Privileging Knowledge:Paradigms, Epistemologies

and “Ways of Knowing”

A Questioning and Troubling of Dominant Discourse and Pedagogies in Schooling

Kyle MitscheleTeacher, MS History, Rye Country Day School

Doctoral Student, Teachers College, Columbia University

NYSAIS Diversity Conference, April 2009

Questions We’ll Consider:What does it mean "to know" something?*Can types of knowledge be more important than

others?If so, what are the implications? What and whose

knowledge are we privileging?What are the moral obligations of understanding?*Why do we ask students to know and do particular

“things” and show that knowledge in particular ways?

*Reproduced from Kincheloe, J.L. (2004). Knowledges of teacher education: Developing a critical complex epistemology. Teacher Education Quarterly. Winter 2004.

Defining terms

ParadigmAccepted examples of practice from

which come traditions of research and practiceHelps define the methods and

practices of a discipline

- After Kuhn, T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Epistemology“a theory of knowledge, especially regarding its

methods, validity, and scope;Epistemology is the investigation of what

distinguishes justified belief from opinion”

To begin…Please think about what you think it means to

“know”, and represent your thoughts either:Through a quick drawing, ORA “sculpture” of pipe cleaners, ORSome other non-written/oral form, with what is easily

available…?

Time to share!Share out:

Introduce self (selves?)Quick word on “how you got here”Explain your quickly-produced masterpiece If you care to, once everyone has gone, we can

briefly talk about what the process of doing this was like.

Respond to this statement:

Teaching depends on knowledge.

Do you agree? Disagree?

Do you feel strongly? Or not?

Share and explain your response with a neighbor.

One “text” on schools, teaching and knowledge:Watch and reflect on the brief glimpses of

“knowledge” at work in Dead Poets Society.

Ranking “types/domains of knowledge”First-hand knowledgeOral traditionFolkloreMythologyStatisticsScientific conclusionsInterview transcript

Journal/diary writingsSurvey resultsQuestionsPredictions“how-to”/proceduralArtMusic

QuestionsWhat did you base your ranking on?If your basis for ranking had nothing to do with

school, would you rank the items in this list differently if the prompt was specifically along the lines of ranking school knowledge?

What knowledge is most demanded (and rewarded) in your school?

If Teaching Depends on Knowledge…What knowledge are we valuing?How do we know when something stands up as

“knowledge”?Do we openly recognize the social construction of

knowledge?We must first recognize our own and understand

others’ epistemologies, as well as whatever paradigm of pedagogy or discipline we may be bound by.

Initial Attempt at Definition of Your “Stance”Take a moment and write about how you

would “define” your epistemological stance.What knowledge do you tend to value? (Think

back to earlier this morning, when you ranked different types of data.) What kinds of comments and work do you value in your classes?

What makes something “true” in your mind?How do you assess your students? When is an

answer “correct”? Add any other associated thoughts you have on

this topic.

Pair/Share

My Stance & ThesisKnowledge is socially constructed; as such, a

practice of “normalizing” particular knowledge (in both form and content) privileges that knowledge, and makes that privilege invisible

It is that “normalizing” practice – of making the privilege invisible – that makes systems of power/knowledge (Foucault, 1978) reproduce (through technologies such as dominant schooling practices and pedagogies) that privilege in new (and usual) natural ways

A couple of alternate lensesPoststructuralism

One major aspect is unpacking discursive binaries: Man/woman Urban/rural White/Black (e.g.: Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark) Upper-middle class/working class Smart/dumb

Critical Race Theory

Normalization of the ChildSimple conversations can, through language,

construct normsHow a child might “master content” or “skills”

“at grade-level” “natural” ability Idea of intelligence

Such language and norms position the child along a continuum of values (often themselves unspoken, unquestioned)

Popkewitz, T. S. (1998). Struggling for the soul: The politics of schooling and the construction of the teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.

Alchemy of School SubjectsA goal of the early twentieth century school: normalize,

categorize, rank and sort students to make the constructive and productive citizens of industrial society

Disciplinary knowledge is socially producedEach discipline has standards for knowledge

production/research “norms of ‘truth’, however, … are produced through

alliances with groups external to the disciplineKuhn (1970): certain rules and discourses govern

disciplines, creating the paradigm for that discipline Major changes require “paradigm shift” (e.g. Copernicus,

heliocentrism)

Popkewitz, T. S. (1998). Struggling for the soul: The politics of schooling and the construction of the teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.

Alchemy, cont’d“[S]chool subjects tend to treat knowledge as

uncontested and unambiguous content for children to learn or solve problems with” (27).

