Although my experience with pedagogical theory is, admittedly, very limited this speech really resonated with me, especially in light of Margret's critiques of "Why Teach?" and the rather depressing and confusing end to our class last night. He speaks mostly about high school teaching but I think it could also be readily applied to university education as well.
Thanks, Tarren. And, wow, fasten your seat belts for that one: that's quite a rapidly delivered, five minute tour-de-force! It's not all that far off at times in its sentiments and arguments ("we teach to inspire"; "haven't we gone too far with data"; "industrial model of school" etc.) from Edmundson, right? I think Margaret's irritation with the Edmundson essays is certainly valid, especially to the extent he seems to direct his critique rather bluntly (even smugly) towards today's students, but adding in the broader political and institutional climate (as the student does in the video) makes them compelling. As Edmundson laments (having noted the profusion of funding directed towards construction, aquatics centers, and athletics), "the consumer pressures that beset me on evaluation day are only a part of an overall trend" (12). The government's "race to the top" is arriving in Montana, too: we just learned that we'll be competing (with MSU, of course) for significant budget infusions based on who has the highest graduation rates. How might this affect instruction and curriculum on this campus? It's hard to say, but one can imagine pressures to turn some Ds into Cs, for starters. And it's hard to forget how we've all had to suffer a bit from the "misadventures"/ethical failings of the football program in recent years.
ReplyDeleteI certainly didn't mean to offer a "rather depressing and confusing end" to class last week -- those anecdotes were simply meant to bring some illumination to Edmundson's diagnosis of "the culture of the university as it now operates" (it's interesting to note, too, that this particular essay first appeared in 1997, when it was so seemingly audacious that it created quite a furor). Especially as I think about the opportunities for bringing more media and collaborative energies into my pedagogy, I would still strongly maintain that this is an exciting time to be a teacher.
Anyway, more thoughts -- on Edmundson or any other aspects of this climate, on the potentialities of the classroom and the engagements with today's students, etc.?