A search for openings
Date
1992
Authors
Spring, Fern Rosalie
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Abstract
This thesis begins as an inquiry into the life experience of one teacher. It brings into question the practice of teaching within a political, cultural, historical and institutional context. This is a study in Curriculum where there is a persistent questioning of what one does as an educator. It examines Foucault's question concerning "what what we do does". What is the effect of what we are doing in the name of education, not only on ourselves and on those with whom we engage, but towards perpetuating systems of domination and subjectification?
The writing which is genealogical in nature includes stories, reflections and discussion pieces. It examines the practices of a culture which are normalizing and frequently oppressive. In the larger context, it examines practices which perpetuate a power /knowledge nexus, securing the interests of privileged authority and reinforcing hierarchical relations of power. These practices are instrumental in the formation of one's subjectivity and identity. Yet these are practices in which we are complicit, and so the difficulty in seeing what we do. This thesis is work on the ethics of the self, work that concerns itself with the nature of subjectivity and how we have been made subjects. Work of this kind leads us to view ourselves, our orientations and others differently. It is not a search for answers, but a desire for movement, away from the hierarchy of "correct ideas" sanctioned by the established order. It is an ongoing process, a search for openings towards change and other possibilities.
The process of change is expressed in the nature of becoming. "To become is never to imitate, nor to 'do like', nor to conform to a model". (Deleuze & Parnet, 1987, p. 2). One works alone at the same time as one encounters others. "You encounter people (and sometimes without knowing them or ever having seen them) but also movements, ideas, events, entities" (p. 6) . The experience may reveal possibilities for creating a different future.
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UN SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions