Critical Pedagogy for a Polymodal World PDF
Preview Critical Pedagogy for a Polymodal World
Critical Pedagogy for a Polymodal World Critical Pedagogy for a Polymodal World Douglas J. Loveless James Madison University, USA and Bryant Griffith Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi, USA A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-94-6209-825-1 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6209-826-8 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6209-827-5 (e-book) Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/ Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2014 Sense Publishers No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. TABLE OF CONTENTS Detailed Contents vii A Wikipedia Introduction to Terms xi Introduction Meaning and Teaching xiii Chapter 1 Teaching and Learning in Complex Times 1 Chapter 2 Cultural Narrations 23 Chapter 3 Criticity in Chaos 43 Chapter 4 Mavericks and Narratives 65 Chapter 5 The Liquidity of Teaching 81 Chapter 6 Critical Pedagogy for a Polymodal World 99 About the Authors 119 v DETAILED CONTENTS 1. Teaching and Learning in Complex Times An Argument for a Polymodal Education In this chapter, we explore the pedagogical, epistemological, and ontological implications of two popular responses we encounter when discussing public education. These responses, based on the perception that American schools are failing, are: (1) a corporate framework of incentives and competition in schooling will improve instruction, and (2) implementation of “rigorous” standards with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) will close the achievement gap between the United States and other countries. In contrast, we argue for a polymodal education focused on critical reflection. We believe this sort of education is necessary in participatory democracies, and in the development of engaged citizens who interact with one another on issues of religion, politics, philosophy, and economics. 2. Cultural Narrations Coherence in Complex Times This chapter examines the relationship between coherence and complexity. Relativism, chaos, and complexity challenge coherent discourse because of our cultural narrations. We face the epistemological dilemma in education of acknowledging different views and multiple representations while cohering as part of a collective. Both contingency and uncertainty play important roles in the way that we draw lines of difference. Here, we describe cultural narrations in educational contexts and discuss the roles of teachers and students in decoding diverse discourses. We also explore possibilities for teachers and students to communicate while situated in their varied cultural spaces and create a classroom environment that facilitates learning. By resisting the urge to conform differences, variations in cultural narrations can create multiple possibilities for understanding in the classroom and beyond. 3. Criticity in Chaos Rethinking the Question and Experience as Pedagogical Tools As our world shifts in seemingly chaotic ways, the manner in which boundaries are drawn and how permeable they are is under constant review. What does it mean to be critical in such a world? Our information societies are often personal and relative to our immediate interests, such as where one can buy a product, find a factual answer, or check on what a friend is doing. In the formal world of education, what is learned is set to various degrees. In the other world outside most of schooling, things are vii DETAILED CONTENTS much more cloudy and complex. While society has viewed public education as a vehicle for the establishment of “good” citizenship and providing a continued supply of people ready and able to do whatever role they are called to in society, the ever increasing pace of change is putting much of this in question. Innovators like Sugata Mitra and Charles Leadbeater write and speak about a world where education is about collaboration and learning, an emerging process, not the banking system or standardized testing regime of which we are accustomed. This dichotomy is fueled by what is for many an open access portal where social networking defines wants and needs. This is the world we explore in this chapter. 4. Mavericks and Narratives Constructing a Polymodal Self We argue, in this chapter, that in the last decades of the 20th century and in the beginning of 21st, the nature of epistemological conversations has changed in a dramatic manner. What constituted the canon of thought has come under assault, as has the structure of the thinking that lay behind it. In other words, the presuppositions on which we have based our thoughts about our world since the Enlightenment, or modernism, are being attacked. This chapter places itself within the vibrant hermeneutic strand of educational research characterized by the writing and research of Madeleine Grumet whose work has been central to a field that might be called autobiographical text. We draw on this methodology to focus on maverick students and the ways in which problem-based learning are appropriate forms of curriculum discourse. A research study conducted at a dual-language elementary school illustrates the ideas expressed in this chapter. The use of personal, multi-textual narratives of divergent learners suggests that certain pedagogies can improve learning and point to the construction of a polymodal self. For maverick students narratives represent an important step in securing a tradition that helps extend community and cultural fabric. Through this process maverick students in their perceived otherness re-enact a tradition that has gone on for generations and that will continue to provide a rich source of language and concepts for deepening and extending the concept of place. This process is evidence of an image of self, best characterized as polymodal. 5. The Liquidity of Teaching Portrait of a Teacher While we believe that an appropriate form of polymodal education involves non- technologized practices, digital technologies are a necessary component of learning in the 21st century. Teachers must be effective users of technology, combining functional and critical abilities to become reflective consumers/producers of digital content. Thus, teachers and students can fully participate in the dominant computer culture while avoiding indoctrination into its value systems. Grounded as arts-based research, this chapter explores the ways in which a teacher authored herself as a viii DETAILED CONTENTS professional educator as she created content in cyberspace. The principal question guiding the case study was: What subject positions does a 5th grade teacher in the United States, creating online content and operating in an atmosphere of high-stakes testing, author? Data sources in this case study included interviews, observations, artifacts, researcher journals, and visual art. The research found the teacher authored subject positions that shifted for a myriad of reasons such as teacher’s context, mood, and purpose. Varied subject positions occurred simultaneously and were often contradictory. In the technologized teaching environment, the teacher authored subject positions as a collaborator, expert, skeptic, and subversive. By examining these subject positions, we aim to provoke critical dialogue regarding what it means to be a teacher in a digital age, and to engage in the construction of knowledge using polymodalities for intellectual and emotional affect. 6. Critical Pedagogy for a Polymodal World A Reboot By acknowledging polymodal narratives that are often ignored, teachers and students can interact and rewrite cautionary tales through modes including gaming and social networking. As students and others involved in education inhabit an increasingly polymodal world, the way we listen shifts to accommodate new ways of communicating. How should one listen in a world where voices are global and local, singular and plural simultaneously? ix
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