-
Self and Social Formation and the Political Project of Teaching: Some Reflections
Peter McLaren
"Like many young people growing up in Canada during the 50s and 60s, I felt increasingly like I was being swallowed up in some viscid mass of dull, mind-numbing convention, particularly my experience of being schooled, since I like to make a distinction between being schooled and experiencing an education. Education requires the cultivation of critique, or critical consciousness, and in my teenage high school years, being intelligent or able to conscript concepts into the service of sustained critique was not something that earned one a lot of attention with one’s peers, and I was culturally shallow enough to want to be part of the popular crowd, so I would often hide my intellectual curiosity about life, mostly during moments of grinding loneliness, and expostulate with myself about why my life at school seemed so ruinously vacuous, why I was so interminably miserable, why acts of creativity and why displays of ingenuity and wit seemed to be off-limits and treated by so many teachers as unjudicious, impolite, an epistemological breach of impolicy."
-
Creating the Back Ward: The Triumph of Custodialism and the Uses of Therapeutic Failure in Nineteenth Century Idiot Asylums
Philip M. Ferguson
"My focus in this chapter is on the origin of the back ward rather than its demise. Where did the “back wards” that [Burton] Blatt and [Senator Robert] Kennedy witnessed come from in the first place? What 3 exactly were those “antecedents of the problems observed” that Blatt cited? This chapter reviews that history and argues that, in fact, there is a specific narrative to the evolution of the institutional “back ward” as an identifiable place where people with the most significant intellectual disabilities were to be incarcerated and largely forgotten."
-
From Voicing to Naming to Re-humanization
Miguel Zavala
"I believe a pedagogy informed by a decolonizing framework is meaningless without making colonized peoples' survival and recovery central to it; this requires a critical re-framing of their lives and an understanding how to transform the neo-colonial situation that limits their development. In sum, a critical study of any subject matter must ultimately address the very social issues that impact the peoples' lives, with the goal to reclaim their cultural histories and thereby lead to community self-determination."
-
Human Rights, States’ Rights, and Linguistic Apartheid
Arturo Rodriguez and Peter McLaren
"We live in an era of neoliberal capitalism or unregulated, casino-style, speculative capitalism that creates laissez-faire economic conditions by means of unfettering the economy or freeing it up by removing barriers and restrictions to what entrepreneurs and corporate or business actors can accomplish in order to maximize profits. We hear this echoed in terms such as broadening the tax base by reforming the tax law, limiting protectionism, removing fixed exchange rates, privatizing state-run businesses, and deregulating the economy. But a more comprehensive definition of neoliberalism wou1d include the idea that neoliberalism is a total, universal form of social organization bolstered by a total life philosophy based on the ideal of competition and the marketization of everyday life. The result-for-profit charter schools, voucher programs, No Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top have created a nonmarket underclass who dwell in a bottom-tiered netherworld of super-exploited labor that serves those of more fundamental worth to the social order: the more "successful" transnational capitalist class."
-
Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities
Dawn Hunter, Denise P. Reid, and Trisha Sugita
This book provides strategies and ideas for improving the lives of people with disabilities, exploring new ways of enabling a successful transition to an integrated adult working life by providing effective instruction and support. This chapter in particular examines the options for postsecondary education, how students with disabilities can adequately prepare themselves, and barriers and assistance they may come across.
-
The Imperative for Servant-Leadership: Reflections on the (Enduring) Dysfunctions of Corporate Masculinity
Mark Maier
As the chapters in this volume underscore, despite significant strides towards gender equality in the workplace over the past 30-40 years, significant barriers remain. It is undeniable that women have made significant inroads in the public sphere of work. Where other contributions address the implications of the gendered nature of organizational culture (and family life) for women's advancement, I will focus here on the ways in which the gendered biases of our work and family spheres not only pose formidable barriers to women, but-paradoxically-also limit the life opportunities and leadership potential of men and seriously compromise both ethical decision-making in organizations and organizational performance. At the heart of this chapter is the question, 'Why should men work to transform and subvert a system that ostensibly privileges them?' We shall examine some of the fundamental assumptions of human behavior in organizations and explore how conventional forms of organizing (hierarchy, bureaucracy) and managing are not only masculine-gendered, but in fact undermine leadership and organizational effectiveness.
