Today’s Plan:
- Review Paper Expectations
- Discuss Freire, Nicholson, and Lorde
Review Paper Expectations
Last week I went over the nuts and bolts. This paper is due next Tuesday at noon.
Someone asked if this paper is similar to writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy. While my original impulse was “yes,” the more I think about it, the more I think “no.” A statement of teaching philosophy is often a description of how one teaches (pedagogy) or what one teaches (curriculum). I am *primarily* interested in *why* we educate–what are the ends of education? Now, explicating the ends of education likely requires you address the how and/or what. That is, I am interested in papers that explore institutional requirements. But make sure that any such explication is in service to goals, to ends.
Freire, Nicholson, and Lorde
First, let’s gloss over modernism vs. postmodernism.
To Nicholson:
- Can we develop a definition of postmodernism from Nicholson’s article?
- Nicholson notes that Modernists “condemn(ed) postmodernism as a neoconservative reaction against the emancipatory ideas of the Enlightenment” (197). What does this mean?
- What does Nicholson think Lyotard got right? What does she think he gets wrong?
- What metaphor(s) does Nicholson use to frame Rorty’s approach to education?
- How does Nicholson perceive Rorty improving upon Lyotard?
- What does Nicholson argue that feminism offers (postmodern) education?
Freire:
- What is the banking model of education and why does Freire so staunchly oppose it?
- What is the goal of Freire’s model?
- What is “praxis”?
- Why might Plato or Kant argue that Freire’s model is destined to fail?
- Considering Freire’s humanism
Lorde:
- What is authentic poetry? What does it do? What does it put us into contact with?
- How can we connect Lorde’s theory of poetry with Freire and/or Nicholson?
Homework
Work on the paper. These papers are due Thursday at midnight. We will talk about these papers in Thursday’s class.
