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The Epistemic Wars
Thanks for your kind words Joe. In a very real sense, contemporary researchers and scholars are confronting a full frontal assault on their academic freedom, and democracy itself is under similar attack. The decree in the US by the National Research Council and more recent signals emitted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada ought to worry all of us who reject the quantification and objectification of human beings. The move toward "scientific" research never affords an accurate picture of what's going on in education at the individual, classroom and school level.
Even if we were to accept the fallacious view that scientific research could provide insight into education, a normative activity, what precisely would we be measuring? Education is a value laden enterprise and there are no objective units of education to add up and report in terms of educational success - although it's an academic growth industry. However, such research inevitably ensures that foundational questions about the KIND of education we ought to be practicing are ignored with objectives and practices instead determined by psychometricians, test makers, perceived corporate requirements and of course their government agents.
In my own province of New Brunswick, the government is currently undertaking a major re-working of post secondary education that threatens to undermine all disciplines at the University of New Brunswick that do not provide a tangible (read as economic) return based on a cost benefit analysis. Disciplines such as philosophy, the humanities and history are all on the chopping block since there is no direct connection between their study and immediate benefits for the labour market. These are dangerous times for democracy since such disciplines afford critical spaces for public dialogue about potential social alternatives and possible social change. However, the destruction of these spaces is extremely important to the darkening neo-liberal project of portraying "capitalism with the gloves off" (thanks Peter McLaren) as the only possible world.
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An age of eternal epistemic wars
Emery,
Again thanks so much for another important blog. As you know this is a topic close to my heart and soul. All over the Western world this regressive type of knowledge politics is undermining the work of rigorous scholars in critical pedagogy and other fields. In this move toward a decontextualized and inflexible form of regressive "scientific" research in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand, etc. obviously particular ideological agendas are being covertly promoted. When only one epistemological perspective is allowable, diverse cultural knowledges are excluded, and factors that provide insight into particular socio-educational phenomena are erased, researchers tend to get the results they set out to "prove." As you obviously agree, this is not good science, no matter how we define it.
Last year in Australia, the government was in the process of (and Greg or other Aussies if you read this, please update me if my information is not current) ranking journals that can be used for tenure and promotion. As you might guess, critical pedagogy journals are not particularly high on the list. Shirley came up with an idea for those of us in critical pedagogy along with allies in qualitative and innovative types of research to come up with an international journal evaluation system that is more just and inclusive (and I would boldly add, more rigorous in a non-positivistic sense). I will write a letter to everyone involved with the project and many others to help us put this together.
And, Emery, the actions of the New Brunswick government vis-a-vis the archaic use of cost benefit analysis to judge the worth of various disciplines is frightening. Such a move is, indeed, central to the neo-liberal market fundamentalism of Peter's bareknuckled capitalism. We have to organize and fight these insidious and regressive policies.
Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention.
Discouraged but ever hopeful,
Joe
Joe L. Kincheloe
Canada Research Chair in Critical Pedagogy
Faculty of Education
McGill University
Excellence in Research for Australia
Hi Joe and Emery
The Howard model was scrapped with the election of the Rudd Labor government. However, a new proposal to measure "excellence" has been put forward. What I do know is that increasingly academics in Australia need to construct their identities as "active" researchers or risk being classified as "teaching intensive" under current performance management strategies (Australia does not have tenure per se but rather "continuing appointments" that are subject to yearly performance review--these are highly sought after positions especially with greater casualisation/pt work in the sector). Against the backdrop of declining public funding and a historic lack of philanthropy in Australia, academics interested in research must become increasingly entrepreneurial. Even if many researchers are interested in issues to do with social justice, it means that community engagement that "counts" is increasingly defined as what brings in the research dollars.
Here is some info from the National Tertiary Education Union:
http://www.nteu.org.au/policy/current/era
Excellence in Research for Australia
The federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, announced on 26 February this year a new research quality and evaluation system to replace the Research Quality Framework.
The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative will assess research quality using a combination of metrics and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts. It will be developed by the Australian Research Council (ARC) in conjunction with the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.
The NTEU has been engaging in discussions with Minister Carr and is preparing a response, once the Australian Research Council releases its discussion paper.
Note well: The ERA will replace the now defunct Research Quality Framework.
For the Minister's media release click here http://minister.industry.gov.au/SenatortheHonKimCarr/Pages/NEWERAFORRESE...
and click here to see the NTEU's response http://www.nteu.org.au/news/2008/2008/championing_strengthens_seen_as_ke...
