Critical Storytelling in Uncritical Times: Stories Disclosed in a Cultural Foundations of Education Course PDF
Preview Critical Storytelling in Uncritical Times: Stories Disclosed in a Cultural Foundations of Education Course
Critical Storytelling in Uncritical Times CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE: CURRICULUM STUDIES IN ACTION Volume 9 Series Editors Brad Porfilio, California State University at East Bay, USA Julie Gorlewski, State University of New York at New Paltz, USA David Gorlewski, D’Youville College, Buffalo, NY, USA Editorial Board Sue Books, State University of New York at New Paltz, USA Dennis Carlson, University of Miami, Ohio, USA Ken Lindblom, Stony Brook University, New York, USA Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles, USA Wayne Ross, University of British Columbia, Canada Christine Sleeter, California State University, Monterey, USA Eve Tuck, State University of New York at New Paltz, USA Scope “Curriculum” is an expansive term; it encompasses vast aspects of teaching and learning. Curriculum can be defined as broadly as, “The content of schooling in all its forms” (English, p. 4), and as narrowly as a lesson plan. Complicating matters is the fact that curricula are often organized to fit particular time frames. The incompat- ible and overlapping notions that curriculum involves everything that is taught and learned in a particular setting and that this learning occurs in a limited time frame reveal the nuanced complexities of curriculum studies. “Constructing Knowledge” provides a forum for systematic reflection on the sub- stance (subject matter, courses, programs of study), purposes, and practices used for bringing about learning in educational settings. Of concern are such fundamental issues as: What should be studied? Why? By whom? In what ways? And in what set- tings? Reflection upon such issues involves an inter-play among the major compo- nents of education: subject matter, learning, teaching, and the larger social, political, and economic contexts, as well as the immediate instructional situation. Historical and autobiographical analyses are central in understanding the contemporary realties of schooling and envisioning how to (re)shape schools to meet the intellectual and social needs of all societal members. Curriculum is a social construction that results from a set of decisions; it is written and enacted and both facets undergo constant change as contexts evolve. This series aims to extend the professional conversation about curriculum in con- temporary educational settings. Curriculum is a designed experience intended to promote learning. Because it is socially constructed, curriculum is subject to all the pressures and complications of the diverse communities that comprise schools and other social contexts in which citizens gain self-understanding. Critical Storytelling in Uncritical Times Stories Disclosed in a Cultural Foundations of Education Course Edited by Nicholas D. Hartlep and Brandon O. Hensley Illinois State University, USA A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-94-6300-254-7 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6300-255-4 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6300-256-1 (e-book) Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/ All chapters in this book have undergone peer review. Cover design by Tak Toyoshima Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2015 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. For my wife Stacey Elise Hartlep You’re my Florence Nightingale. Thank you for the endless support. For my wife Melissa and my family Especially my grandpa, who didn’t make it to see this book, and my grandma, who always supported my educational journey. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CRITICAL STORYTELLING IN UNCRITICAL TIMES Activist scholars Hartlep and Hensley challenge readers to rethink good teaching by providing readers with rich, authentic narratives that were co-produced by students in a Cultural Foundations of Education Course. Critical Storytelling in Uncritical Times is a thoughtfully conceived communal writing project and a significant milestone in our mutual struggle for liberation and human dignity. Suzanne SooHoo, Ph.D., Hassinger Chair in Education and Co-Director, Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Chapman University In this invigorating and wide-ranging volume, Nicholas D. Hartlep and Brandon O. Hensley work with a group of courageous doctoral students in a Cultural Foundations of Education class to reflect on their backgrounds, experiences, and personal and professional interests and critically examine the ways in which their personal histories, languages, cultures, identities, and experiences affect who they are, how they interact with others, and how they live out “major concepts,” “big ideas,” and “general principles” of teaching and learning in life and inquiry. Their gripping stories and critical reflections invent counternarratives that extend understandings of their stories and stories of others regarding experiences of migration, displacement, slavery, suppression, repression, resistance, representation, difference, spirituality, race, gender, place, and responses to racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, and other forms of oppression. Their counternarratives, as theories and methods, expose unjust and dehumanizing ideas, policies, and practices, contextualize silenced and unexamined narratives of their experiences and experiences of underrepresented or disenfranchised individuals and groups, raise challenging questions, protest against the supremacy and normality of meta or official narratives, and transgress orthodoxy and dogma epistemologically and methodologically. This publication advances the field by exemplifying critical story telling to honor practical, contextual, and theoretical diversities, contradictions, and complexities, and to invent pedagogical possibilities to cultivate a more balanced and equitable human condition that embodies cultural, linguistic, sociopolitical, and ecological diversity and plurality of individuals, groups, tribes, and societies in a contested and unjust world. Ming Fang He, Ph.D., Professor of Curriculum Studies, Georgia Southern University Through stories, we construct the past, compose the present, and imagine the future. As contemporary educational policies promote standardization through empirical data, the significance of telling and listening to one another’s narratives through critical lenses becomes increasingly imperative. In this book, Hartlep and Hensley highlight the why and how of critical storytelling in the crucial context of a cultural foundations classroom. Framed by Haberman’s tenets of good teaching, the process of collective composition is both innovative and deeply resonant. Each chapter illustrates a perspective of education that traces a personal past in ways that challenge us to envision new collective possibilities. Taken together, the components of this groundbreaking text offer a riveting read for teachers, teacher educators, and anyone interested in seeking justice through transformative teaching and learning. Julie Gorlewski, Ph.D., Associate Professor, State University of New York at New Paltz, Editor, English Journal TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword xi Derek M. Bolen Preface xvii Nicholas D. Hartlep and Brandon O. Hensley 1. Letter to a Rural White 1 Jamie Neville 2. Karma Doesn’t Have to Be a Bitch: Justice-Oriented Lessons I Learned through Death and Introspection 7 Nicholas D. Hartlep 3. “Micro(act)gressions”: Real Lessons Learned from Fake Dialogue 21 Amanda Rohan 4. “Mis-Education”: Why Teachers Need Foundations of Education Courses 27 Kathleen O’Brien 5. Overcoming Cultural Barriers: Reflection of a Saudi Arabian International Student in the United States 37 Saad Alahmari 6. Judging Stories: Narrative Value in Scholarships 43 Christopher Downing 7. One Unheard Voice from the Shadows 47 Cyndy Alvarez 8. Academic Hazing: A Reflection of My First Year Teaching at a Predominantly White Institution 55 Tuwana T. Wingfield 9. We Are Not “Cordwood”: Critical Stories and the Two-Tier System in U.S. Higher Education 67 Brandon O. Hensley ix
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