I've been thinking about a central irony in feminist pedagogical writing on the importance of valuing student voice and experience: the absence of student voice in the writings themselves. My critique is not that there are "better" articles not on the syllabus that do incorporate student voice, but rather that such texts do not seem to exist (or are extremely scarce). Plenty of articles incorporate scenarios where the professor reportedly "makes sense" of a classroom response with a student in an office hour interaction, and certainly there are discussions centering on student responses in the classroom that aim to theorize what classroom happenings are "symptomatic" of. I have also come across collaborative articles written by grad students critiquing a grad seminar they took part in, and as we've seen, collaborative articles written by professors--but where are the collaborative texts by students and professors? Certainly there are institutional restraints on such processes (namely time and concerns about what constitutes appropriate relationships with students), but this seems like a very meaningful way to make students aware of the value of their input and to claim a stake in their education. To clarify, I am not suggesting that including student voices would allow for a more "real" picture of what is going on in the classroom (although...), but what I am suggesting is that we miss out on a lot by speculating and theorizing what worked/what didn't without working through these ideas with other people who were involved (i.e. countering master narratives through partial perspective). I also raise this issue because I do plan on incorporating student-reflections in my dissertation project that critiques the university's model of multiculturalism, and I'm wondering what people think about the possibilities, limitations, contradictions, and challenges of such ventures.
I just read this article by Merry Merryfield that discusses how she has used WebCT in her teacher education classes over 2 years with students from diverse cultures. Because the classes she taught were online she often had students from other states or countries enrolled and she wanted to see how the technology was used as a pedagogical tool. It reminded me of the blog in a way because similar discussions happened.
What I was surprised by was this: She and her TAs made sure that they posted a response to every entry and they set a number of minimum and maximum posts for each person in each threaded discussion so that one person could not monopolize. They found that this equalized the discussions online and that the course was qualitatively different from one where some dominate and others are silent. For whatever reasons, I know that our blog has some members who are more vocal/silent than others. Would adding these elements to future class blogs be too limiting? Is it an administrative nightmare to keep track of it all? Would it help equalize if everyone got at least one response to a post? Does that control add too many requirements and de-rail the nature of what a blog is supposed to be?
She also talks about the privacy of the secure discussions and how this closed online environment allows her students to take risks, admit to the realities of prejudice and discrimination or ask questions that they would otherwise censor. I have thought about this with the public nature of our blog and how I really think carefully before posting anything because it will be in public forever. What do you think? Do closed online environments aid in risk-taking or is there enough anonymity on a blog that doesn't identify last names?
Merryfield, M. (2003). Like a veil: Cross-cultural experiential learning online. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 3(2), 146-171.
At U, future teachers may be reeducated
I appreciated the drawings and have been thinking about hangups many high school students have about their inability to draw. As a teacher, I often would draw diagrams on the board, and I would proudly draw my stick figures. On occasion I'd ask students to draw what they conceptualized about biology on the board - but I see a real power to this. A chance to stretch our usual way of thinking and learning in science class, away from words and vocabulary lists, and towards a different way to depict our understandings.
This lends very nicely to the content that we were discussing about access and dis/abilities. If nothing else, it reminds students about the various difficulties a school environment imposes on its students. And there is greater likelihood that it will lead deeper conversations about access at a school, increasing awareness, and empowering students to act on behalf of other students. Thanks - bb
a. On 12.2 you will meet in small groups (3-4 people) to discuss your syllabi. You will have about 35 minutes to discuss each syllabus.
b. On 12.9 we will meet as a large group to discuss your syllabi and the process of putting together your readings, etc.
c. Please bring 5 copies of the syllabus next week on 11.18 (1 for me + copies for you each group member). Also bring your 1-2 informal reflection about the process of putting together the syllabus (were there difficult choices that you had to make? are you especially excited about a certain assignment?). Included in this reflection is your definition of feminist pedagogy and how you implement it in the syllabus.
d. Email me a pdf (not a .doc) of your syllabus so that I can make it available to everyone on WebCT.
e. Make sure to carefully read and comment on your group members' syllabi prior to class on 12.2.
f. If you include specific readings within your syllabus, you are not required to have an additional bibliography at the end of the syllabus.
We still have to decide how to break you up into peer groups. One option is for you all to email me (puot0002@umn.edu) with your topic/title and I can put you into groups with similar interests. Another option is for you all to post your topic/title on the blog and then decide (via the blog or email) which groups you want to work in. You could them email me with your group. Any thoughts?
- I asked you all for advice on a teaching question
- I encouraged you to turn your questions about the effectiveness of feminist pedagogy strategies onto our class by asking you to assess how we negotiate the various levels of knowledge about feminism/feminist theory/feminist pedagogy
- During discussion, I remained silent so as to listen to what you all had to say
GSWU meets every Thursday evening at 6pm in the Geography dept lounge (4th floor, Social Sciences Tower on the West Bank).
If you don't want to come to meetings but want to be involved in other ways (via the newsletter or other things) you can ask me or Melody H for more info!
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