A charter to educate or a mandate to train: Conflicts between theory and practice

Harvard Educational Review

Volumn 70, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 524-537

  Hadden, Johanna Elena ^a  

^a Colorado NW Community College ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034344648     PISSN: 00178055     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17763/haer.70.4.ll706u968478xt01     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. Abigail Brant Erdmann, "Middle-Age Teaching: A Time of Vitality," Howard Educational Review, 68 (1998), 583-587.
2. Erdmann, "Middle-Age Teaching," p. 584.
3. Stanley Aronowitz and Henry A. Giroux, Postmodern Education: Politics, Culture, and Social Criticism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesola Press, 1991), p. 108.
4. Michael W. Apple and Landon E. Beyer, eds., The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), p. 346. There is an extensive literature on critical educational theory and its practical applications. For an excellent collection on this theme, see Pepi Leistyna, Arlie Waodrum, and Stephen A. Sherblom, eds., Breaking Free: The Transformative Power of Critical Pedagogy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review, 1996). Powerful critiques of critical pedagogy are offered in Carmen Luke and Jennifer Gore, eds., Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy (New York: Routledge, 1992).
5. Michael W. Apple and Landon E. Beyer, eds., The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), p. 346. There is an extensive literature on critical educational theory and its practical applications. For an excellent collection on this theme, see Pepi Leistyna, Arlie Waodrum, and Stephen A. Sherblom, eds., Breaking Free: The Transformative Power of Critical Pedagogy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review, 1996). Powerful critiques of critical pedagogy are offered in Carmen Luke and Jennifer Gore, eds., Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy (New York: Routledge, 1992).
6. Michael W. Apple and Landon E. Beyer, eds., The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), p. 346. There is an extensive literature on critical educational theory and its practical applications. For an excellent collection on this theme, see Pepi Leistyna, Arlie Waodrum, and Stephen A. Sherblom, eds., Breaking Free: The Transformative Power of Critical Pedagogy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review, 1996). Powerful critiques of critical pedagogy are offered in Carmen Luke and Jennifer Gore, eds., Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy (New York: Routledge, 1992).
7. These and many other aspects of desocializati an are described in Ira Shor, Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching ( Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1987), pp. 14-15.
8. William J. Bennett, Our Children and Our Country (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), p. 47. See also Connaught Marshner, ed., A Blueprint for Education, Reform (Chicago: Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, 1984).
9. William J. Bennett, Our Children and Our Country (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), p. 47. See also Connaught Marshner, ed., A Blueprint for Education, Reform (Chicago: Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, 1984).
10. This view of teachers as "transformative intellectuals" is expressed in Aronowitz and Giroux, Postmodern Education, see especially pp. 108-109. See also Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren, eds., Critical Pedagogy, the State, and Cultural Struggles (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), p. xiii.
11. This view of teachers as "transformative intellectuals" is expressed in Aronowitz and Giroux, Postmodern Education, see especially pp. 108-109. See also Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren, eds., Critical Pedagogy, the State, and Cultural Struggles (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), p. xiii.
12. Richard A. Brosio, A Radical Democratic Critique of Capitalist Education (New York: Peter Lang, 1994), p. 526.
13. Utah State Core Curriculum Guide (Salt Lake Gity: Utah State Office of Education, 1988), Introduction.
14. Utah State Core, p. Fiii, states, "A primary goal for all students and teachers is increasing their ability to be more productive" and to foster the "development of the means where-by the essential processes, values, and capabilities undergirding our society can be perpetuated." Of the 120 core objectives taught in economics in fifth and sixth grades, for instance, only two of them represent alternative economic systems. This does serve to perpetuate a particular set of values.
15. Leistyna, Woodrum, and Sherblom, Breaking Free, p. 3.
16. The assistant superintendent of the school district used the word "support" when he discussed a teacher's responsibility (personal communication, February 13, 1995).
17. At one time, several school districts in Utah adopted the book by Lee Canter, with Marlene Canter, Assertive Discipline: A Take Charge Approach for Today's Educator (Santa Monica, CA: Canter and Associates, 1976), as their official discipline program. Many have recently discarded that requirement.
18. In my last year of teaching, our school was selected to pilot a computer grading system developed within the school district. Each objective taught had to be correlated with individual objectives for that grade level that were taken from the official core curriculum. Despite objections that the program did not allow teachers to reward improvement or effort, and that it did not provide for easy access to objectives from other grade levels, at the end of the test year we were informed that the program was to be adopted districtwide. We were told bluntly that we had better get used to it. I have since heard that the district is marketing the program to other districts.
19. Standardized scores are averaged by school and published in newspapers in Utah. Those of individual classrooms are sometimes scrutinized in faculty meetings, and teachers are told on which areas they should focus their efforts.
20. When critical pedagogues reject the banking concept of education as described by Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1993), they are challenging extant power relations. Those power relations, and the canons and methods that support them, are considered by some to be neutral, superior, and universal, and any challenge to them may be viewed as suspect. See especially, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987); Diane Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade (New York: Basic Books, 1983); and Chester E. Finn, "National Standards: A Plan for Consensus," Teachers College Record, 91, No. 1 (Fall 1989), 3-9.
21. When critical pedagogues reject the banking concept of education as described by Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1993), they are challenging extant power relations. Those power relations, and the canons and methods that support them, are considered by some to be neutral, superior, and universal, and any challenge to them may be viewed as suspect. See especially, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987); Diane Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade (New York: Basic Books, 1983); and Chester E. Finn, "National Standards: A Plan for Consensus," Teachers College Record, 91, No. 1 (Fall 1989), 3-9.
22. When critical pedagogues reject the banking concept of education as described by Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1993), they are challenging extant power relations. Those power relations, and the canons and methods that support them, are considered by some to be neutral, superior, and universal, and any challenge to them may be viewed as suspect. See especially, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987); Diane Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade (New York: Basic Books, 1983); and Chester E. Finn, "National Standards: A Plan for Consensus," Teachers College Record, 91, No. 1 (Fall 1989), 3-9.
