Radical Pedagogy: Identity, Generativity, and Social Transformation (Education, Psychoanalysis, Social Transformation)

244 Pages·2006·1 MB·English

by  Mark Bracher

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Radical Pedagogy
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Psychoanalysis, Education, and Social Transformation
Series Editors:
jan jagodzinski, University of Alberta
Mark Bracher, Kent State University
The purpose of this series is to develop and disseminate psychoanalytic knowledge
that can help educators in their pursuit of three core functions of education:
1) facilitating student learning,
2) fostering students’ personal development, and
3) promoting prosocial attitudes, habits, and behaviors in students (i.e., those
opposed to violence, substance abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.).
Psychoanalysis can help educators realize these aims of education by providing them
with important insights into:
1) the emotional and cognitive capacities that are necessary for students to be able
to learn, develop, and engage in prosocial behavior,
2) the motivations that drive such learning, development, and behaviors, and
3) the motivations that produce antisocial behaviors as well as resistance to learning
and development.
Such understanding can enable educators to develop pedagogical strategies and
techniques to help students overcome psychological impediments to learning and
development, either by identifying and removing the impediments or by helping
students develop the ability to overcome them. Moreover, by offering an under-
standing of the motivations that cause some of our most severe social problems—
including crime, violence, substance abuse, prejudice, and inequality—together
with knowledge of how such motivations can be altered, books in this series will
contribute to the reduction and prevention of such problems, a task that education
is increasingly being called upon to assume.
Other books by Mark Bracher:
Being Form’d: Thinking through Blake’s Milton
Lacan, Discourse, and Social Change: A Psychoanalytic Cultural Criticism
The Writing Cure: Psychoanalysis, Composition, and the Aims of Education
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Radical Pedagogy
Identity, Generativity, and Social
Transformation
Mark Bracher
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RADICAL PEDAGOGY
© Mark Bracher, 2006.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2006 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom
and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–7562–1
ISBN-10: 1–4039–7562–0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bracher, Mark
Radical pedagogy : identity, generativity, and social transformation /
Mark Bracher.
p. cm.—(Psychoanalysis, education, and social transformation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–7562–0 (alk. paper)
1. Critical pedagogy. 2. Identity (Psychology)—Social aspects.
3. Education—Social aspects. I. Title. II. Series.
LC196.B73 2006
370.11⬘5—dc22 2006040867
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: October 2006
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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In memory of my parents,
Gladys Bauer Bracher
(1919–2004)
and
Frederick Luther Bracher
(1917–1987)
Whose generativity inspires this book’s pursuit
of identity, generativity, and social justice.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Part One
Identity, Learning Problems,
and Social Problems
1. Identity, Motivation, and Recognition 3
2. Linguistic Identity 17
3. Affective and Imagistic Identity 31
4. Identity Integration and Defenses 45
5. Identity Structure 59
Part Two
Identity-Undermining
Pedagogies
6. Teachers’ Identities as Obstacles to Radical Pedagogy 75
7. Authoritarian and Establishment Pedagogies 85
8. Pedagogies of Resistance and Empowerment 95
9. Historicism as Impediment to Radical Pedagogy 109
Part Three
Developing Teachers’
Identities
10. Self Analysis for Teachers 135
11. Generative Identity and the Need to Teach 149
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viii / contents
Part Four
Promoting Students’
Identity Development
12. Supporting Prosocial Identity Contents 161
13. Promoting Identity Integration 179
14. Developing Identity Structures 193
Notes 209
Works Cited 213
Index 223
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Acknowledgments
This book owes its existence to jan jagodzinski, whose invitations to con-
tribute to his book Pedagogical Desire and to present a series of lectures and
workshops at the University of Alberta in the spring of 2001 provided both
stimulus and venue for the development of many of the ideas presented
here, and whose creation of the series this volume inaugurates enabled their
publication. Lynn Worsham, the award-winning editor of JAC, played an
important role in encouraging the development of key portions of the
book’s literary pedagogy. Marshall Alcorn and Jeff Berman have provided
invaluable encouragement and assistance over the years for this book and
beyond. Thanks are also due to the Division of Research and Graduate
Studies at Kent State University for providing various forms of support to
facilitate the writing and publication of this book.
For permission to reprint previously published material I thank the
following:
Greenwood Press, for “Identity and Desire in the Classroom.” In Pedagogical Desire:
Authority, Seduction, Transference, and the Question of Authorial Ethics, ed. jan
jagodzinski. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2002. 93–121.
The Ohio State University Press, for “Editor’s Column: Psychoanalysis and
Education.” JPCS: Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society 4, 2 (1999):
175–192.
College Literature, for “Transference, Desire, and the Ethics of Literary Pedagogy.”
College Literature 26, 3 (Fall 1999): 127–146.
JAC, for “Healing Trauma, Preventing Violence: A Radical Agenda for Literary
Study.” JAC 24, 3 (2004): 515–561.