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Re: [xmca] Concepts of ideology



Hi Mike,

I didn't find a firm definition of ideology on a quick scan of my copy of Freire, but I did find this interesting wielding of 'ideology' in the 30th anniversary introduction to the book by Donald Macedo:


"One question that I have for all those 'highly literate' academics who find Giroux's and Freire's discourse so difficult to understand is, Why is it that a sixteen-year-old boy and a poor, 'semiliterate' woman could so easily understand and connect with the complexity of both Freire and Giroux's language and ideas, and the academics, who should be the most literate, find the language incomprehensible?

""I believe that the answer has little to do with language and everything to do with ideology. That is, people often identify with representations that they are either comfortable with or that help deepened their understanding of themselves. The call for language clarity is an ideological issue, not merely a linguistic one. The sixteen-year-old and the semiliterate poor woman could readily connect with Freire's ideology, whereas the highlight literate academics are 'put off' by some dimensions of the same ideology."


While this isn't precisely what you were looking for, what I'm posting next is even FARTHER from what you requested. I am an enormous fan of Gee's discussion of ideology in the beginning of the 2nd edition of Social Linguistics & Literacies (this discussion was dropped out of the third edition, though I have it on good authority that at least some of it will be coming back in the fourth edition):

"To many people, ideology is what other people have when they perversely insist on taking the 'wrong' viewpoint on an issue. Our own viewpoint, on the other hand, always seems to us simply to be 'right.' 'Ideology' and 'dogmatic' are, thus, terms which, for many, go hand-in- hand. Sometimes, however, the term 'ideology' is used in a less negative way, just to mean the ideas, beliefs, principles and values a person has. Nonetheless, ideology, even in this sense, has for some people a slight negative tinge: why get caught up, they ask, in (high- falutin') ideas when what really counts are facts? People who spend too much time thinking about ideas are, it may be claimed, prone to get out of touch with the 'real' world. It turns out taht this dichotomous contrast between 'ideas' and 'facts,' between 'theory' and 'experience,' has played a major role in the historical development of the meanings of the term 'ideology,' as it has also in the politics of power."

The rest of this chapter considers two classic rhetorical stages, or 'moments,' in the history of the word 'ideology.' For Gee, these moments are associated with Napoleon and with Marx. The text is far too long for me to include here, but I think it's worth a read or two.

Unfortunately unhelpfully,
Jenna


On Sep 22, 2010, at 10:50 PM, mike cole wrote:

David's interesting discussion of the meanings of "ideology" got me
wondering about the relation of the conception used by Vygotsky and other conceptions. Could anyone help me by looking in *Pedagogy of the Oppressed" and posting Friere's definition of ideology? I remember it being interesting
but my copy has gone missing.

For those interested, the discussion by Geertz may also be relevant:
http://www.gongfa.com/geertz1.htm

mike
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