I've done a little bit of reading on the social construction of power along with dominant vs. non-dominant discourses in other classes, and I'm even a little familiar with Foucault, the French philosopher mentioned. I believe that this is an extremely important topic and it kind of ties into almost everything else that we've talked about in this class.
Reading something like this really makes me think. I mean, even the concept of 'truth' is called into question as a social construct as opposed to a simple given. I believe that as teachers we all will be aware of multiple discourses in the class room/ school environment, but it will be up to us to question the status quo and the standards in order to help every student find a voice. I also appreciate the fact that the author mentions helping the students achieve not only equality in power, but the necessary means to proactively fight inequality themselves.
Another part of the essay that I found especially interesting was on page 414-415 when McLaren was comparing male achievement to female achievement, and his discussion of possible reasons for the disparity. The one thing that stuck out for me was when he mentioned that male children often speak without being called on while females are repremanded for the same behavior. In essence, males are taught to be independent and decisive, while females are taught to be dependent. Simply being aware of this type information will no doubt have a positive effect on any of our future classrooms.
To end, I would also like to say that given Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama's recent achievements, the section on page 410 when McLaren says that our society is unlikely to vote for a woman or black president can officially be declared out-dated.
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6 years ago
1 comment:
First, I agree with the notion that a black man or a woman cannot be elected President is dead.
It was refreshing to see that the concept of "truth" was questioned in this class. I am taking a Cultural Foundations course this semester and we have done nothing but question certainty and I was beginning to wonder if it was just that professor's political persuasion or if it was common in other parts of education. I also agree with you that it is our responsibility to challenge the status quo, but we must empower our students to confront it. They are the ones that are going to be stepping out in to the real world (not that teaching isn't the real world) and indirectly dealing with difficult social norms. I think they will have more credibility than we will to bring about real change.
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