Phil, I tried to respond to your note in xmca but have not seen it
actually posted. Gremlins at work probably, selective gremlins too. In any
case, i though at least i would back door it too you, feel free to post
these musings.
pedro
>>Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 10:53:40 -0400
>>To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
>>From: "Dr. PedroR. Portes" <prport01 who-is-at athena.louisville.edu>
>>Subject: Re: school retention and other ploys
>>Bcc: ellen
>>In-Reply-To:
><fc.004c4c8c0148aa713b9aca005d840125.148abd3 who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu>
>>
>>Phil wrote;
>>> i understand power as situated, rather than a stream, a foucaultian
>>>notion, and that the individual is always in a position to exercise
>>>degrees of power - retention proceedings usually begin with the
>teacher,
>>>though sometimes with the parent. an interesting study out of Boulder
>>>indicated that the more rigid a teacher's beliefs were, the greater the
>>>chance of a child being retained.
>>>
>>> in response to an earlier posting of yours, when my third graders
>>>complain about bad situations, my next step is one of, i hope,
>>>compassionate curiosity. and i don't know if this step is the step of a
>>>teacher so much as it is the step of one caring human being for the
>plight
>>>of another caring human being. for a child to learn - for anyone to
>>>learn, even a phd candidate - the environment needs to be nurturing and
>>>supportive - what Krashen refers to as the affective filter - where
>the
>>>learner feels safe.
>>>
>>>phillip
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Phillip,
>>
>>just loose thoughts re. your note i saw this am...
>>First, it seems like we are watching a parade of reoccuring themes. What
Bourdieu refers to in terms of having power in your note, LSV noted long
before with agency (group and individual)in any sort of social mediation.
>>Retention, as one of many other mechanisms, remains a faulty
re-mediational tool in a semi- invisible sort of institutionalized power
base systems that aims or at least, manages to keep the vulnerable down.
>>So our questions must center on uncovering how this situation was and is
constructed so we can better deconstruct some parts (since that is what we
do or try to do while others do the opposite). Understanding the
socio-genesis of this state of education we have, with its subtle savagery,
is required in aligning and organizing more effective strategies based on
these and so many other insights. So that's how i'm trying to make sense of
this thread, or others like tracking etc, which capture the hurdles placed
before the meek.
>>
>> The affective filter above was called the affective-relational domain by
Comer earlier etc, by third grade children feel connected or figure they
won't, at least not with the education offered in daily routines. It
appears then as one critical type of agency we want to see at the micro
level in schools before children learn helplessness. At this level, yes, we
can teach teacher to care and connect with "them" cuz it's so important
etc. Like the emphasis in avoiding the self-fulfilling prophecy earlier,
such ideas creep into our teacher education and we hope to thus change the
future, insight by insight ....
>>And so, we attempt to make a dent in the collective consciousness that
runs the ways we practice education.
>>Not that we have any quality control re. the mediators we are as
educators, or turn out to schools in the form of certified teachers and
principals, & even if we did..
>> nor that this type of influence is sufficient to alter the social
reconstruction of group based inequites achieved by dooming ever new
generations of 'them' or the children we pose at risk and take out of the
game early.
>>
>>
>>So my question now goes back to the level of ;
>>
>>what sorts of consciousness raising or communication patterns must occur
at point A, for how long, with what strategies and intensities, before a
noticeable unit of change (quality of life) is observed later at point B?
How long will that last?
>>
>>We still do tracking, don't we? (as in "They shoot horses, don't
>they?')
>>
>>Well, time to get back to "work".
>>
>>pedro
Pedro R. Portes,
Professor of Educational %
Counseling Psychology
310 School of Education
University of Louisville
Fax 502-852-0629
Office 502-852-0630
Web at www.louisville.edu/~prport01