In my case I am also attempting to make the students (working class people) become "improperly literate" to the information and concepts in the modules. I too have to adjust the wording and level of readings in the module and on directions so that the students can understand the importance of the topics and why they should even care at all about them.
How might your case reflect/illustrate/or counter the ways in which teachers are complicit in creating "improperly literate" students.
The subject of the modules in the course are directed towards Oceanography and how humans have impacted the oceans. This starts the bias by giving students the ideas that we are causing climate change and not everyone on this planet believes that (though it is pretty safe to say that we are). So the assignments assess how the students take in an process the information that we give them and how they respond to our questions about the situation. Since we give them all this it is safe to say that we are steering them to agree with our bias, but in the modules I develop I always leave the assignments open-ended. This was the student may rebuttal what they have read and as long as they give good sound reasoning against what is the typical answer they will receive full credit. This is a hard concept to convey because students often just try to give the teacher what they think the teacher wants to hear so they can get a good grade. When they move to authentic response they can go past the "improperly literate" stage because when they are at the "improperly literate" stage they are more or less regurgitating what they have heard from their teacher and they do not need to develop the literacy themselves.
Consider anything you damn well please.
Everyone has a bias, and by that I mean everyone has their own opinion. No matter what the socioeconomic status of the person they have their own opinion. Cobbett knew this and his goal was for people to see his opinion as the correct one. Isn't that what we are all trying to do? Make our opinion of something be the right one. We throw ideas at each other until most of us can agree on an idea. So if this makes our society opinion driven, why is it teacher must be neutral and be the ones who do not seem to have an opinion? I guess that's because we are suppose to be the one's who give students the knowledge to form their own opinions instead of insisting they choose ours. How to decide the content that is taught so that students can best form their own opinion? That is decided based on the opinion of a whole group of people. This rant seems pointless, but all in all we appear to just be a culture that is based on a opinions and we just want our to be heard. Whom ever has the loudest opinion, is the one we look to and call our leader. (Not sure if a random rant was what we were suppose to do for this part, but there it is.)
Sean, If everyone has an opinion and everyone believes their opinion is the correct one... then how does someone appeal to another in order to change their opinion? To me the appeal is audience specific, in that depending on the target group directly impacts the appeal... for example an ethical (ethos) appeal would be best when appealing to issues about social injustice, but an emotional (pathos) appeal might work better if the injustice is related to care or caregivers, and still the logical (logos) appeal might be best if the injustice is rooted in a legal issue, which leaves coercion as a last resort, but implies a certain outside the limits of the law approach. All can be effective in changing opinions and then ultimately changing society, so teachers should equip students with all the tools and information they need to evaluate the rhetoric, which means the teacher's opinion must appear neutral. I certainly do not think your rant is pointless, because for years the system has always been about protecting the system rather than changing and growing the system. This all can tie back to your statement... " because students often just try to give the teacher what they think the teacher wants to hear so they can get a good grade" as if their honest understanding and opinion opens them to a bad grade... and I'm sure for some it does... sad but true. When teachers create a safe place for students it's not just bodily safety it needs to be intellectually safe as well.
ReplyDeleteI think there is enough plain science that you can cover climate change irrespective of cause. I think the political debate around the issue overlooks the bare facts of actual change taking place. I also think this is a tricky area to navigate as a teacher, due to the biases you mention. I often say there is no room for personal opinion in public service.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it would be a challenge on your end to create a course that encourages students to give their opinion, even if it doesn't agree with the bias of the course. Students do usually try to give answers that will be what the teacher wants to hear, because you never know if a teacher, instructor, professor, will be open to hearing another opinion and weigh your reasoning, rather than disagreeing and lowering your grade because of it. That's the nice thing about classroom discussions with other people. The students can usually find someone else in class who agrees with their opinion, even if it goes against what the teacher might think. Then we have an interesting discussion and a lot more freedom. That kind of environment isn't easy to find or likely to happen in online courses.
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