Re: Framing change/resistance to change in terms of learning

Angel M.Y. Lin (mylin who-is-at oise.on.ca)
Thu, 19 Oct 1995 23:24:39 -0400 (EDT)

Dear Marie,
Thanks for your candid sharing of your experiences and thoughts...

> Angel, I hear occasionally about "an old Chinese curse" to the effect
> of "may you live in interesting time." I don't know if it's authentic,
> or even if it's really Chinese (input here?), but it speaks to our
> situation, don't you think?

Interesting... I haven't heard of it before! :-) We say lots of things,
like, may your youth be forever! something like that... but this
one...hm... no... any other Chinese xmca-er here who can offer an opinion?

>
> I agree totally that we can either give in to the weapons that have been
> used against us or we can use them as "tools" for good, for teaching
> each other new ways of living in the world, for example.

Yes, and I think this is the tough part... to rise above the "victim
complex", to go beyond self-pity, to overcome embitterment, to be still
optimistic...though I see fluctuations in myself and in my own journey...

> As a young professional woman, about 20 years ago, I experienced extreme
> disillusion, grief, then pain, then rage, when I realized the patriotic
> grammar school teachings I'd taken at face value--"everyone's equal,"
> "land of opportunity," etc.-- hadn't been intended to include me. It's a
> betrayal I'm still reeling from. I spent a lot of time raging at the
> white male power structure, and I can still get pretty ticked off at
> times, but I've come to see our "interesting" era as one big collaborative
> learning experience, as multiple overlapping zpd's in which we're all
> gradually learning from each other--whether we want to or not.

I was an angry young woman, too, and still am sometimes :-)
some friends call me a "revolutionary", some call me a "marxist"... oh
well... with these labels flying around me... I really feel
uncomfortable... as a matter of fact... I'm just a shy Chinese girl
with very traditional values (and some western ones too)... I just am
passionate and try to remain "human" in a world that's too cold and too
competitive and too dehumanizing at times... a world that doesn't care...
about anything, except for material success or social status...

My friends are comfortable middle-class professionals and enjoy a
comfortable socio-economic life... and when I talk about working class
children trapped in working class schools reproducing their lack of
academic success and socio-economic advancement, my friends grow
uncomfortable and say... Hey, when have you become so "Marxist"?
Oh, no,
I'm not a bloody, self-righteous, autocratic revolutionary... I just want
to stay human who cares...

>
> Even when people, those in power, resist or work against increased
> equality, increased sensitivity, I'm trying to frame that in terms of
> resistance to learning. It keeps me from becoming so oppositional myself
> in response. (This is all stuff I learned from the collaborative
> teacher-research analyses I wrote about yesterday).

Yes, this reminds me of Habermas's topic of communication... what I hope
to have is communication... even with those whom I think have caused me or
others pain... But this is easier said than done... let's just try...!

>
> I'd be interested in how you and others on this list see these issues.
> How you "understand" oppression and resistance to opprression personally
> (vis a vis your own feelings and experience) and theoretically. And how
> all of this relates to socially and/or linguistically (visually, etc.)
> mediated learning. When we step back and look at dominance, pain,
> racism, structural inequities, etc. through our theoretical learning
> perspective, what do we see?
>
> And what are the ethical implications of all this?

I find that our lifeworld experiences strongly constrain our ability to
understand, to empathize and to communicate with others, especially those
who occuply very different socio-economic positions from us... I just
try my best to switch perspectives all the time, to try to have a
dialogue within oneself... taking up different perspectives... it's an
interesting experience... and hopefully, this could help us to appreciate
others' perspectives... though this is difficult... we still can try!

> I've talked far too long. I'll get off now and listen for a few weeks.
>

Me, too! ... I just attended a telephone job interview... and looking at my
research the interviewer asked me, "Are you a marxist?" (the context in
which it's spoken implies unfavorable connotations...)
Gee! I don't know how to answer...oh well,. I just want to look at
the difficulties that working class children may be facing and how
educational research may help improve things for them... does that make
me a "marxist-(with negative connotations)"...?

SIGH...
I'd better plunge back into my dissertation work...

Angel