23. When critical pedagogues reject the banking concept of education as described by Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1993), they are challenging extant power relations. Those power relations, and the canons and methods that support them, are considered by some to be neutral, superior, and universal, and any challenge to them may be viewed as suspect. See especially, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987); Diane Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade (New York: Basic Books, 1983); and Chester E. Finn, "National Standards: A Plan for Consensus," Teachers College Record, 91, No. 1 (Fall 1989), 3-9.
24. Rarely have journals reported on the use of critical pedagogy with young children. One notable exception is Paul Skilton Sylvester, "Elementary School Curricula and Urban Transformation," Harvard Educational Review, 64 (1994), 309-331.
25. I used ideas found in Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and in three books by Ira Shor: Freire for the Classroom; Critical Teaching and Everyday Life (Boston : South End Press, 1980); and Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
26. I used ideas found in Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and in three books by Ira Shor: Freire for the Classroom; Critical Teaching and Everyday Life (Boston : South End Press, 1980); and Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
27. I used ideas found in Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and in three books by Ira Shor: Freire for the Classroom; Critical Teaching and Everyday Life (Boston : South End Press, 1980); and Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
28. The district-mandated basal reader was I Touched the Sun (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1989).
29. See Michael W. Apple, ed., Cultural and Economic Reproduction in Education (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982); Michael W. Apple and Lois Weis, eds., Ideology and Practice in Schooling (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983); Henry Giroux, Theory and Resistance in Education (South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1983); and Gail McCutcheon, "Curriculum and the Work of Teachers," in The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities, ed. Michael W. Apple and Landon E. Beyer (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).
30. See Michael W. Apple, ed., Cultural and Economic Reproduction in Education (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982); Michael W. Apple and Lois Weis, eds., Ideology and Practice in Schooling (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983); Henry Giroux, Theory and Resistance in Education (South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1983); and Gail McCutcheon, "Curriculum and the Work of Teachers," in The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities, ed. Michael W. Apple and Landon E. Beyer (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).
31. See Michael W. Apple, ed., Cultural and Economic Reproduction in Education (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982); Michael W. Apple and Lois Weis, eds., Ideology and Practice in Schooling (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983); Henry Giroux, Theory and Resistance in Education (South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1983); and Gail McCutcheon, "Curriculum and the Work of Teachers," in The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities, ed. Michael W. Apple and Landon E. Beyer (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).
32. See Michael W. Apple, ed., Cultural and Economic Reproduction in Education (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982); Michael W. Apple and Lois Weis, eds., Ideology and Practice in Schooling (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983); Henry Giroux, Theory and Resistance in Education (South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1983); and Gail McCutcheon, "Curriculum and the Work of Teachers," in The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities, ed. Michael W. Apple and Landon E. Beyer (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).
33. Eliot Eisner, The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs (New York: Macmillan, 1979).
34. Eisner argues that neglecting the null curriculum in schools can be dangerous for many students because "ignorance is not simply a neutral void; it has important effects on the kinds of oations one is able to consider, the alternatives that one can examine, and the perspectives from which one can view a situation or problem" (p. 83). On "codes of power" see Lisa Delpit, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children," Harvard Educational Review, 58 (1988), 280-298.
35. Names of the school and district have been changed for confidentiality.
36. Jeannie Oakes, "Tracking in Mathematics and Science Education: A Structural Contribution to Unequal Schooling," in Class, Race, aid Gender in American Education, ed. Lois Weis (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).
37. Earlier that week I was informed by a colleague that the principal told her I was getting "rebellious and defiant."
38. Absent my income, we had to sell our house and move in with my parents. My two children were uprooted from schools they both loved, our community of friends was left behind, and I walked away from the one thing I believed I could do really well. A year later, however, I was able to procure a part-time job-share situation in a more progressive school district.
39. The 1994-1995 Professional Agreement of the negotiated contract between the County School District and the Education Association states that "Progress by the employee in correcting the job performance deficiencies 2nd satisfactorily performing his/her duties will be evaluated by the District."
40. This quote is taken from my notes of the meeting written immediately afterward.
41. The most notable case of this sort is that of Jonathan Kozol, who wrote about his experiences in Death at an Early Age (New York: Penguin Books, 1985).
42. The point is made by Martin Carnoy and Henry M. Levin, Schooling and Work in the Democratic State (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985), pp. 16-18.
43. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince and The Discourses (New York: Modern Library, 1950), p. 400. Machiavelli states that "not more than ten years should lapse . . . unless some case occurs that recalls the punishment to their memory and revives the fear in their hearts, the delinquents will soon become so numerous that they cannot be punished without danger."
44. George H. Wood describes schools where "traits such as a commitment to community and a desire to participate, values such as a sense of justice, equality, or liberty, skills of interpretation, debate, and compromise, habits of reflection, study, examining multiple perspectives" are encouraged. Implementing critical education theory and critical pedagogy are not the only ways to approach these objectives. See George H. Wood, Schools that Work: America's Most Innovative Public Education Program (New York: Plume, 1992), p. xxiii.
45. George H. Wood describes schools where "traits such as a commitment to community and a desire to participate, values such as a sense of justice, equality, or liberty, skills of interpretation, debate, and compromise, habits of reflection, study, examining multiple perspectives" are encouraged. Implementing critical education theory and critical pedagogy are not the only ways to approach these objectives. See George H. Wood, Schools that Work: America's Most Innovative Public Education Program (New York: Plume, 1992), p. xxiii.