Overview for DS1 – 07.05.2018
This is a reading and writing response for July 5, 2018.
Topic: Overview of the History and Epistemological Diversity of Theories in Educational Research
An overview of historical perspectives and epistemologies can be compared to that of a raindrop on a spider web. By closely examining one drop, you lose perspective of the whole interwoven magic of the whole web. Insight from one drop leads to other drops leading to or from the point of interest. By stepping back to gain a ‘bird’s eye view’ you come to fully understand the complexity and beauty of the creation. With today’s readings, I’ll narrow down to examine small parts of the epistemological framework from the Dewey and Freire ‘droplets’. These two readings are connected by threads of conflict, liberation, and the social purpose of education. While the whole complex weaving of the epistemological web from both these theoreticians is necessarily hidden from view, it’s important to remember there is a greater web yet to be explored.
John Dewey attempts to “make explicit the differences in the spirit, material, and methods of education as it operates in different types of community life” (p. 9.87). For Dewey, the ideal roles for democratic education include participation, equity, flexibility, revision, interaction, diversity, agency, relationships, security and order. His position contests the notions of rigidity, isolationism, exclusivity, and protectionism. He advocates for a fully aware citizenry with “varied points of shared common interest” and “freer interaction between social groups” (p. 9.92). He encourages travel as a mechanism to break down barriers. Dewey suggests that conflict is a way to enforce dialogue and “accidentally enables them to learn from one another, and thereby to expand their horizons” (p. 9.92) thus promoting a change in social habits.
Freire promotes knowledge creation as invention, reinvention and inquiry, as a means to combat the oppressive banking model of education, which describes students as receptacles and teachers are depositors of information. He views students and teachers as partners and co-creators through the application of pedagogical approaches of problem solving and dialogic reciprocity. As students and teachers uncover reality, thus striving for the “emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality” (p. 170), leading them to push for transformation in education. Freire indicates that ‘problem posing education’ is directed toward the humanization of education, a means to overcome authoritarianism with emancipatory practices, and is “revolutionary futurity” through the interplay of the opposites ‘to be’ and ‘becoming’, “permanence and change” (p. 172), thus promoting a change in society.
The diversity of views from Dewey and Freire suggest dynamic approaches and challenges that can impact the directions for educational research and the ageless question of educations place in society, either as leading social change or following societal directions. Both suggest that conflict, dialogue, and awareness of self and others, can break down barriers and emancipate education from the oppressors.
References
Dewey, J. (1916). Chapter 7: The democratic conception in education. In Democracy and Education. Pennsylvania: Penn State, 85-104.
Freire, P. (2009). From pedagogy of the oppressed. Race/ethnicity: multidisciplinary global contexts, 2(2), 163-174.
