Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Yet, these hobbies and interests do not exist in a bubble only for the purposes
of
indulging
in
brain
tickling
exercises.
The
consequence
of
these
curiosities,
and
the
ongoing
outcome
of
this
process,
has
been
the
development
of
a
social
consciousness,
and,
as
Max
Van
Manen
correctly
identifies:
"a
socially
conscious
person"
ought
to
engage
in
"social
criticism
of
all
forms
of
hegemony
including
the
authority
of
the
knowledge
and
value
orientations
taught
in
school"
(Case
&
Clark,
2008,
p.
31).
Thus,
while
general
mention
of
participatory
democracy
and
the
notion
that
a
foremost
role
of
a
Social
Studies
educator
is
to
empower
and
prepare
students
for
civic
engagement
-
is
welcomed
and
to
be
encouraged,
it
is,
as
Case
&
Clark
(2008,
p.
25)
correctly
identify,
ultimately
devoid
of
content
and,
therefore,
meaningless
if
no
further
inquiry
or
suggestion
is
made.
Yet
Brandes
&
Kelly
(2001),
and
educators
and
theorists
generally
within
the
tradition
of
Critical
Pedagogy,
seem
to
be
more
than
willing
to
inquire,
and
to
suggest
that:
Schools
are
not
apart
from
the
wider
society;
they
are
themselves
sites
of
struggle
and
social
change.
Both
inside
and
outside
schools,
societal
inequalities
(based
on
class,
race,
gender,
or
sexuality)
place
limits
on
the
actual
practice
of
democracy
(Brandes
&
Kelly,
2001,
p.
438).
Therefore,
I
would
argue
that
this
institutional
reality
necessarily
becomes
the
primary
obstacle
for
the
proactive
and
socially
conscious
Social
Studies
teacher,
and
calling
attention
to
this
reality
becomes
indivisible
from
ones
praxis
in
the
classroom.
Yet,
what
is
stated
in
writing
is
by
no
means
easy
to
situate
in
the
material.
Social
Studies
teachers
who
are
concerned
with
these
concerns
and
values
face
an
extraordinary
uphill
struggle,
one
that
certainly
requires
a
conscious
theoretical
pedagogical
approach.
As
noted
education
theorist
Henry
Giroux
has
pointed
out:
Most
of
our
students
are
very
comfortable
with
defining
themselves
as
technicians
and
clerks.
For
them
to
be
all
of
a
sudden
exposed
to
a
line
of
critical
thinking
that
both
calls
their
own
experience
into
question
and
at
the
same
time
raises
fundamental
questions
about
what
teaching
should
be
and
what
social
purposes
it
might
serve
is
very
hard
for
them
(Giroux,
1992,
p.
16).
My
limited
time
in
the
classroom
has
already
sadly
confirmed
this
reality.
A
world
suffused
with
ideology
-
ideology
that
is
seldom
identified
or
recognized
as
such
-
has
historically
had
a
profound
accumulative
societal
cost,
and
always
threatens
further
entrenchment
or
pernicious
mutation.
This
poses
very
real
risks
to
the
necessary,
deepest
conceptions
of
democracy.
Undoubtedly,
the
educational-
institutional
frameworks,
disparities
in
the
goals
and
funding
of
private
and
public
education,
hidden
curricula,
as
well
as
standardized
testing
share
no
small
part
in
the
blame
for
this.
However,
the
individual
Social
Studies
educator
has,
within
him
or
herself,
extraordinary
agency
to
play
a
vital
role
in
challenging
presumptions
and
developing
students
sense
of
personal
and
intellectual
autonomy:
[I]f
participatory
democracy
is
to
become
a
reality,
it
will
need
an
educational
foundationit
will
mean
"a
change
in
people's
consciousness
(or
unconsciousness)
from
seeing
themselves
and
acting
as
essentially
consumers,
to
seeing
themselves
and
acting
as
exerters
and
enjoyers
of
the
exertion
and
development
of
their
capacities"
(Osborne,
2008,
p.
