An epoch of difference: Hearing voices in the nineties

Educational Theory

Volumn 50, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 357-381

  Boler, Megan ^a  

^a VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84862190509     PISSN: 00132004     EISSN: 17415446     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-5446.2000.00357.x     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. The Fight Club, Twentieth Century Fox, directed by David Fincher, 1999, film.
2. Fredric Jameson, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society," in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (Seattle: Bay Press, 1983).
3. Proposition 21 in California dictates that a juvenile may be arrested simply on the basis of a public dress code violation. Writing graffiti or a schoolyard fight are crimes tried as felonies and California's disastrous "three-strikes" legislation applies to youth.
4. Jameson quoted in Mario O. D'Souza, "Educational Pastiche versus the Education of Natural Intelligence," Educational Theory, no. 4 (Fall 1996): 501. 46
5. Educational Theory 41, no. 3 (Summer 1991).
6. Nicholas C. Burbules, "Continuity and Diversity in Philosophy of Education: An Introduction," Educational Theory 41, no. 3 (Summer 1991): 263.
7. I use in this essay the term "postmodernism" because it is frequently used in Educational Theory, though the term is rarely defined overall and quite loosely used, I would prefer to use a term such as "poststructuralist," or "post-positivist" to refer specifically to theories of knowledge. For ease I use "postmodernism" to refer to the influence of French philosophers Derrida and Lyotard as represented in Educational Theory.
8. Maxine Greene, "A Response to Beck, Ginrelli/Chambliss, Leach, Tozer, and Macmillan," Educational Theory 41, no. 3 (Summer 1991): 323.
9. Greene's engagement of literature to illustrate the shifting attentions to existentialism and pragmatism represent a significant shift in the stylistic landscape of educational theory not only in the 1990s, hut for the last three decades. In this 1991 issue, C.A. Bowers takes Greene to task. In his "Open Letter" to Maxine Greene, Bowers accuses Greene of one of the foremost fallacies of philosophy and Western either/or fallbacks: Greene is bound by her "own ideas and values." A proper philosopher, would "develop progressively an argument in a way that lays out all the dimensions, including the culturally specific nature of the root metaphor that underlies your language."
10. Mary Leach, "Mothers of Injter)vention: Women's Writing in Philosophy of Education;" Educational Theory 41, no 3 (Summer 1991): 291.
11. Greene "A Response," 322.
12. Leach, "Mothers of Intervention," 288.
13. See Natasha Levinson's analysis of "Teaching in tbc Midst of Belatedness: The Paradox of Natality in Hannah Arendt's Educational Thought," Educational Theory 47, no. 4 (Fall 1997): 435-52.
14. Bernadette Baker, "Child-centered Teaching, Redemption, and Educational Identities: A History of the Present," Educational Theory 48, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 155-74, Baker's essay is also noteworthy as one of the few Australian contributions, and for her historical and "student" focused scholarship. See also Greg Seals, "Objectively Yours, Michel Foucault," Educational Theory 47, no. 4 (Fall 1997): 59-66.
15. On race, see Alicia Rodriguez, "Latino Education, Latino Movement," Educational Theory 49, no. 3 (Summer 1999): 381-400
16. Ana M. Martinez Aleman, "Que Culpa Tengo Yo? Performing Identity and College Teaching," Educational Theory 49, no. 1 (Winter 1999): 37-52; and
17. C. Alejandra Elenes, "Reclaim ing the Borderlands: Chicana/o Identity, Difference, and Critical Pedagogy," Educational Theory 47, no. 3 (Summer 1997): 359-76. On sexuality, see for example, Jonathan G. Silin, "What AIDS Teaches us About the Education of Children," Educational Theory 42, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 253-70. Silin's essay uses narrative as an early version of metissage, and is boldly open about his own homosexuality in what appears to transgress the stylistic norms of the journal. In 1995, see also Deborah Britzman, "Is There a Queer Pedagogy? Or Stop Reading Straight," Educational Theory 45, no. 2 (Spring 1995): 151-66. Theorirt Frank Margonis deserves recognition for being a steadfast but lone contributor to the Marxist educational scholarship in Educational Theory, "Theories of Conviction: The Return of Marxist Theorizing," Educational Theory 47, no. 4 (Fall 1997);
18. Frank Margonis, "Marxism, Liberalism, and Educational Theory," Educational Theory 43, no. 4 (Fall 1993): 449-66. For an excellent analysis of how youth arc framed within policy discourses, see Nancy Lesko, "Past, Present, and Future Conceptions of Adolescence," Educational Theory 46, no. 4 (Fall. Lesko is one of the few authors who intersects with postcolonial theory, combined with a discursive analysis, to look at Greene's burning question of schools and policy regarding youth. See also 1996): 453-72
19. Audrey Thompson, "Surrogate Family Values: The Refeminization of Teaching," Educational Theory 47, no. 3 (Summer which offers a refreshing analysis of discourses and educational history. 1997): 315-40,
20. In the 1990s, Educational Theory featured many more worthy feminist essays than I can discuss in the space of this review essay. One might date the flurry of feminism to Susan Laird's feminist address, "Women and Gender in John Dewey's Philosophy of Education," Educational Theory no. 1 (Winter, 38 1988): 111-29;
