Response to "Activistology"
Erin O'Connor critiques what she is calling "Activistology," a tailoring of teaching and curriculum development that encourages activism and social change. She considers it all indoctrination, of course, and I knew she'd say that, but when I encounter this kind of teaching and curriculum development, I think of paideia and classical rhetorical pedagogy--preparing students to be thoughtful, socially responsible citizens of the city-state.
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Erin's Position?
I wonder if Erin's opposition to "indoctrination" presumes that her own pedagogical position is doctrine-free. I imagine so. I thought the explicit mention of cash -- $6000 -- was fascinating, as if the get-what-you-pay-for ideology guarantees freedom from "politics". Capitalism, apparently, is not an ideology for O'Connor.
Same old same old. But since she's also linking to teaching-comp-as-punishment, maybe she's unfamiliar with the Berlin/Hairston debate, but I find that difficult to believe.
Then again, this month's College English featured Sharon O'Dair's great-guns broadside against critical pedagogy as its lead story. Sigh.
Mike
Re: Erin's position
Mike, you said:
"I wonder if Erin's opposition to "indoctrination" presumes that her own pedagogical position is doctrine-free."
Or maybe she thinks she represents all sides of every issue equally, without bias. Not likely. Anyway, I'll have to check out that article in College English; it sounds quite unfortunate.
As an aside...check out this test. It might be a good exercise for comps-preparation...for someone else. My department does rhetorical theory (here I'm distinguishing it from composition theory) and tech comm theory and research prelims, and then one of our choosing from our specialty area. Right now I'm trying to decide if I'm a Computers & Writing person or a Feminist Rhetoric person.