Philosophies/Theories

1
Philosophies/Theories

• Part II
• Postmodernism
• Liberation Pedagogy

2
Postmodernism

• Questions the authority of canons
• Finding subordination in language (e.g., less
  advanced)

3
Postmodernism

• Friedrich Nietzsche (break from metaphysical
  philosophies, supermen)
• Martin Heidegger (existentialist phenomenology -
  authentic person)
• Jacques Derrida (deconstruction - analysis of
  texts)
• Michel Foucault (truth-power relationship)

4
Postmodernism

• Metaphysics
• Rejects it
• Scientific method not objective, relative to the
  group that uses it
• Epistemology
• Examine human past and present to find
  construction and expression related to power
• Truth only meaningful when expressed through
  language
• Deconstruction is essential

5
Postmodernism

• Axiology
• Trace genealogy of morality
• No single set of moral values (though standards
  do exist)
• Beauty is relative (though those in power tend to
  control artistic and cultural institutions)

6
Postmodernism

• Education
• Schools are used by those in power to sustain
  their position
• Question the canon
• Recognize that all claims to knowledge involve
  efforts to retain power
• Instruction involves representation (the
  processes individuals and groups use to interpret
  and give meaning to their experience, through
  language, stories, images, music, and other
  cultural constructions)
• Curriculum should be flexible and
  cross-disciplinary - encourage dialogue and
  analysis)

7
Liberation Pedagogy

• Education that frees a person from domination and
  oppression
• Conscientização (consciousness raising)
• Must study history and discover how properly to
  define and interpret it
• Examine material conditions of the society - who
  has power? what are institutions?

8
Liberation Pedagogy

• Paulo Freire (literacy campaign)
• Ivan Illich (deinstitutionalization and
  deschooling needless pursuit of materialism)

9
Liberation Pedagogy

• Metaphysics - rejected
• Epistemology
• Connection between thinking and action - must
  identify oppressors constructions and then
  reject them to create true knowledge
• Axiology
• Are values freely chosen or are they imposed by
  oppressors?
• Authentic decision making (free from imposed
  values)

10
Liberation Pedagogy

• Education
• Avoid the trap of believing the rhetoric of the
  oppressors
• Instruction must lead to critical analysis
• Teacher is also a student
• Teachers must take a stand against oppression