plthom3's picture

Closing the achievement gap, accountability, health, and poverty

Posted Tue, 03/09/2010 - 13:06 by plthom3

Most of the bureaucratic calls related to education ascribe accountability to schools and teachers, ignoring the powerful influence of children's lives on everything they do, including their educationa outcomes. . .Please consider this new study on health and student achievement linked at my poverty blog: http://livinglearninginpoverty.blogspot.com/2010/03/accountability-healt...
paul thomas

up-and-up's picture

WHY ISN'T THIS SITE HAPPENIN'? -A RALLY!

Posted Mon, 03/08/2010 - 03:11 by up-and-up

THE CRITICAL AWAKENING THROUGH EDUCATION OF PEOPLE IS OUR VOCATION, OUR PROFESSION AND OUR LOVE.
 
So why isn't this site POPPIN'???  Those of us here KNOW in our HEARTS and MINDS that critical awakening through education is the most crucial aspect of human evolution.  So WHY ISN'T THIS SITE POPPIN'???  We have set our founder as PAULO FREIRE, but let us ask ourselves 'Are WE acting in his image?'  If a visitor comes to this site, would this site be as exciting as one of our classes would be?  
 

gwilym.eades's picture

More Maps That Roar

Posted Fri, 03/05/2010 - 10:46 by gwilym.eades

Matt Sparke’s 1998 paper “A Map That Roared” has always struck me as a unique achievement.  I re-acquainted myself with the ideas and arguments Sparke puts forth in that paper when I had the occasion in a graduate seminar to read his book “In the Space of Theory” which includes that earlier paper as one of its chapters.

kheggart's picture

Reflections on Critical Pedagogy

Posted Sun, 02/28/2010 - 04:52 by kheggart

For a while now, I've been trying to bring elements of critical pedagogy into my classroom, inspired mainly by writers like Freire (obviously) but also Henry Giroux amongst others. I like to think that I've had a fair amount of success; I've encouraged students to negotiate their own curriculum in citizenship subjects; I've guided them to recognise ideologies and I've urged them to challenge power where they can.

Shirley Steinberg's picture

Do Canadians Have to Own the Inukshuk?

Posted Sat, 02/27/2010 - 00:38 by Shirley Steinberg

I don’t want be just another kevetcher on the Olympic bandwagon, but we’ve been given so much to work with.  At first, I wanted to do a short piece, Charlie and the Inukshuk Factory.  It was to be based on my recent landings at the Vancouver Airport, only to be overwhelmed by the plastic and wooden Native simulacrum, and carwash brush-esque flag bombardment (printed with tribal symbols).  After dodging the “bring your tired, your poor and your humbled travelers to the res” themed baggage claim area, I was going to rant on about the neglected state of the urban reserve on Hastings, and Vancouver’s attempt to cover up the needs of our First Nations people.  But that sounded so bitt

CritPed Webmaster's picture

Discourse, Power, Resistance (School of Education and Training at the University of Greenwich) Thursday 1 April 09.30

Posted Thu, 02/25/2010 - 22:28

Shirley Steinberg will be speaking on Thursday 1 April 09.30, at the Discourse, Power, Resistance Series
Faith and Trust in the Lord: Christotainment and Selling Jesus through Corporate Power

Start: 
Thu, 02/25/2010 - 21
Dave Desrosiers's picture

Post Student Teaching Musings

Posted Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:55 by Dave Desrosiers

After several months absence to student teach and hunt down substitute teaching jobs I find myself updating my blog when I should be working on my comprehensive exit examination for my graduate school.

I've had a lot of time to reflect on my student teaching experience and one of the best outcomes is that I really enjoyed the experience. I had feared throughout my pre-service experience that I would get into the classroom and find that I wasn't really into it. Fortunately, I had a lot of fun and I hope the kids did too. Now I get to be an unemployed social studies teacher.

Tolu's picture

Hip-Hop for Educational Change

Posted Wed, 02/10/2010 - 16:29 by Tolu

[Editorial By Hip-Hop Artist/Educator Asheru]

Embedded Video: 
carefulMEDIA's picture

New Webmaster

Posted Mon, 02/08/2010 - 08:27 by carefulMEDIA

Hi all,
The Freire Project has a new webmaster! You can contact Giuliana Cucinelli (CritPed Webmaster) HERE
I've loved being the Freire Webmaster, and it was a rare privilege to help build this vital, necessary community. Long may it prosper.
As Joe would say, In Solidarity,
David
Freire Webmaster

plthom3's picture

School choice and children in poverty

Posted Sun, 02/07/2010 - 09:19 by plthom3

The claims and advocacy surrounding the school choice movement receive disproportionate coverage while solid and peer-reviewed studies remain in the background. Some recent examples of the problems created by choice and the misinformation surrounding advocacy groups publishing "reports" that are flawed: see my poverty blog. paul thomas

Christopher Emdin's picture

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB MARLEY: URBAN SCIENCE EDUCATION FOR THE HIP-HOP GENERATION

Posted Sat, 02/06/2010 - 18:35 by Christopher Emdin

 In recent posts, I have argued for the resurgence of real hip-hop.
Since today is Bob Marley's birthday, I figured I would pay tribute to one of the most powerful and courageous critical thinkers of our time. I also decided to take this opportunity to put my money where my mouth is in regards to hip-hop music.
Here is a track I did with my rap group GHOSTTOWN that pays tribute to Bob Marley and provides a sample of what real hip-hop sounds like.
This is also a taste of what's to come with my upcoming book and my groups upcoming mixtape.
ENJOY !!!!!!!

