Political correctness in education:

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Political correctness in education

• On trial

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The Prosecutions 1st argument Political
correctness and a reductive language

• Politically correct language puts us in danger of
  reducing the issues involved in celebrating our
  differences to a mere technical exercise.
• Part of the technology of teaching (Greene,
  1978).
• Part of the 'lure of technique' (Dunne, 1993)
• PC language involves the siphoning off of some
  of the creative energies of staff into image
  management (Booth, 2003).

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• PC is a mechanism of disciplinary power which
  acts upon individuals to ensure they are trained
  or corrected, classified, normalised, excluded
  etc. (Foucault, 1977 191).
• It is part of a new form of social power, which
  acts to impose innumerable and various rules,
  all of which tend to normalize its members, to
  make them behave, to exclude spontaneous action
  or outstanding achievement (Arendt, 1958 40).

4
The 1st line of the Defence The struggle to
speak our own words

• To speak a PC language is to oppose the reduction
  of language and practice to technology, as
  Standish (1997 456) observes
• A better relation to language may allay
  bewilderment and restore health, even as it
  exposes the manic enthusiasts and cynical
  opportunists who ride high on the system.  This
  may point to a new public space, a bulwark
  against the technicist threat to education.

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The Prosecutions 2nd argument PC and the end
of reflection

• A toolbox of PC terminology replaces ethical
  engagement with teaching and learning with a
  phoniness.
• It is part of a new, dis-enlightenment
• Tutelage is mans inability to make use of his
  understanding without direction from another.
  Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause
  lies not in lack of reason but in lack of
  resolution and courage to use it without
  direction from another. Sapere aude! Have
  courage to use your own reason! that is the
  motto of the enlightenment.
• (Kant,1990 83).

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The second line of defence taking
responsibility for our words

• We need to listen to what we say (Corbett,
  1996 3).
• Speaking an inclusive language involves engaging
  in, what Corbett (1996) describes as, a
  'struggle' to make our words our own.
• It is about being authentic, entering into the
  cradle of the Real Life (Buber, 1937/2004 16).

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The Prosecutions third argument What difference
do our words make anyway?

• Whats in a name? that which we call a
  rose By any other name would smell as
  sweet.
• (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

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The third line of defence Language is powerful

• 'The living and radical nature of language',
  Murdoch tells us, 'is something which we forget
  at our peril' (Murdoch, 1970/2003 33).
• A rose by any other name may smell just as sweet,
  but if that name happens to be poison ivy it is
  unlikely that any of us will get close enough to
  it to find out.

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The third line of defence Language is powerful

• Witness for the defence, Colin Barnes
• The first and most important thing to remember
  about discussions of language and disability is
  that they arise because disabled people
  experience discrimination daily and are denied
  the same rights and opportunities as the rest of
  the population.
• (Barnes, 1993 8)

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References

• Barnes, C. (1993) Political Correctness, Language
  and Rights, Rights Not Charity (The British
  Council of Organization of Disabled People)
  Winter p. 8
• Booth, T. (2001) Putting Education Together
  Inclusions, Exclusions and Other PETs, Inaugural
  Professorial Lecture, Canterbury Christ Church
  University College
• Booth, T. (2003) Letting what is inside out and
  what is outside in confessions and dilemmas of
  an educationalist, Paper presented at European
  Society for Research on the Education of Adults,
  Life History and Biographical Research Network
  Conference, 6-8th March
• Buber, M. (1937/2004) I and Thou (London
  Continuum)

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• Corbett, J (1996) Bad Mouthing The Language of
  Special Needs (London Falmer Press)
• Dunne, J. (1993) Back to the Rough Ground
  Practical Judgement and the Lure of Technique
  (Notre Dame, Indiana University of Notre Dame
  Press)
• Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish The
  Birth of the Prison (Trans. by A. Sheridan,
  Harmondsworth Penguin Books)
• Greene, M. (1978) Teaching The question of
  personal reality, Teachers College Record, 80(1),
  23-35.
• Kant, I. (1990) Foundations of the Metaphysics of
  Morals (London Macmillan).
• Murdoch, I. (1970/2003) The Sovereignty of Good
  (London Routledge)
• Standish, P. (2001) Ethics before equality Moral
  education after Levinas, Journal of Moral
  Education, 30(4), 339-347