Philosophy, Social Theory, and Other Stuff

Recently I've been thinking about the many things I don't know and haven't studied (or have studied but don't remember) and how these unknowns could really add to my education. I feel the need to return to my roots of sociology, refresh my memory of classical and contemporary social theory, and look at them from the education perspective. I also feel the need to get a good overview of philosophy, something that I haven't studied. I took a philosophy of law class in college, but that course was very specific...I didn't get a broad background in philosophy. So I'm interested in learning about philosophy in the same way I'd like to refresh my social theory, and I'd also be interested in learning more about educational philosophies as well.

In my online searches, I've happily stumbled upon an introductory philosophy text (entirely online with links to youtube and everything) that I'd like to read. Do I really have the time for this? Probably not. Do I have other articles to be reading and other papers to be writing? Absolutely. --Is that going to stop me? No.

Getting started:

A. List the five or so most important questions or problems you think about.

-What is the purpose of life? (Specifically, the purpose of MY life...)

-What is the purpose of education?

-What does the future hold? (Overall, and specifically with regards to the fields of technology and education.)

-How can modern technological advances be used for "good" and for connecting people all over the world?

-How can I do good in this world in this life?

B. If you had virtually unlimited financial resources at your disposal what would you begin doing with your life?

-I would probably continue my education, travel a bit (hello, Greece!), and start up an organization to help educate disenfranchised populations or improve education on the whole.

C. What is Philosophy?

Philosophy is many things - a thought process, a belief system, a way to make sense of the world.

D. How do you use the term "philosophy"?

When I discuss the views/opinions I have on something that I've put a great amount of thought and research into. They are ideas I usually arrive at based on my experiences in life, and I usually maintain an openness about my philosophies - I am willing to consider new information to add to or otherwise inform my philosophy.

E. How do others use the term "philosophy"? Give examples.

Usually it is in reference to something someone has an opinion about (not really a philosophy at all) and usually something someone has pondered/experienced/learned from and about a great deal. Some people merely state an opinion and say that is their philosophy about something - for others it is more than mere opinion.

F. What good is philosophy?

Philosophy helps you think, helps you connect thoughts and experiences, and perhaps adds a certain type of value to your thoughts and experiences. It implies reflection at the least, and is often coupled with observation and/or experience, and can help give meaning to these thoughts/feelings/experiences.

G. What importance might philosophy have in your future?

Who knows!!!

Notes:

Relevance of Greek philosophy to modern times: At the time of Socrates/Plato, Greeks were transitioning from an oral to a literate culture, and people were beginning to question the myths that had been passed down over time. Now we are shifting from a literate culture to an electronic culture and "We are at the beginning of a period in which we are attempting to develop a morality for the new age."

Theory of education - Alfred North Whitehead:

-Romance

-Precision

-Generalization

Belief Systems

Different belief systems and periods: classical, modern, postmodern

--Starting with unconscious acceptance despite inconsistencies; acceptance of ideas from authorities; accept ideas from the desire to please/be accepted; postmodern culture promotes thought patterns that are uncritical and not reflective.

--Philosophy emerges when belief system cannot answer the important questions

--Students go to college believing that all claims are opinions and everyone can believe whatever they want (similar to cognitive development theory), they do not want to be disloyal and reject their belief system and also want to believe in eternal life (i.e. going to heaven).

--Insincere, uncritical tolerance

Thoughts:

Interesting discussion of the Matrix and the blue pill vs. red pill with regards to philosophical thought (& cognitive development?)

DONE WITH CHAPTER 1!

Don't Mistake Correlation for Causation

Let me preface this blog by saying that yes, I am blogging to procrastinate, and no, this blog has nothing to do with school or class readings.

So you've heard the saying "don't mistake correlation for causation," right? So between my undergraduate major (sociology), minor (psychology), and my grad school education, I've taken roughly 6 courses that somehow relate to research methods, and about half of them have been quantitative. Well, I have always enjoyed the various examples I've heard of not mistaking correlation for causation because they are almost always funny. Anyhow, after watching an episode of South Park, I've got a new example!

Here are three examples of mistaking correlation for causation. I'll let you guess which one is the example from South Park.

1) Someone is doing research on shark attacks and they make a discovery. An increase in shark attacks occurs when there is an increase in ice cream sales, and a shark attacks disappear entirely when ice cream sales are at their lowest point. What do we need to do to prevent shark attacks from happening? Clearly, we need to stop selling ice cream!!!

2) A researcher is studying crime in an urban area and thinks there may be a way to lower crime rates in the city. In this large urban area, there have been several murders over the past year, but in a suburban area not too far away, there has been only one murder in the past five years. The researcher also notices that the large urban area has roughly 30 churches while the suburban area has only one. Isn't it clear why there is so much crime in the urban city? The abundance of churches!!!

3) In a small town in Colorado, a law is passed that bans the selling of fast food, which means that the local KFC has closed down. Another law is passed allowing for the use of medicinal marijuana, and this medicinal marijuana store has opened in the place of the KFC. In this town, (unbeknownst to the local doctor) men are purposefully exposing themselves to radio waves to induce testicular cancer so they can get prescriptions for marijuana. Due to the alarming rate of testicular cancer in town, the doctor argues that the KFC must be reopened because they did not have a testicular cancer epidemic when there was a KFC in town.

Interesting Reads

The course readings I've had recently for my disabilities studies class have been very interesting. I thought this week's topic of "Ethics and Politics" might not be as exciting as previous weeks, but I think this weeks readings provided perhaps even more issues to think about. The readings were mostly about eugenics (historically in the US, Britain, and Germany and the relation to modern-day prenatal testing), and the "mad" movement (which I had only been slightly familiar with).

Who has the right to decide that a life is not worth living?

At what point do people with mental illness lose the right to make decisions about their physical bodies?

-These are just a couple questions that popped into my head after the readings - questions that I know will be tumbling around in my head for some time.

Readings for my curriculum class have also been great. Right now we're reading some Parker Palmer and bell hooks. I have to say, though Palmer is indeed a good writer and is very, very full of passion and care, there's just something about bell hooks that jumps out and grabs me. Perhaps this is not the most relevant thing to be pointing out, but just the differences in the style of writing sort of separate their perspectives (which are in some ways very different, and in other ways, similar). I feel that every word, every sentence, every paragraph and chapter of Palmer is carefully selected and strung together with intent. There is a reason for every word and each idea builds. hooks on the other hand...well, her writing isn't haphazard or anything, but it is full of energy...it's like...her writing is actually charismatic. -Is that possible? I'm sure I'll have more to say about both once I've completed the readings, but it's so interesting to see the ways their two different perspectives complement each other.

Today I got to (just about) the end of chapter 4 in Palmer, and I have to say that I spent lots of time thinking about this chapter as I was reading it because I really identify with it. At first, I was wondering where he was going with his discussion of community (i.e. therapeutic, civic, and market) but I like where he ended up because I share his epistemological perspective. I mean...I always love talking about subjective vs objective thought, and the importance of the relationship of the "knower" with the "subject" and that there is indeed a relationship, not just among people in the academic community, but between people and inanimate objects and thoughts, such as the subjects we study, and the underlying questions or "secrets" that pull us into them. I understand that to some people, it may sound ridiculous, but I don't think being moved by ideas is any less "out there" than being moved by poetry, art, and music.

For example, I was so sure I was going to major in psychology when I went to college, and when I finished my first year, I had 20 credits in psychology. On a whim, I decided to take a sociology class and...well...I tossed my psych major out the window. Sociology really touched me...Merton, anomie, deviance, Goffman, the presentation of the self, social structures, social roles, hierarchy, social stratification...it isn't just the learner learning, and it's more than the student reaching out to touch the subject, it's the subject actually reaching out to pull you in. I also feel that way about education, and of course, as I've moved along in my education, I see the relationships among the different subjects I've studied, the relationships among people in my studies (faculty and peers), and even the connection of myself to what I'm studying. --I really feel Palmer in this one.

I've begun my research for my disability studies paper...I've found about 50 articles related to my topic, now I'm in the process of reading abstracts and weeding out what I don't need. I've already found at least four that go in the "not relevant" pile and I've gone through about ten. Hopefully I'll find a couple real gems, but none so far. I think ideally I'd like to address teaching, learning, and pedagogy...though I'm open to where the literature will take me. I just think that those three pieces are critical to curriculum, though, of course, institutional structure is, too. I'm thinking with teaching it's who is teaching and what is being taught, with learning it's who is/should/has learned from the disability studies perspective, what is taught, and where is disability studies taught (i.e. is it a silo department or interdisciplinary across curriculum), and with pedagogy it's the question of how disability studies is taught. Hrm. I'll need to ponder that a bit more.

