Defacing Power
As you're reading the book, feel free to ask questions and comment here. I'll post a couple of questions to get us started, but add your own. Remember, participating at least occasionally in these discussions is part of your grade.How does Hayward define power? Does this offer an improvement over Foucault's approach?
What does she hope to accomplish with her observations of 4th grade classrooms?
Is this a good method to better understand power? Why/why not?
What is Hayward's critique of "critical pedagogical theory"? Do you agree?
Does Hayward's book shed any new light on how to understand the relationship between freedom on the one hand and power on the other?
posted by David Watkins @ 5:00 PM
2 Comments:
just a quick comment, I find it interesting that soo many social circumstances, such as parents, location of school, resources, background of teachers play sucha huge part in the issue of power! Hayward talks about "street values" and how the students at North End are taught these street values that influence their conduct and the values that they teach them at school..it influences the power dynamic! Makes me thinka bout my own elementary school, even though it was ages ago, and the teaching techniques that were more effective than others! Just wonder how the fair view teacher, monica segal, would do teaching at North End, and how would her teaching style change and would it be as effective?
Hayward provides a perfect example for Foucault's version of power as a creative force and a suppressive force. The fourth grade classes exemplified the relation of power through creating and restricting freedoms. Fairview used a creative/constructive power that forced the students to create their own rules thus making them accountable to them. The rules would also have input from the teacher so the students would not have complete control however but overall the students thought they had the power. In this case allowing access to power was a way of maintaining control with less effort. North End on the other hand used a restrictive power on the students. The students then did not have the power to shape their own rules and thus had more reason to criticise their teachers and staff. Since no power was provided the students do not have a reason to maintain the current structure of power and as a result rebelled against the system.
Post a Comment
<< Home