-
Asian American College Students
Michelle Samura
This encyclopedia entry focuses on the oppurtunities and limitations Asian American students face in the University system.
-
Best Practices in Writing Assessment for Instruction
Robert C. Calfee and Roxanne Greitz Miller
Our assignment in this chapter is to discuss best practices in writing assessment, a task that poses a twofold challenge for teachers-first, the task of providing authentic opportunities for students to acquire skill in writing while covering an ever-increasing array of other curriculum demands; second, the overriding pressures to ensure that students perform well on the standardized tests that have become the primary accountability index. As we complete this chapter, few state testing systems rely to any significant degree on performance tests for measuring student achievement. Multiple-choice tests dominate, and on-demand writing tests (including the SAT) generally contravene the counsel provided by the College Board. Our purpose is to survey assessment concepts and techniques supported by research and practical experience and to suggest ways to fit these ideas into the realities of policies that, although well intended, often conflict with best practices. The advice from the College Board illustrates this point; it captures many facets of best practices, but the real SAT assessment permits none of these elements. We have limited space for presenting how-to details, but we will provide selected references to help apply the ideas. The chapter is organized around three topics. First, we describe the concept of embedded classroom writing assessments designed to inform instruction and provide evidence about learning. The bottom line here is the recommendation that writing tasks (instruction and assessment) be designed to support the learning of significant academic topics (Urquhart & Mclver, 2005). Next, we present several contrasts that emerge from this perspective: process versus product, formative versus summative evaluation, and assessment versus testing. Finally, we review a set of building blocks that is essential to all writing assessments, especially those that are classroom-based: the prompt, the procedures, and the rubrics. As you have probably realized from the scenarios and the discussion thus far, our focus will be on composing more than mechanics. Attention to spelling and grammar is eventually important, but it helps if the writer has something to say and has learned how to organize his or her ideas.
-
Diverse Collective Leadership
Margaret Grogan and Charol Shakeshaft
"Encouraged by the evidence we have found in the research on women in educational leadership, in this chapter we offer some ways to reconceptualize the work of leadership to engage the collective voice and to challenge the status quo in the name of equity and diversity."
-
Finding a Voice: Families’ Roles in Schools
Dianne L. Ferguson, Amy N. Hanreddy, and Philip M. Ferguson
Every day, around the world, families of children with disabilities experience a wide range of settings and services meant to provide support for the challenges they face.
-
Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy for a Socialist Society: A Manifesto
Peter McLaren
"Those of us who have to sell our labor-power for a wage remain ensepulchured by the realities of the global meltdown and the militarization of the country. The poor are left to face the organized burden of being American in he paradise created by the rich and for the rich."
-
The Present King of France is Feeble-Minded: The Logic and History of the Continuum of Placements for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Philip M. Ferguson
This chapter focuses on the logic and history of the continuum of placements for people with intellectual disabilities.
-
Writing Useful, Accessible, and Legally Defensible Psychoeducational Reports
Michael Hass and Jeanne Anne Carriere
This important resource offers practical guidance on writing psychoeducational reports that directly respond to referral concerns. The authors provide recommendations and assessment information in a format easily understood by parents, teachers, and other educational and mental health professionals. Filled with numerous practice exercises, sample reports, helpful checklists, and end of chapter questions, this invaluable guide provides an approach to writing reports that will help school psychologists better meet the needs of the individualized education program (IEP) team, teachers, parents, and others working with the child.
-
A Problem-Solving Approach to School Violence Prevention
Jim Larson and Randy T. Busse
This chapter describes how a problem-solving process can be employed effectively in the context of team decision making to design, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive school violence prevention program. Problem solving is conceptualized as the systematic effort to reduce the discrepancy between a current undesirable situation, such as frequent bully behavior, and that of a more preferred circumstance. A five-step process is identified: (a) problem identification, (b) problem analysis, (c) problem response proposals, (d) response implementation, and (e) evaluation of prevention strategies. The model places heavy reliance on data-gathering and analysis at the building level to define the problem accurately, and then to monitor effectively the progress of subsequent prevention programs and procedures.