In other news, I have a review due next Thursday for the Teaching Matters panel I attended last week. I've had a harder time thinking of connections to the reading than I did with previous panels, maybe because it feels like a rehash of the same material as the topics discussed at each session are very similar. Anyhow, I was thinking that a new dimension would be the benefit that not only first year students get from learning communities, but also the student mentors that lead these groups. --And guess what showed up in my mailbox today? The most recent edition of Educational Horizons that I receive through Pi Lambda Theta, and it's all about the benefits associated with being a student mentor! How cool is that?! Just the perfect piece I need!

Midterms and Beyond

Well, I managed to survive midterms. Well, it wasn't technically midterms, but it was a period of time (coinciding with midterms) where several papers/presentations/projects were due. I had my group presentation for my disability studies class, my article review, presentation, and review from a panel discussion for my curriculum class, and (fanfare, please) my final assignment, my big legal research paper for the ed law course I took an incomplete for last semester. I actually enjoyed writing it though at times the research was painful (it was difficult finding case law on my topic).

My attention can now be focused on my final teaching matters review, class readings, and final research papers. I've already started my research, as I have ideas of what I'm interested in researching for my classes. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do my curriculum paper on online pedagogy and my disability studies paper on disability studies in higher education curriculum. I thought there would just be too much overlap if I did something in disability studies and higher ed curriculum for both classes. Then there's my independent study. I've been pondering just doing a research paper on something I'm interested in related to technology and education but I've also been thinking of actually doing research based on a previous lit review.

I've been compiling data from a state DOE accountability site and just keep confusing myself with the data. What's important? What if what I thought was important wasn't? What if it doesn't mean anything? Can I use these numbers to help guide me to people/schools to interview? I've already dedicated a few hours to compiling the data. Hopefully I'll be able to make some sense of it.

Tossing Around Some Ideas

So for my curriculum studies class I've got a paper due on Thursday. Specifically, it's a 2-3 page critical synthesis of an article or issue. Sounds simple, right? Well, unfortunately, given my tendency to let my mind bounce out of orbit, this is not an easy task. See, I'm also taking a disability studies class right now, and it just so happens that the first book (well part of a book) that we read for class was actually related to disability studies curriculum in higher education. I told Dr. C about it and she said she thought it would be great for me to explore this topic and present it to the class since disability studies has not been a focus of her curriculum course before and thought it would be an interesting topic. I'm (of course) excited to do so because I love sharing new things with my classmates.

I thought I had a brilliant idea and told myself that I'd read the whole book (!) and do my paper on the book. Unfortunately, there is WAAAAAY too much covered in the text for me to present on it in class AND write a 2-3 page paper on it AND support my critique with class readings. Not gonna happen. So there was one particular chapter that jumped out at me, and luckily, that chapter has actually been published as an article in a journal, so I may use that for my focus.

The article/chapter is Simi Linton's Disability Studies/Not Disability Studies in which she does a pretty good job of defining the boundaries of what disability studies is and is not...or what should and shouldn't be considered disability studies in curriculum. She identifies 12 problems related to the dominant curriculum's presentation of disability and discusses what is needed in disability studies curriculum, given these 12 issues. She also offers four related rationales for delineating between disability studies and not disability studies. I think perhaps I'd focus on these four rationales.

Hrm. What would I have to do? Well, I'd have to give a background on disability studies: how I became interested in the topic, models of disability, person first language, etc. Then maybe talk about Linton's four rationales: 1) distinction of the term "disability studies" (vs. impairment), 2) disability studies as a minority group status and marker of identity, 3) comparing disability studies to the women's studies trajectory, and 4) who should teach and write in the field. Man, I have tons to say on these topics. I also still need to tie class readings into this paper.

Things I could draw upon:

*Stark & Lattuca Ch 3 - perspectives on content selection

*Tierney - power conflicts over knowledge & uncovering voices that aren't present

*Kreber Ch4 - understanding others through listening to your own voice and to others

*Kreber Ch7 - p. 76? 82-83

*Kreber Ch 9 - quantifiable areas of engagement within internationalization? real world democratic education? p.102

Maybe I can do this.

Education, Sustainability, New Skills, Capstone

On 9/30/2010 our curriculum class had a joint class with the campus environments class with guest speakers (Shanwa Travena & Krista Hiser) that discussed sustainability from the perspectives of both the physical environment and the curriculum. It was really a great class with two guest speakers talking about projects going on at UH Manoa, within the UH System, and out in the community.