Embedded Video: 
Tolu's picture

Words as Weapons: Communication in an Age of Illiteracy

Posted Fri, 02/05/2010 - 00:32 by Tolu

Shock-jocks understand that in times of economic uncertainty and political upheaval, human beings are vulnerable and impressionable, and can be manipulated with ease. ...
 

gwilym.eades's picture

Mess, Maps, Method

Posted Tue, 02/02/2010 - 12:50 by gwilym.eades

Maps make messes.  Maps can also be used to mop messes up.  Consider the apparent cleanliness of colonial mapping: missionaries and mapmakers often willfully exclude indigenous populations from cartographic depictions of 'unknown' north america, leaving pristine, clean white where the 'mess' we'd rather not see resides (Brealey, 1995; Harris, 2002; Law, 2004).
Counter-mapping is a method of upsetting such carefully constructed blank slates.  Even where local resources are included on maps, those who depend directly on those resources may not be made apparent.  When those local folks make known their presence on the land, through the use of maps, they are engaged in counter-mapping (Peluso, 1995).

plthom3's picture

Of Maxine Greene and Howard Zinn

Posted Sat, 01/30/2010 - 10:24 by plthom3

Was struck this morning by a new piece of mine just making "print" (available in the online Journal of Educational Controversy) concurrent with the passing of Howard Zinn. In the middle of the piece about teacher education and Greene, I turn to the work of Zinn: "Of Rocks and Hard Places—The Challenge of Maxine Greene’s Mystification in Teacher Education"

paul thomas

Tolu's picture

Society To Kids: You're On Your Own

Posted Fri, 01/29/2010 - 12:33 by Tolu

Last week, the Chicago Tribune featured a front page report on the marketing of sugar-saturated, nutrient-deficient cereals to kids. It revealed how in spite of a commitment by leading cereal companies in 2006 to market more healthy options to children under 12, most had made very little progress since: still "aggressively" promoting unhealthy products and, what's worse, under fraudulent promises like a "nutritious way to start the day."
 

Henry Giroux's picture

Howard Zinn: A Public Intellectual Who Mattered

Posted Thu, 01/28/2010 - 13:24 by Henry Giroux

Read my article on the work of Howard Zinn at truthout.org:
http://www.truthout.org/howard-zinn-a-public-intellectual-who-mattered56463

lizjmeyer's picture

Long-haired boy subjected to harassment at school -- by his TEACHERS ?!

Posted Thu, 01/28/2010 - 11:10 by lizjmeyer

I just read another news story about a young boy who was harassed at school because he had long hair. Unfortunately, in this case it is allegedly his teachers who were responsible for the harassment. According to the news story at Cincinnati.com the teachers would attempt to humiliate him by putting his hair in ponytails, parading him in front of other classes with this hairstyle, and calling him by "feminized versions of his name."

Paul R Carr's picture

The world is NOT watching

Posted Wed, 01/27/2010 - 12:17 by Paul R Carr

Democratically-elected President Zelaya of Honduras has spent the past four months in exile in his own country, and is now being shipped to Domincan Republic as part of an agreement established under the new, what Zelaya calls "sham", regime. The US wil be represented at ths inauguration by a senior State Department official. The six military officers, graduates of the School of the Americas (enough said), have been given amnesty for their role in kidnapping and forcefully removing Zelaya from office.
 
Democracy should mean something but does it?
 

plthom3's picture

My response to the "stray animals" comment in my home state

Posted Tue, 01/26/2010 - 09:57 by plthom3

My Op-Ed regarding the Bauer comment equating the poor to stray animals is in The State today: Baure's comments reflect our own misconceptions.

Andrew Hickey's picture

Bland Nationalism, White Fanaticism and Australia Day

Posted Mon, 01/25/2010 - 19:00 by Andrew Hickey

We in Oz tommorrow (26th January) celebrate our national day, ‘Australia Day’ (or, alternatively, ‘Invasion Day’ as dubbed by some of our Indigenous brothers and sisters) to commemorate the day European colonisers irrevocably changed Australian culture two and a bit centuries ago. 

plthom3's picture

The poor are little more than stray animals?

Posted Sun, 01/24/2010 - 10:09 by plthom3

All, this is what it is like in 2010 in the Deep South. . .maybe in a perverse way people are so committed to their prejudices that they believe them "right" so they actually say these things. . .this is from a leading contender for GOVERNOR in the state of SC:
"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals," Bauer told a Greenville-area crowd. "You know why? Because they breed.

Shirley Steinberg's picture

Hip Hop Artist Vox Sambou Music Video in Haiti

Posted Fri, 01/22/2010 - 21:13 by Shirley Steinberg

Sisters and Brothers...the words have been said for the past 8 days about Haiti....here are words from a dear friend of ours in Montreal, done while he was home in Haiti...send it around.  send the music...

Embedded Video: 
Venus Evans-Winters's picture

Race to the Top (of what, a falling infrastructure?)

Posted Thu, 01/21/2010 - 16:41 by Venus Evans-Winters

I am not sure that most teachers, school principals, school boards, superintendents, or higher education faculty are aware of the guidelines and objectives of the Federal "Race to the top" program. It appears that the main objective on the surface of the policy may be for schools and school leaders to compete for federal funding, based on student achievement and progress; however, I'm not sure that most school districts are in need of more bureaucractic top-down policies.
The policy initiative "sounds" like a good idea on the surface (or in sound bytes)-the idea of having states "compete" for public money based on proposed changes. This time we must ask:

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