money to education instead of other things.
3. Find more money for education outside the governmental/political processes and make education as self sufficient as possible.
Schools are already pursuing #3 with a vengeance, with things like intellectual property and patent licensing for work done at a school. In what other ways can schools obtain much-needed resources without resorting to Capitol Hill?
Posted by
Christopher |
2/26/2007 10:38:00 PM
I'm thinking more about the way we teach is a political act.
More on the side of which lessons and which books, and you're talking about funding.
I think you have an interesting point. The only issue I have is that when someone gives you money, you owe them.
Posted by
Anonymous |
2/27/2007 12:11:00 AM
You're absolutely right to say that with money comes influence. If I fully fund a school, said school would do well to consider any input I might volunteer regarding business matters, or risk loss of funding. That said, which is worse: a school that teaches with a biased viewpoint due to the influence of money, or a school that doesn't teach at all because it's run out of money?
Posted by
Christopher |
2/27/2007 01:42:00 PM
Thanks for the mention, Dave.
I think politics have entered education, and the two are now intertwined as never before. IS NCLB really a plan to privatize public education? It's something to think about, for sure!
Whit
Posted by
wsh1266 |
2/27/2007 03:35:00 PM
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