4).
This
prior
quotation,
I
believe,
is
key.
Though
social
reform
and
intellectual
development
are
placed
on
separate
axis
within
the
Citizenship
Education
Matrix
(Clark
&
Case,
2008,
p.
28)
and
thus,
by
their
orientation,
does
not
preclude
a
teacher
from
combining
both,
I
would
argue
instead
that
social
reform
is
unlikely
to
occur
without
intellectual
development.
This
speaks,
perhaps
in
part,
to
my
underlying
frustration
with
some
of
the
literature
I
have
read
in
the
tradition
of
Critical
Pedagogy:
it
sometimes
presumes
we
can
simply
discard
or
ignore
the
official
history
and
direct
our
focus
and
attention
instead
on
narratives
of
marginalization,
oppression
and
exploitation.
Students
are
presumed
to
develop
autonomously,
directed
by
their
whims
and
limited
experience,
without
even
first
having
a
sense
of
whats
out
there,
without
being
exposed
to
concepts,
subjects
and
topics.
Yet,
I
am
reminded
of
critical
theorist
Herbert
Marcuses
insistence
that
you
cannot
criticize
or
transcend
the
canon
without
first
knowing
it
(Novak,
2013,
p.
107).
Jacques
Derrida,
the
key
figure
in
deconstruction
and
often
blindly
assumed
to
neatly
align
with
postmodern
traditions
that
foreground
the
tearing
apart
of
the
old,
himself
stated:
I
dont
start
with
disorder;
I
start
with
the
tradition.
If
youre
not
trained
in
the
tradition,
then
deconstruction
means
nothing
(Gale,
1996,
p.
156).
We
teach
the
tradition
not
because
it
is
correct
or
that
it
contains
a
superior
wisdom
that
is
unobtainable
otherwise,
but
rather
precisely
because
it
is
often
wrong:
that
it
contains
distortions,
inaccuracies,
oppressive
assumptions,
and
cultivated
ignorance.
My
primary
desires
as
a
Social
Studies
educator
are
to
provide
the
official
narrative(s),
profound
critiques
of
it,
offer
alternative,
historically
verifiable
narratives
and
have
students
develop
an
expansive
sense
of
the
world
and
of
possibility;
but
my
deepest
desire
is
for
students
to
develop
the
necessary
skillset
to
be
able
to
navigate
the
world
themselves
as
truly
autonomous
individuals
who
have
the
capacity
to
discover
the
satisfactions
of
true
critical
thinking.
References
Brandes,
G.
M.,
&
Kelly,
D.
M.
(2001).
Shifting
Out
of
Neutral:
Beginning
Teachers
Struggles
with
Teaching
for
Social
Justice.
Canadian
Journal
of
Education
26,
4:
437-454.
Case,
P.,
&
Clark,
R.
(2008).
Four
Defining
Purposes
of
Citizenship
Education.
The
Anthology
of
Social
Studies:
Volume
2,
Issues
and
Strategies
for
Secondary
Teachers.
Vancouver,
BC:
Pacific
Educational
Press,
25-31.
Gale,
X.
L.
(1996).
Teachers,
Discourses,
and
Authority
in
the
Postmodern
Composition
Classroom.
New
York,
NY:
State
University
of
New
York
Press.
Giroux,
H.
A.
(1992).
The
Hope
of
Radical
Education:
A
Conversation
with
Henry
Giroux.
Border
Crossings:
Cultural
Workers
and
the
Politics
of
Education.
New
York,
NY:
Routledge.
9-18.
Novak,
M.
(2013).
Writing
from
Left
to
Right.
New
York,
NY:
Image.
Osborne,
K.
(2008).
The
Teaching
of
History
and
Democratic
Citizenship.
The
Anthology
of
Social
Studies:
Volume
2,
Issues
and
Strategies
for
Secondary
Teachers.
Vancouver,
BC:
Pacific
Educational
Press,
3-14.