Post-humanism and literacy studies (original) (raw)
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Beyond Anthropocentric Humanism. The Potentialities of the Posthuman in Educational Studies
2016
Pedagogia e orizzonte post-umanista is both an insightful and a critical work. It has the merit of bringing to the forefront a theme that received much attention in the late 1980s but then slipped into the background of the Italian philosophical and pedagogical debate. Namely, the question of how to think education, and therefore pedagogy, in light of the profound changes marking our contemporary era. Ferrante asks how we may think education in all of its complexity and, above all, how we may think it today. He radically poses the question of the "order of discourse" required to formulate a thought that is appropriate for contemporary educational experience. Throughout the entire book, the author presents and discusses a hypothesis in two parts: first, that the contemporary era is characterised by a radical shift in the forms of experience daily engaged in by humans and nonhumans; the second, that this change is mainly due to the exponential increase and diffusion of technology, whose presence and use has transformed all life contexts. Echoing Galimberti, Ferrante claims that "the relationship between the human being and technology has changed both quantitatively and qualitatively with respect to the past" (14); most importantly, this transformation has modified the way in which human beings relate to themselves, to others and to the world. It is particularly crucial to acknowledge and understand this difference vis-à-vis the past when we come to conceptualizing education, the specific form of experience through which beings-human and non, as Ferrante suggests-construct their own form, discover and embody their possibility of being what it is possible for them to be on the basis of what they currently are, give rise to their becoming, and attribute meaning to themselves and that which surrounds them.
Classrooms Theory & Foundations Contributing Authors
2014
Numbers HRD-953325 and HRD 9988729. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Copyright, 2001 Greg P. Stefanich
From Anthropocentrism to Post-humanism in the Educational Debate
This paper explores the impact post-human stance has on the study of the learning process. It shows how this new paradigm which focuses upon the relationship between human and non-human modifies our understanding of education. First, we argue that the educational debate is largely inspired by an anthropocentric perspective. It is grounded in the notion of human self-determination and it neglects the role of non-human factors in the learner's development. Furthermore, non-humans (both animals and machines) are usually considered as something to be used: in other words, they are instruments. This fact notwithstanding, there is a small minority of contemporary learning theories that investigate the relationship between human and non-human from a non-anthropocentric point of view. An overview of these theories is offered in the second part of the paper. Finally the use of Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT) in educational research will be explored to show one of the possible non-anthropocentric methods of conceiving and investigating the learning process. According to ANT, learning can be interpreted as the effect of a network made up of heterogeneous elements, both human and non-human.
Teacher Education and Posthumanism
Issues in Teacher Education, 2018
The category of the human has great import in adjudicating the aims of educational praxes, and is therefore central to all questions regarding the purpose of education. Such discussions have been exacerbated within the context of neoliberalism, wherein the subject of education is increasingly seen through capitalist lenses and market logics that become equated with ethical and epistemological systems. And in most cases, the question of humanization emerges as central to the task of disrupting this understanding of student subjectivity. This is exhibited in Educational Theory’s 2015 issue exploring the importance of humanity and the humanities in today’s context. Here, Chris Higgins writes that now is “one of those times” in which “it has become necessary to remind ourselves” of certain “basic facts,” namely the value of humanity to education (p. 116). Or, as Jason Wallin (2016) posits, “For what remains intimate to much contemporary education and educational research but the latent ...
Humanism and the concept of the human that informs pedagogical discourse have been increasingly questioned by what has been called "post-human times." In this paper, we situate Paulo Freire's (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and Nathan Snaza and John Weaver's (2014) Posthumanism and Educational Research within these debates. Both books raise ethical and political questions about the limits of the human. By going beyond a simple opposition between these works, our aim is to map connections and suspensions by which they are paradoxically connected. Our commitment is also related to how a debate on ethics is raised, featuring an interrogation of the human as a theoretical and political category. Between the two books, we bring up the issue of limits, margins, borders and boundaries, but also the instability, fluidity and vulnerability of the human and his/her relationship and dependence of living organisms, including non-human lives. The limits open up to explorations of literal, metaphoric and material relations, and also transmigrations and hybridizations between the human and the non-human. In this sense, we argue that it is necessary to question the centrality of the humanist conception of "man" in education, which Freire defended, but it is also relevant to question the centrality of modern Western cosmology in providing meanings about the human and non-human in curriculum studies.
SFU: EDUC 902 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Educational Theory
Course Overview: In this seminar we will explore the contested terrain of contemporary educational theory and the application of these theories to educational settings. Questions to be explored include (but are not limited to): ● What does it mean to say someone is educated? ● What does it mean to live well with and for others? (both human and more-than-human others) ● What roles do race, class, gender, religion, and ability play in education? ● What role does (or should) education play in identity formation and identity politics? ● What does it mean to take critical theory critically? ● What limits (if any) ought there to be to free speech on university campuses? ● What are our ethical responsibilities to and for the past?
Classroom Life in the Age of Accountability. Occasional Paper Series 22.
Bank Street College of Education, 2009
b a n k s tr e e t c o l l e g e o f e d u c a t i o n 6 1 0 w e s t 1 1 2 t h s t r e e t n e w y o r k , n y 1 0 0 2 5 -1 8 9 8 te l: 21 2-87 5-440 0 web site: www .ba nk st re e t. e d u ISBN 9-781932121261 occasional paper series MARCH 2009 22 bank street college of education Classroom Life in the Age of Accountability guest editors gail masuchika boldt paula m. salvio peter m. taubman Bank Street College of Education, founded in 1916, is a recognized leader in early childhood, childhood, and adolescent development and education; a pioneer in improving the quality of classroom education; and a national advocate for children and families.