-
Bilingual Education as an EEO: Educational Enrichment Opportunity for All
Anaida Colón-Muñiz and Norma Valenzuela
"In this chapter, we present our position on the need for more, not less, bilingual education based not only on our personal experiences and on the evidence that is available in the literature verifying the value of bilingualism and biliteracy. Even with our bumpy experiences as young bilingual children, we are still better for it than if we had been raised without the benefit of two languages. But we also know it is time to do a better job with our youth in the United States as it refers to language development.
In Part I, we argue that bilingual education should be viewed as an educational opportunity for every child in America and as enrichment, rather than a deficit program. In Part II, we show that well-designed and implemented dual-language or bilingual programs lead to higher achievement and better academic outcomes for students, their schools, and ultimately our society."
-
In the Market for Reconciliation? In Reconciliation and Pedagogy
Donna Houston, Gregory Martin, and Peter McLaren
"It is in the light of these events (and in the light of Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's opening of parliament on 12 February 2008 with an apology to the Stolen Generations) that we frame our arguments in this chapter. In the first instance, we want to discuss how reconciliation in a dialogic and material sense is susceptible to the economic interests and political ideologies of the state… Here we argue that it might be useful to take a closer look at the political and economic forces that propel national reconciliation processes in the remaking of race and nation (see Marx 1998). We argue that, unless the deep-seated entitlements of Aboriginal sovereignty and land justice are settled, projects for reconciliation can only but skim the surface of a genuine rapprochement between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. It is of course in this sense that the collective failure to recognize the embeddedness of Aboriginal disentitlement to the material interests of the modern Australian state is also to make the liberal error of seeing racism as abhorrent to modern nation making rather than as fundamental to it (Langton 1999; Gilmore 2002)."
-
Mentoring as a Social Justice Equalizer in Higher Education
Whitney H. Sherman and Margaret Grogan
"[T]he purpose of this chapter is to challenge commensense assumptions about mentoring and to revision the practice to one that is an inclusive, social justice equalizer for women in higher education. This work is distinct because it frames social justice and mentoring in action-oriented strategies and is situated in a mentoring relationship that has existed for almost 10 years in the higher education setting between two women: a mentor and protégée."
-
Petitioners as a Reflection of Their Community
Shauna Reilly and Whitney McIntyre Miller
"Petitioners of direct democracy play a fundamental role in the democratic process. These individuals are those who circulate petitions and endeavor to change laws through initiatives. Petitioners are motivated by a variety of reasons, and this can lead to differences not only in the laws they propose but also in their success. This chapter will examine the impact that community connections have on the petitioning process by exploring the effects of different typologies of petitioners on how connected they are to their community, attitudes toward fellow citizens, and happiness. To accomplish this task, this chapter will look at the different petitioner typology and the role of community networks in each."
-
Preface to Education, Equality and Human Rights: Issues of Gender, 'Race', Sexuality, Disability and Social Class
Peter McLaren
"It is evident everywhere that progressive educators around the world are harboring an anticipatory regret at what the world will surely be like if unbridled capitalism has its way. Great swathes of the globe are imploding from the expansion of the world capitalist system… Increasingly youth have been forced to sacrifice their futures in order to fund the endless wars on terror, to fund a crisis response program of bailing out the banks and to bolster the extravagant lifestyles of the financial elite. This calls for a revolutionary upsurge on the part of youth, with teachers playing a vital role in educating for socialism as state officials consistently refuse to consider increasing taxes on corporations and the rich to prevent public service and wage cuts."
