Educational Leadership Supervision Post 3

Summative course for Masters of  Education Portfolio

Thoughts and responses on Education Writ Large 
My wife used to use the Freedom Writers movie in her advance placement English classes. I applaud the movement and the cause. It makes me wonder however how many movements does it take to break through and make education a societal endeavour. Are movements enough to change society and the existing hierarchical undemocratic powers for the benefit of all societies and cultures? Or will these movements become just another voice, drowning in a sea of voices demanding changes from our political, business and religious elites. If Paulo Friere, Henry Giroux and their ilk, are still just 'voices' for democratic change and we still only achieve status quo or disintegration of our educational structures based on the miseducative forces; then is one more noble movement going to make the difference that proceeds to keep all the powerful miseducative forces in check and open the era of critical democratic education for all?
My perspective  may appear  negative, but I believe the power of the miseducative forces in our digital information society far outweigh the small measures we struggle for in our writ small educational institutions. The separation of church and state should have had one more entity added; that of separation of corporation and state. It has already been suggested that this fascist ideal is alive and well (Hedges, 2007). Given these realities, I can only despair when I read most academic papers and articles claiming the Utopian educational ideal are just around the next turn. Even given my skepticism I do see hope as I have stated elsewhere in my postings. The grassroots movements Naomi Klein mentions in her book will galvanize all the previously separated communities across racial,ethical,and social boundaries. This will give the students of all writ large cultures the power that Martin states they need to create democratic education and battle against miseducative forces. Like freedom, this will have to be taken, not requested from the existing powers, educational or otherwise.

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After a summary of the main points I will outline the specifics passages that fit with my worldview and philosophy of education and the idea of democratic education.

Education writ large refers to examining the whole of the educative spaces in society not just the formal educational settings. If fact Martin takes pains to establish that the equation of education and Schooling is erroneous in the extreme. She uses Dewey and Illch to corroborate that it has never been a valid assertion that they are the same, and that formal education is but a small and often the least important learning environment. Because we learn in many environments and by many agencies, unaware of role in delivery of an educative message, we are to be wary. Through education writ large, we are inundated daily with learning experiences from home, religions, communities, government, corporations, and the ubiquitous forms digital media. Overt or covert, powerful or weak, these messages are being absorbed every day. The formal and institutional edifice of schooling on the other hand, has a whole range of unanticipated outcomes. It amplifies the existing undemocratic power structures and the generation of ‘skilled’ workers, not for the shop floor, but now for information age work. Other authors have notices similar entrenched hierarchical power structures and democratic elements in schooling systems (Selwyn, 2014). Writ large education also includes non-intellectual learning. It is education that shapes our head hearts and hands. Martin states that because education does not always entail improvement, that it becomes a moral imperative once this fallacy is dispelled. An educative society is not necessarily a well-schooled society. The authors’ example was Nazi Germany, which was a well-schooled and literate but a miseducative society, passing the message of fear and hatred to his members for many years. All the educative agents of our society pass not only positive but also negative cultural assets to the population, yet only schools get charged with being miseducative. Schools, like politicians, are authoritarian and prescriptive in their claims of knowing what is best for us and in their methods of delivery of these messages.

The essay eventually changes focus toward claims of numerous authors that schools are the perfect place for political and democratic education. This too is a fallacy, since the basic tenets of democracy: speaking truth to power deliberation on important issues and a critical stance towards government and corporate maleficence, are not inculcated in our educational institutions. While the educative space ‘home’ was used to show that all areas of society cannot be equal for many reasons (safety of children, parental governance etc.), the point was made that we can still  foster democratic principles by not abusing unequal relationships with regard to power and authority.

Hedges, C. (2008). American fascists: The Christian right and the war on America. Simon and Schuster.

Klein, N. (2014). This changes everything: capitalism vs. the climate. Simon and Schuster.

Martin, J. R. (2013). Education writ large. In Hare, W., & Portelli, J. P. (2013). Philosophy of Education: Introductory Readings 4e, 414. Alberta: Brush Education Inc.

Selwyn, N. (2013). Distrusting educational technology: Critical questions for changing times. Routledge.