“School ‘science,’ ‘math,’ ‘composition,’ or ‘art’ is pedagogical knowledge that conforms to expectations related to the school timetable, conceptions of childhood [and adolescence], and conventions of teaching that transform knowledge and intellectual inquiry into a strategy for [saving the child]”

Popkewitz, T. S. (1998). Struggling for the soul: The politics of schooling and the construction of the teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.

Example of “alchemy” at work:Masculinity in US History texts“From the perspective of masculinity, history can

be viewed as an interpretive account by men for men in the sense that it is both a reflection and product of patriarchy. The social studies curriculum, as represented by United States history textbooks, can be viewed as a cultural terrain where patriarchy is both produced and reproduced through schooling.”

- Kuzmic, J. (2000). “Textbooks, Knowledge, and Masculinity.”

Example of “alchemy” at work:Eurocentrism in early ed texts“Again and again Anglo-Americans’ belief in the

rightness of their actions is used to justify how Mexican people and Native Americans have been treated historically.” (Martinez, E.,”Distorting Latino History: The California Textbook Controversy” in Levine, et al, Rethinking Schools: An Agenda for Change)

Own experience, teaching roots of slavery in 8th US

Critical Race TheoryInitially formed as in the field of legal studies, in

order to address problems seen by “minorities” within the field, especially concerning the manner in which law makes social constructs concrete and part of “the code”

Critical Race TheoryThere is no one proposed or adhered to set of

doctrines in CRT, but there are a number of ideas that CRT theorists tend to have in common. Relevant to our discussion in an educational context are:

Critical Race Theory: Shared Features

An assumption that racism is not a series of isolated acts, but is endemic in American life, deeply ingrained legally, culturally, and even psychologically;

A challenge to the “traditional claims of… neutrality, objectivity, and color-blindness, and meritocracy as camouflages for the self-interest of dominant groups in American society”

An insistence on subjectivityThe use of stories or first-person accounts

Intersections of Dominant Epistemology and CRTCRT theorists like Delgado suggest that “naming

one’s own reality” is important because:Much of reality is socially constructedStories provide members of outgroups a vehicle for

psychic self-preservationThe exchange of stories from teller to listener can

help overcome ethnocentrism and the dysconscious conviction of viewing the world in one way

Intersections, cont’dThe “grand narrative” of history and Western

progress, and the infallibility of Renaissance ideals, such as the scientific method, then, are simply the dominant “story” retold as fact. As Delgado notes, “Most oppression does not seem like oppression to the perpetrator.”

“Reality is constructed in ways to maintain privilege.”

The Problem of the “Multicultural”Curriculum:Multiculturalism as the “tourist” curriculum

It is argued that “multicultural” paradigms, where surface difference is celebrated (food, culture, dress/costume, etc) or an acceptance of “unity of difference” does not allow for, question, challenge, or push the possibilities for radical change of the current social order.

Multiculturalism as tourism, cont’dConsider: If the “multi” cultures are simply added

in (as holidays, special events, “an/other” section of information), their place as “Other” to the dominant (White, male, upper/middle class, heterosexual…) culture is reinforced and re-inscribed

Questions for Further Thought and Action

How, then, does our current teaching and methodology help support the dominant paradigm?

Are we simply accepting of “diversity” as long as it fits with a dominant discourse, or can we openly challenge that discourse and our “ways of knowing” to open new possibilities for thought, reflection, action, reaction, evaluation, and assessment in our classrooms?

Honoring Varying “Ways of Knowing”“[T]he lesson teachers can and should take from this body

of literature is the idea that children do learn and perceive the world in dissimilar ways. Therefore, meeting the instructional and personal needs of diverse learners demands that teachers create more inclusive classroom cultures that embrace multiple ways of knowing. When children are not forced to ‘enter school having to unlearn or, at least, to modify their own culturally sanctioned interactional and behavioral styles and adopt those styles rewarded in the school context if they wish to achieve academic success,’ they are allowed to apply all of themselves to the educational enterprise, to bring all that they know to learning.

- Goodwin, A.L. (2000). “Honoring Ways of Knowing.”

One class & a poemPlease read the provided handout, an abridged

excerpt from Bridge of Sighs, a novel by Richard Russo.

What strikes you about the passage?How does it fit with themes from the session?What, if anything, do you think it suggests for

practice?

What is knowledge? (Whose knowledge? How shown?)Take a moment and write some final reflections, thoughts, and questions.

What can our metaphor for the Hughes poem’s “petals,” as referred to in Bridge of Sighs, or Dead Poets’ “light” be?