You can find information about the Research Quality Framework and the Union's detailed information by visiting the RQF page.
And a recent article in The Australian newspaper
Research quality ranked in four tiers
Guy Healy | June 05, 2008
A FOUR-TIER system that ranks university departments' research and its impact on the economy and society are key features of the Rudd Government's proposed new research accountablity exercise.
Releasing a consultation paper, federal Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr said the Government's Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) “would compare Australian researchers not just with each other, but with the best in the world.”
Remainder of the article available at:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23813925-12332,00.html
Important update, Greg
Greg,
Thanks so much for your update. I was wondering if with Rudd's election anything had changed. I'll read the pieces you gave me. Obviously, it's still important to create a new consortium with a progressive set of criteria to produce an alternative way to measure the "quality" of research, journals, presentations, etc.
Thanks to both Greg and Emery for your important insights here. We'll get that started asap.
Many thanks,
Joe
Joe L. Kincheloe
Canada Research Chair in Critical Pedagogy
Faculty of Education
McGill University
Journal Rankings in Australia
Hi again Joe, I wasn't sure what happened with the ranking journal exercise but came across this article in today's Australian newspaper
Weblink for entire article:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23880763-12332,00.html
Rankings draft list well received
Guy Healy | June 18, 2008
THE Australian Research Council has released a draft list of about 19,500 peer-reviewed journals to guide its proposed four-tier ranking under the Labor Government's Excellence in Australian Research performance exercise.
Globalization
Thanks Greg and Joe for the Aussie information and your comments. The coercive ideological forces of positivism are alive and well on both sides of the Pacific - and the Atlantic too for that matter. Given our collective circumstances, the well orchestrated product of corporate and neo-liberal government coordination from front line international agents such as the OECD, we confront a daunting challenge to restore universities to public spaces that encourage democratic debate about the future direction of society.
I wonder what Paulo would have thought of the contemporary academic whose time is too often - maybe even most often - spent in "clerical proletariat labour" (Stanley Aronowitz), writing research grants and compiling on-line CVs by filling in mindless templates for hours on end or writing articles for an often limited and largely academic audience. There's no better way, of course, to keep intellectuals from causing political "trouble" than to occupy them with the production demands of capitalism.
Of course, most academics on the left are not the organic intellectuals envisioned by Gramsci who might actually model the conscientization sought by Freire, but largely apolitical individuals who justify their passivity and inaction under the guise of intellectualism, objectivity or "doing research". If we listen carefully, there is a faint pulse of faculty discontent but tenure and promotion afford the managerial class both a carrot and stick to mute any radical dissent. To borrow a partial line from Sophie's Choice, we can say social transformation but we can't do it.
During the provincial government's first attempt to transform UNB Saint John campus into a training ground for Irving (corporate) employees, there was an incredible groundswell of public outcry and protests that forced the government to back up and try again. Round two lies before us, but the public outrage was genuine, heartfelt, reasoned and effective. As academics, we need to speak with (and I stress "with" rather than "to) the general public far more often. In some sense, they understand far better than we do the political importance of a critical education. Paulo Freire, a man who possessed such magnificent social sensitivity, was at the head of emerging revolutionary ideas - for all of our "success," I fear we're barely hanging on to the tail.
In solidarity,
Emery
Journal Rankings in Australia
Gregory Martin University of Technology, Sydney
More research on the side
Hi Emery,
I'm really enjoying the discussion you've started, along with comments provided by Joe and Greg.
I agree entirely about the normativity of scientific research. While in the Ontario Ministry of Education, and I wrote a little about this in the Whiteness book I completed last year, we undertook some interesting research on anti-racism in the early 1990s. Then the world was leveled in 1995 with the arrival of a, to understate the case, reactionary government that never mentioned racism publicly or privately for the next nine years. I often wonder if some of the more visceral signs of unrest and (un)social justice derive, in part, from the decision in the mid-1990s to do... nothing as a policy response to attempting to address some of the more pressing issues in education, such as citizenship, democracy and social justice. A caveat here: I do not believe that the government of the day intended to do much but the fact remains that a dozen years later, in Toronto, we have the call for Black-focused schools, gang shootings, increased racial segregation, and the same problem of how to advance the quest for citizenship, democracy and social justice. Granted, these issues were around back in the 1990s, and before then, but it is worth pondering the degree to which the embracing of the neoliberal agenda has accelerated the decline of any commitment to social justice. This is probably a rhetorical question but one that I think is fundamental to how public education might be re-positioned. To that end, although critical pedagogy is on the margins of the mainstream agenda (by way of example, during my tenure in the Ministry of Education, I never heard anyone ever mention, acknowledge or suggest that Paulo Freire has something to contribute, let alone invoke his name), it does serve a very useful purpose in galvanizing resistance.
