It was Britzman's dissertation, actually, published, I think, out of OISE.
Worthwhile reading.
>My impression is that a lot of Education Profs are people who
>became teachers out of idealism and then discovered that they really hated
>who they had to be and what they had to do to be "well adjusted" to the
>current public school system.
How *interesting*. I've always thought something similar, that to
be a prof, one must be, to a certain degree, neurotic. :-)
>I sympathize with your intentions Diane. But
>I feel that this mandatory therapy would extend the network of control you
>are complaining of in a really dramatic way. The public schools today are,
>I believe, less hellish and damaging for students than they would be
>otherwise because many teachers have not interpollated the ideology of
>control which governs the total system.
Well, if I recall my Althusser, the ideologies which govern the system
are what organize Ideological State Apparatuses, such as institutions, such
as universities, and schools. So, actually, it's possible that teachers _have_
interpellated these ideologies about control by virtue of their
being in Education.
>I think I know, thanks to Szasz
>and Foucault, that therapy is never neutral. It is always an instrument of
>power shaping attitudes and behaviors in accordance with some set of norms
>absolutly priviledged within the process.
Therapy is about helping people who suffer
to the extent that it interferes with their lives;
it's about learning ways to "suffer less".
Feminist therapists are, to my knowledge, most actively aware of the
"masculine history" of counselling and psychotherapy, and most usually are
working
with their clients to deal with that as a part of the therapist-client
relationship.
>The therapist is, as Lacan said,
>one presumed to know and the client is one presumed to get better as his
>or her perceptions came to agree with those of the therapist.
Lacan was a megalomaniac. ;-)
>Given why
>the teacher is in therapy, getting better will inevitably mean getting
>comfortable with what ever pattern of violence and bigotry prevails in the
>school this therapy is preparing the would be teacher to serve.
"Getting better" is not exactly what I would say - it's about reconciling
the past with the present. It wouldn't mean "getting comfortable" with
violence & bigotry, but understanding the teachers's reactions to these;
and how to interrupt that pattern,
how to address it as a systemic conflict, and not an uncontrollable social
disorder. The one question that student teachers always seem to squirm
with, without a response for, "What would you do if you heard
one of your students call another student "a fucking faggot"?
We have all, as children, been on one or another end of those hurtful taunts.
I suspect that experience stultifies the teacher's ability to interrupt
the repeated evetns, just as she/he was stultified as a child. Or, if as a
child,
she/he reacted violently, likely the teacher will react violently, not
interrupting but simply shutting down. And so on...
>Would
>anyone end up in the classroom after explaining to this therapist that
>gender bending by students is healthy exploration but being rigidly ruled
>by gender expectations is problematic? I think not. The result would be a
>typical classroom environmemt even more viciously sexist and homophobic
>than at present thanks to the fact that teachers have been given the
>benefit of "therapy".
The idea behind student-teachers being in therpay for a year is not so that
they are equipped to address social problems, but so that they are equipped
to recognize their own reactions as being organized by memories and
past experience. Going to therapy doesn't mean there is something "wrong"
with you;
it means you want to learn more about your own complexities; which will,
in turn, help you to understand the complexities of others.
> Hoping all this does not sound to hostile,
Tony Michael Roberts
Not at all. It is a valuable discussion. Very valuable.
As Eugene says, What do you think, Tony?
diane
"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right."
Ani Difranco
*********************************
diane celia hodges
faculty of education
university of british columbia
vancouver, bc canada
tel: (604)-253-4807
email: dchodges who-is-at interchange.ubc.ca