I have jotted quite a number of notes in my copy of Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice by Kevin Kumashiro (2004). It took me some time to wrap my head around what the author was meaning by “common sense”, but I have interpreted it as the dominant feeling toward what makes effective education. While the book is primarily about education in the U.S., there are some similar leanings in Canada. Recently, for example, I have heard a few radio talk shows on whether teachers should be monetarily rewarded for effective teaching, rather than receiving increments based on years of experience.
Kumashiro suggests that many times we are bound by “tradition, professionalism, morality, and normalcy” (p. xxxv). When he gives the example of why we believe schools should be open from September through June, I was reminded me of the furor we had in Manitoba when it was decided to always begin the school year after Labour Day. The reasoning was that this was holiday and family time, and therefore should not be disrupted by school. There was a huge resistance to having any less than 200 school days, even to the point of suggestions that the school day be extended by 15 minutes a day, that teachers attend Professional Development on Saturdays, etc. so that not one minute of the school time table would be diminished. I was very surprised that there was such a huge reaction to a seemingly small change.
Paradigm shifts always start with conversation. As more people enter into the dialogue, ideas gain momentum, bring more public awareness, and eventually, change. For this reason, I think the conversation about anti-oppressive education is needed. There is no doubt in my mind that many of my adult learners have experience oppressive education. An example is a personal experience that one of my learners had a few years back. He had moved into an urban community, and was in his first day in a secondary setting. He was a First Nations student, and an East Indian student also started school that same day. Upon entering one class, the teacher took a look around, and told the two students that they were in the wrong class–they should be in the special education class. The learner shared with me that he had been one of the top students in his own school, and this was a severe blow to his confidence and his motivation. In this case, his educational experience clearly was oppressive.
The above example is probably extreme compared to most of the teachers Kumashiro is discussing who believe they are effective, inclusive, and professional, and who would never overtly act in that manner. He suggests, however, that we have more hidden curriculum than we think we do. I have to agree with him on that point. Because I teach mostly Aboriginal learners, I have to be very aware of word choice, biases, how material is presented, etc. I have had to use the critical and sociocultural lenses in working on my action research project. My comfort zone in teaching has been challenged through many of the articles I have read. I still am not sure how comfortable I am with the “activist” approach. If Kumashiro is defining an activist as someone who acts to bring change, then I hope I am an activist. If his definition means deliberately choosing to take political stances and take an aggressive activist position, I am not sure how I feel about that. There was certainly much activism in the 1960’s, when political protests and rallies were common, in high school settings, but more often on university campuses.
Activists that inspire me are those students who follow their passion to bring change, such as the two young people who started in a small way, and have now gained national status as people who have taken action (see http://www.ryanswell.ca/; http://www.ladybugfoundation.ca/). I was very moved by both of these stories, and I always tell my students that one person can make a difference. Perhaps we could also take the positive stance of “empowering education” rather than just approaching it from the adversarial connotations of the term”anti-oppressive”.
eci808arlene 