Another quick point: as you know from your time in the US, the No Child Left Behind Act requires that reforms be based on scientific research. I have yet to meet anyone in education here, at my university in Ohio, who can point to any scientific research as the basis for the neoliberal reforms. On the contrary, we can find a lot of scientific research pointing out that the reforms may not work. But, in education, there is a longstanding disconnection between those delivering the services (teaching and learning), and those putting the cake into the oven (policy development). Teachers, sadly, are often very unaware of why and how such major policy-reforms are developed by the political class. The fact that many teachers do not view education as part of a political project underscores the tension that many have when they discover that so many marginalized and racialized kids do not benefit the same way that others do from education. Anyway, I am always cautious when I say such things as I believe that I do not have the answers but that the process of critically engaging in finding these answers is fundamental, and I have found that many teachers are not used to such a process. This is not a slight against teachers as a group but more of a commentary on the structural, systemic nature of neoliberalism.
Hope all is well down East.
Paul
Emery, Joe, Greg and Paul,
Emery, Joe, Greg and Paul,
You have given me an insight in such a problematic issue that encompasses all of us in today's society. I am far from being as knowledgeable as you men are in the domain of critical pedagogy and the politics of University tenure. I am apalled at the contractual conditions that the New Brunswick Ministry of Education in heading towards. I thought that educating of our youth was for a better and stronger future. My question is then: Who's future are we talking about when Professors at University's fear discussing controversial issues in their classes due to the possiblity of loosing their contractual position at the institution? It certainly says a lot about the institution itself if they are not aiming for students that will be critical thinkers in our society. Are they fearing that the more knowledgeable students become that they will be rioting in the streets or better yet overturn their dominance in the educational system? I do hope that this is not going to become the norm in our educational institutions. I gather they are sensing a threat at the level of the ivory tower.
I do feel that at times we are somewhat in the closet when we consider ourselves to be critical pedagogues. I know that I do not fully understand the whole concept yet and I am aspiring to having a better grasp by the end of this session. However, as I mentionned in class today Joe, I do believe that we need to get a stronger movement in order to propel this idealogy in the schools before it is too late and the government actual pulls the rug under all our specialists in this field such as yourselves. It has been tactic of some authorities to divide and conquer. A magazine or review journal with scholars' articles and works in the making would certainly assist in making this topic known to educators that were never introduced to this topic before. As an educator having been trained in Ontario, I am very similar to many that worked with you Paul at the Ministry of Education where I was ignorant of Paulo Freire's work until I met Shirley Steinberg in the Fall of 2007 (only after 17 years of being in education}. What does that say about our educational system?
As an administrator, my goal is to implement such pedagogy within the school. I must be creative in a way that the Board and the Ministry are not fully aware of my doings. However, when the teachers are not all together on issues such as this, it then becomes a contentious issue. If they are not content with the administration, then ennemies do propel within the milieu because the word travels. I do want to discuss this further with you Joe.
Thank you very much gentlemen!
New Brunswick's Action Plan
Thanks to everyone for your continued comments on this issue. I wanted to bring the blog up to date on the post secondary education situation in New Brunswick. For those of us who have followed the trends, this latest government foray into education is more like the end game in the corporate takeover of society rather than any radical paradigm shift. Regardless, it's an excellent example of where neo-liberal ideology has taken universities - three of the university presidents who signed the document have publicly rebuked it. One is reminded here of Faust.
Anyway, I thought the best approach is simply to provide the link and let everyone read it for themselves. The language is Orwellian and the direct attack on university autonomy - universities will receive funding based on how well they tow the government line - is similar to a plan Mike Harris of Ontario tried to implement (Paul no doubt remembers that one): http://www.gnb.ca/Promos/PSE/index-e.asp
It is also worth noting the Irving (corporate) media monopoly in the province has been working overtime to voice it's support for the document and attack professors and faculty associations that speak out against it. Here's our association's response (I'm a member of the executive): http://livingininterestingtimes.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/aunbt-assesses-the-liberal-action-plan
All the best,
Emery
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