21. Nicholson's essay, "Postmodernism, Feminism, and Education: The Need for Solidarity," Educational Theory 39, no. 3 (Summer 1989): 197-205.
22. Leach's "Mothers of In(ter)vention." Feminist poststructuralism is in grand form by 1991 with Patti Lather's essay "Deconstructim;/Decor.structivc Inquiry: The Politics of Knowing and Being Known." Educational Theory 41, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 153-73. By 1993, feminist analyses proliferate and continue to represent the cutting edge of poststructuralist philosophies as well as the self-reflexive genre of metissage.
23. Nicholas C. Burbules, quoted in Rene Vincente Arcilla, "Tragic Absolutism in Education," Educational Theory 42, no. 4 (Fall. This article will be cited in the text as TAE for all subsequent references. 1992): 473
24. I call this a "faith in crisis," which means both that our previous traditions of faith have been shaken and that, as the postmodern pastiche subject we now must root our faith in the inevitability of crisis. Elsewhere, I develop what I call "critical hope," a hope rooted in a responsibility for our positions as spectators/actors/agents/subjects within the educational praxis of self-reflection and responsibility.
25. Jacques Derrida and Francois Ewald, "A Certain 'Madness' Must Watch Over Thinking," Educational Theory 45, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 273-91.
26. A.T. Nuyen, "Lyotard and the Death of the Professor," Educational Theory 42, no. I (Winter 1992): 26.
27. Zelia Gregouriou, "Derrick's Responsibility: Autobiography, the Teaching of the Vulnerable, Diary Fragments," Educational Theory 45, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 311-36. This issue also contains two other essays on Derrida, Derrida and Ewald, "A Certain 'Madness'" and Denise Egéa-Kuchne, "Deconstruction Revisited and Derrida's Call for Academic Responsibility."
28. Derrida and Ewald, "A Certain 'Madness.'"
29. J.M. Fritzman, "Lyotard's Paraiogy and Rorty's Pluralism: Their Differences and Pedagogical Implications," Educational Theory 40, no. 3 (Summer 1990).
30. Lather, "Dcconstructing/Deconstructive Inquiry."
31. Emphasis added, Lyotard quoted in Fritzman, "Lyotard's Paralogy and Rorty's Pluralism," 372.
32. In Educational Theory, there is considerable emphasis on British and American theorists and a great many interpretations of Dewey. One finds very little invocation of the traditions of critical theory.
33. Leach "Mothers of In(ter)veniion," 290.
34. Marx quoted in Fritzman, "Lyotard's Paralogy and Rorty's Pluralism,"373.
35. Correspondence, Garrison to author, Tjuly 2000.
36. Morris quoted in Lather, "Deconstructing/Dcconstructive Inquiry," 155.
37. Jim Garrison, "Deweyan Theory of Democratic Listening," Educational Theory 46, no. 4 (Fall). This article will be cited as DTDL in the text for all subsequent references. 1996
38. Leonard J. Waks, "Experimentalism and the Flow of Experience," Educational Theory 48, no. 1 (Winter. This essay will he cited as EFE in the text for all subsequent references. 1998): 11
39. Mary Bryson and Suzanne de Castell, "En/Gendering Equity: On Some Paradoxical Consequences of Institutionalized Programs of Emancipation," Educational Theory 43, no. 3 (Summer 1993): 341-55.
40. Of course such debates date far earlier and epistemological and moral debates have myriad ancient and traditional formations. For Dcwey, the influence of C.S. Peirce clearly demonstrates an emphasis on the social medium of language and communication, specifically sign and symbol systems. Thus the pragmatists articulations also align in uncanny ways with "postmodern" thought.
41. Mark Zuss, "Strategies of Representation: Autobiographical Metissage and Critical Pragmatism," Educational Theory 47; no. 2 (Spring 1997): 165.
42. Dennis L. Carlson, "Conflict and Change in the Discourse on Sexuality Education Fall 1991): 343-59
43. C. Alejandra Elenes, "Reclaiming the Borderlands: Chicana/o Identity, Difference, and Critical Pedagogy" Educational Theory 47, no. 3 (Summer 1997): 359-76
44. Silin, "What AIDS Teaches us About the Education of Children"; and Greene, "A Response to Beck, Giarelli/Chambliss, Leach, Tozcr and Macmillan."
45. Mary Leach and Bronwyn Davies, "Crossing the Boundaries: Educational Thought and Gender Equity," Educational Theory 40, no 3 (Summer 1990): 321-32.
46. Lather, "Deconstructing/Deconstructivc Inquiry," 155.
47. Leslie Roman, "Double Exposure: The Politics of Feminist Materialist Ethnography," Educational Theory 43, no. 3 (Summer 1993) and
48. Alison Jones, "The Limits of Cross-Culiural Dialogue: Pedagogy, Desire, and Absolutism in the Classroom," Educational Theory 49, no. 3 (Summer. This latter article will be cited as LCCD in the text for all subsequent references. 1999): 299-316
49. Roman, "Double Exposure," 281.
50. Lather, "Deconstructing/Deconstructive Inquiry," 156.
51. Roman, "Double Exposure," 291.
52. During the years they had taught the course previously, "Maori students [had] said that the words, assumptions, and interests of the Pakeha students and bcturer continued to dominate, despite genuine attempts to encourage and open and democratic classroom," 300. There is a breakdown of traditional power and dominance as agency shifts from White (Pakeha) women to Maori women when "in the interests ot participatory and critical pedagogy, the ninety nearly all women students would he divided on the basis o. ethnicity for three quarters of the classes. In this 1997 coul se, there would be two roughly equal sized groups one for Maori and Pacific Islands students, and one for the others, mostly Pakeha [white] students," 301.
53. A.T. Nuycn, "Lyutaril on the Death of the Professor."