-
Responsive Practices to Support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Students and Families
Emily S. Fisher and Kelly S. Kennedy
The needs and rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students and families are often ignored, generally misunderstood, and only rarely given priority by the school system. This book provides a practical and useful guide for school-based mental health professionals to support students, families, teachers, and administrators in the development of a safe, inclusive school environment for all LGBTQ students and families. It begins with an overview of the unique issues and challenges faced by LGBTQ students and families, including a discussion of sexuality and gender identity development within the interconnected contexts of home, school, and community. Practical steps are given for creating an inclusive school environment; implementing prevention and intervention techniques to address discrimination, bullying, and violence; and organizing effective counseling programs for LGBTQ students. These school-based efforts are then extended to working with families and communities to reinforce steps taken in the school context. An accompanying CD includes numerous handouts, sample letters, and other resources to assist the school-based mental health professional in implementing responsive and affirmative practices for LGBTQ students and families.
-
Romantic Agrarianism and Movement Education in the United States: Examining the Discursive Politics of Learning Disability Science
Scot Danforth
"This article will explore the deficit-based characterizations of lower social class families, children, and neighborhoods in the history of the scientific discourse that built the learning disability construct, illuminating an often overlooked discursive connection between lower class status and learning disability."
-
Taking a Critical Stance in Research
Margaret Grogan and Juanita M. Cleaver-Simmons
"Most important to all these critical stances in research is the desire to transform existing forms of social organisation. The purpose of research conducted within the critical paradigms is not just to describe or understand social phenomena but also to change them. This is in contrast to the purposes of traditional research which are most often to explain or understand the social world."
-
Becoming a Critical Citizen: A Marxist-Humanist Critique
Juha Suoranta, Peter McLaren, and Nathalia E. Jamarillo
"Rehabilitating Marxism in the field of education does not mean trying to bring back a sort of fashionable "retro" or soft-focus Marxism that scholars in cultural studies have flirted with for too many years. Instead, it draws from the notion that Marxist historical materialist critique offers among the best analyses needed today in the struggle for an anticapitalist future. Many contemporary cultural studies scholars all too readily dismiss this "classical" Marxist thought as being unaware of its own Eurocentrist assumptions and viewpoints, not to mention its linkage to an Enlightenment modernity that has long since faded after the so-called demise of industrial society and the advent of what has been called the new "digital society." This situation has been particularly acute since 1968, with the withering of the state as the primary site of revolutionary struggle among antagonistic classes."
-
Critical Pedagogy in Stark Opposition to Western Neoliberalism and the Corporatization of Schools: A Conversation with Peter McLaren
Peter McLaren
In this dialogue, Professor McLaren draws on a critical pedagogy theoretical framework to critically analyze the harmful effects of capitalism on poor working-class people, including factory workers in countries such as Argentina. He points out the resilience with which these workers resisted the arbitrary decision of CEOs who closed the factory where they were working. These CEOs closed the factories when they realized they could no longer maximize their profits. As McLaren eloquently points out, these factory workers, inspired by a strong sense of collectiveness and work ethic, combined with their unshakable determination to cake their destiny in their own hands, organized and ran the factory for the equal benefit of each worker. Professor McLaren goes on to talk about the negative influence of U.S. neoliberal policy on third world countries. Along the same line, he provides a sharp critique of universities in the United States that have followed a corporate model of education to fit the logic of the capitalist system. Professor McLaren invites concerned citizens, particularly students, to use their agency to counter the corporatization and militarization of schools. Finally, in linking capitalism to other forms of oppression, such as racism, Professor McLaren maintains, "Racism often keeps White workers from recognizing that it is in their interests to unite with their Black and Brown brothers and sisters and fight their capitalist bosses."
-
If There Is Anyone Out There
Peter McLaren
"In the near-necrotic thrall of the 2008 presidential election, most of the discussion centered on the historical magnitude of the climate in which the election took place… The bulk of these questions helped to shape the state of expectant anxiety and intense anticipation experienced by many as the Obama presidential team prepared to take office. However, the reality on the ground proved to be much more dismal than the hopes and dreams unleashed by Obama’s scintillating anticipatory rhetoric."
Below you may find selected books and book chapters from faculty in the Attallah College of Educational Studies.
Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.