Some topics discussed included sustainability across the curriculum, the triple bottom line (environmental, economic, and social change, a.k.a. people, planet and profits), sustainability in higher education, as well as an in class group activity. Something that Shawna brought up that really got me thinking (well, one of many things, at least) was the idea of new skills that will be necessary for a green workforce in green sustainability jobs. On thing Shawna mentioned was that we have been conditioned in our education to analyze - to take a problem or issue and break it down into pieces and think critically about it. A skill that is equally relevant but perhaps is not used quite as often is synthesis - putting information together and making sense of separate pieces. -If I'm not mistaken, this topic came up partially out of the discussion that environmental/sustainability studies needs to not only be it's own department, but needs to be integrated across the curriculum, in every subject.

This got me thinking about capstone projects, which I believe was one of the discussions we had in class about capstone projects in education - helping students to make sense of their education as not just a string of unrelated courses, but as cohesive and complementary. This then got me thinking about my own education here at UHM, and how I think every single course I've taken has complemented the others (both within and outside of my department), and this is something I absolutely love. There is not anything I have learned in one class that does not somehow help me in another, whether it's about research, student development, law, educational technology, multicultural issues, or disability studies. I recall reading in one of my undergraduate classes (cognitive psych?) that this is ideal, but it may be more difficult to learn in this manner because the information is so similar that your brain has a difficult time differentiating what was learned in one course from the others.

I'm thinking of the possibility of doing a one credit independent study next semester as a capstone experience to my education. Perhaps getting all my syllabi, my papers and projects, my texts together, and spending some time pondering my learning, write about it, blog about it, and maybe even present it to other students in the program (perhaps it may be particularly helpful for the new students in the program)............

Higher Ed Curriculum Thus Far...

When I started this blog back in January 2009, I blogged frequently, and covered almost all my readings for a class I was taking. It's been awhile since I've blogged with that frequency, but I have to say that nothing really helps you ponder and grapple with questions, as well as solidify your knowledge about something you've learned quite like reflection. I'm happy to say that though I haven't been blogging, I've had some time to reflect on readings in class through a journaling and sharing in class.

Not that I can make up for the semester thus far, I want to go over a few things I've thought about and have read for this class so far. First of all, I should say that the last time this course was offered, I think I said something along the lines of, "Curriculum? Phruuggh." When I talked to my advisor, Dr. E, about what classes I was interested in (back then), I think I said, "Anything but curriculum." Well, time went by, and I don't know what happened, but curriculum just sounded like it would be interesting...and it truly is!

What is Curriculum?

Our initial readings were a couple chapters of a Stark and Lattuca text (Defining Curriculum & Curricular Perspectives). The reading was somewhat dry (I fell asleep on it at one point), however, there was a good framework on the academic plan, and the role of the academic plan within the overall environmental context of an institution. This perspective represented the rational view of curriculum. The other readings we had along side these chapters were Kuh's "The Other Curriculum" (which I've read before), and Tierney's "Cultural Politics and the Curriculum." I enjoyed both the Kuh and Tierney articles.

Kuh's perspective is that the organizational framework of an institution is the curriculum, and that institutional type and ethos, as well as out of class learning (study abroad, work-study, student activities) are a large piece of college curriculum. Tierney offers a critical view of curriculum on the basis that knowledge, the interpretation of knowledge, as well as experience and social interchange are subjective. In the article Tierney compares a women's college to an entrepreneurial university - the women's college that is full of culture and cultural symbols, and competing views of knowledge and the other that seems to lack an ideology and lacks struggle.

Aside from providing different perspectives of curriculum, my biggest take-away from these readings was this quote from the Tierney article,

"Institutional curricula need to be investigated from the perspective of whose knowledge, history, language, and culture is under examination. Conversely, the organization's participants need to uncover those whose voices are not present in a curricular discourse and give life to them."

Why do I like this quote so much? Probably because as I am growing as a learner and educator, I am finding that voice and perspective (or lack thereof) is very important to me. Personally, I want to expand my perspective to include voices and perspectives of knowledge from as many people as possible. I want all this information to conflict. I want these perspectives to collide. I don't want black words on white paper written by white men. I want more than that.

A classmate of mine, Puni, whom I am so glad is in this class (we both read and analyze everything and come prepared to chew through knowledge together...I think we push each other in that way) said that when she is a professor she is going to tell her class about who she is, what her perspective is, and tell her class to think of the readings from their own perspective...does what they are reading conflict with what they know? Is it relevant? ...and bring their own perspective to the table.

We can't look at everything from all perspectives, but I think learners need to know their perspective is relevant, even if, especially if, it is different from what they are reading in class.