Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e97IkV925619; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 14:46:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 14:46:31 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <000e01c0308f$395c9800$b4eeffd1@cbking> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Catherine King" <cbking@flash.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:168] Re: brainstorming curriculum X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 5748 Lines: 130 To Eileen: Your "brainstorming curriculum" is a good reminder of the difference and relationship between process and outcome-results. The questions "Did you go through this?" is a quite different question from "What is the result of this activity?" and "How can it be measured ?" Also, in your curriculum you say: "Outcomes: You will know you have successfully completed this lesson when you can: Identify yourself as a member of one or more communities. Use research and reflection to place the communities to which you belong within the local, national, and/or global society and explain the factors that affect their relative placement." On the NLA list they are talking about the naming of a group, how domination occurs when a hegemonous group does the naming, and how political power is ingrained in this process. They have touched on, but not fully explored, the fact that it's not as much the name as the meaning that is attached to it that serves to confer political status on a group. For instance, to be called a "derogatory name" by one's family carries a totally different meaning than if one is called that same name by a different group in a public situation--whether it is "white boy" or "nigger," etc. etc. The point is, the beginning question of "identifying yourself" is a seemingly innocuous incendiary device that effects the teacher and the student because both the teacher and the student are already involved in those social and historical assumptions. This is the central issue of the "remote" rather than "proximate" education process and effects a person in every aspect of their ongoing lives (remote) rather than merely "job performance" skills (proximate). This also points to the value of EFF structures and emphasis. Your further question about it, though it doesn't sound like it, is the historical question of how those identities got that way. This self-reflective approach not only begins to unfold the identity of the different groups, but is "incendiary" because it also starts out the questioning process related to assumed qualifications. These qualifications are already attached to deeply held feelings "given" to us by the culture whose "dominance" is not as much the issue as is the "dominant evaluation," i.e., a social and institutional devaluation of color, race, etc. and a subsequent "automatic-quality" assigned to another particular group identity. When we look at it closely, we find it's not as much the identity with a group as it is the **assumed evaluation** of that group, e.g., the "black power" movement, "I am a man," posters, "Black of Beautiful" recovery of self- and corporate-worth, and the recently noted point that white people want to participate in black culture--e.g., hairstyles-- This is seen as both a robbery and as a great compliment. The confusion stems from the point that we all rightly want to both maintain our historical distinctions while at the same time relate to one another peacefully and in a qualified way. I see this hair "problem" and problems like it, like the homogenization of music genres, as a great move forward--albeit with its own set of problems--from when white people thought black rubs off like dirt and the social walls were so horribly calcified. But it becomes even more complex when group belongings overlap--as when men are more qualified than women, but black men are less qualified than white men or women; or when someone's religion is an issue--as with the complex nature of being Jewish or Catholic, or of mixed parentage. The point of an "outcomes" curriculum is that the central point of power shifts from the relationship between the student and the teacher in the classroom to the relationship between the bureaucrat and the numbers or "results-measures." When the data is removed from the classroom, the power center shifts and the bureaucrat's needs obfuscate the trust in the teacher--to know when change is happening in the student. Process becomes moot or a servant to the numbers. The teacher lands in-between this tension where s-he knows in her heart what is important, but yet she must serve the other blind, misguided and apparently dumb master. Thanks for all your work. Best to all, Catherine King ----- Original Message ----- From: Eileen Eckert <eileeneckert@hotmail.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2000 10:29 AM Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:167] brainstorming curriculum > The lively discussion around racism and prejudice, and Mary Ann's reminders > that this discussion is ultimately for students, led me to brainstorm the > attached outcomes/assessments for a lesson/unit/course on exploring issues > of racism and oppression with adult learners. My idea is to develop > something that uses EFF and is adaptable to different adult education > levels, contexts, and settings. > > I'd like feedback on this beginning (of course, developing the activities is > more fun, but you have to know what the outcome of each activity is). If > anyone is interested in working with me to develop this further, that would > be great. Please give feedback on the content, not the form. This is > brainstorming, not editing. Simplifying the language, re-wording, etc. will > come later. > > Sorry to those who will have to go to the archives if they want to see the > attached. I tried cut-and-pasting it into a plain text e-mail and it was > completely unreadable. > > Eileen > _________________________________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. > > Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at > http://profiles.msn.com. >
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