Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h33HgGM06923; Thu, 3 Apr 2003 12:42:16 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2003 12:42:16 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <771C288C.3A427586.0AB94E44@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:86] Re: personal agendas???? X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 1645 Lines: 14 "Not having a personal agenda" I am not sure what this means. If this means not having some kind of an ideology or a political posture, there is no such thing. Everyone has a political posture and ideology. Claiming to be neutral is an ideology. Claiming to be objective is an ideology. Objectivity and neutrality are ideologies that support the status quo, so teachers that take such a position are teachers teaching the dominant ideology. Teachers need to know that they are doing this. Giroux recommend that teachers become border crossers. In other words, teacher's role is to create spaces where students can explore and connect with different ideologies, and these need to be contested and negotiated. I believe that this is the purpose of an education. Here is an example. A teacher may claim that she is not against gays, but does not talk about the subject in the class. She just uses the regular textbooks. These do not have any references to homosexuality, but many to heterosexuality. Hence, the teacher, by not talking about homosexuality, she is continuing to normalize heterosexuality while abnormalizing homosexuality. While the teacher may think that she is neutral, her actions are not. They are continuing to normalize one lifestyle while abnormalizing another. If the teacher were to introduce materials with references to homosexuality, she would be consider to be in favor of homosexuality and hence, bringing an agenda or an ideology into the classroom. In reality, all she would be doing is creating a space where different ideologies can be explored. Andres -- go here: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
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