The protests, struggles and celebrations that the world has witnessed in Egypt have further inspired my thoughts about democracy in education and the possibilities for public spaces in our society. This BBC(“Egypt after Mubarak”, 2011) article reflects a thoughtful beginning after the resignation of President Mubarak as people come together in the streets to clean up after the revolutionary events of the preceding weeks. This coming together to clean, an act often seen as mundane and merely necessary, is conceptualized in this context as an act of taking back public spaces and a fresh start to rebuilding a country collaboratively. The narratives in this article- the meanings these Egyptians were making in the act of taking their brooms into the streets- helped me to reflect on the meanings that are missed in many of the daily tasks of education. These events, along with the article by Gert Biesta (2007) and the theories of Hannah Arendt discussed in the previous post, have inspired me to ask how we can recognize the possibilities for a “political conception of democratic subjectivity” (p.740) in the daily living of early childhood education and the public spaces of children’s centres.
BBC News - Egypt after Mubarak: A clean start: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Please follow the link above to see the BBC news article
BBC News - Egypt after Mubarak: A clean start: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Please follow the link above to see the BBC news article
I think the intention that these Egyptians bring to this work demonstrates that they are not simply cleaning up their history or sweeping away the struggles of their past. They seem to be building new spaces for democracy and for opening dialogue that acknowledge the implications of their past. These implications - and their hopes for the future- resonate in their choice to clear this space in the streets, a public space for people to come together with their differences. Elizabeth Ellsworth’s (1989) work critiquing critical pedagogy and the narratives that are ignored as this theory remains within a rational paradigm, speaks to the complexities of conversations and spaces that seek to let difference be heard- like her experience teaching a University class called “Media and Anti-Racist Pedagogies”:
I saw the necessity to take the voices of students and professors of difference at their word- as “valid”- but not without response. Students’ and my own narratives about experiences of racism, ableism, elitism, fat oppression, sexism, anti-Semitism, heterosexism, and so on are partial- partial in the sense that they are unfinished, imperfect, limited; and partial in the sense that they project the interests of “one side” over others. Because those voices are partial and partisan, they must be problematic, but not because they have broken the rules of thought of the ideal rational person by grounding their knowledge in immediate emotional, social, and psychic experiences of oppression, or are somehow lacking or too narrowly circumscribed. Rather, they must be critiqued because they hold implications for other social movements and their struggles for self-definition. This assertion carries important implications for the “goal” of classroom practices against oppressive formations (p.305-306).
This quote demonstrates in some ways how public space- the already intertwined implications of diverse experiences of difference- cannot be founded only in rational debate that strives to achieve complete and clear answers.
These writings also brought my attention to the democratic conversations that take place in my classroom daily through a multiplicity of forms of expression by children, teachers and families. How then, do we take up daily tasks, like cleaning, without sweeping away those meaningful conversations of difference that were expressed as children and teachers explored clay or engaged with a book? How is democracy allowed to live in our classrooms? How are spaces for children allowed to become public spaces of democracy that acknowledge “the real and normal relations between children and adults, arising from the fact that people of all ages are always simultaneously together in the world” (Arendt, 1954, p.5)? How do we break down the divisions that prevent us from being aware of the meanings, theories and relationships that can be made in our daily engagements with the world?
Arendt, H. (1954). The Crisis in Education. In, Between Past and Future. New York: Penguin Books. Retrieved from https://webspace.utexas.edu/hcleaver/www/330T/350kPEEArendtCrisisInEdTable.pdf
Biesta, G. (2007). Education and the democratic person: Towards a political conception of democratic education. Teachers College Record, 109 (3), 740-769.
Egypt after Mubarak: A clean start. (2011, February 12). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12441506
Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review,59 (3), 297-324.
I think it will be interesting to watch Egypt over the next weeks, months and years as a new system of government is developed. If they implement a democratic system, it will be interesting to see how different historical and cultural contexts frame democracy in a particular way. These differences may shed light on aspects of western democracy that are often seen as essential or natural parts of freedom. I think that recognizing these differences can help us to question some of the ways neo-liberal theories like individual freedom have come to be understood as 'truths.'With Elsworth (1989) in mind I think we can consider questioning political developments by "tak[ing] the voices... of difference at their word-... but not without response."
ReplyDeleteLucy
ReplyDeleteYour question, “how is democracy allowed to live in our classroom?” provoked me to think about the potential/possibilities for democracy within our own classrooms. Is there a shared understanding throughout our Centre’s of what a democratic practice entails and the conditions needed to support this type of practice? As Moss & Dahlberg explain, it requires, “commitment to particular values, such as uncertainty, subjectivity, democracy: creativity, curiosity and a desire to experiment and border cross; a reflective, research oriented and socially valued workforce; and sustained support from critical friends (for example the pedagogista’s) ( 2008 p.6) Do our Centre’s commit to these values already and if not, how do we begin? How can we use documentation so that meaning making can emerge and a shared understanding of the qualities needed for democratic practice can begin to emerge as a tool to make this practice visible? (Moss, 2007, p 25) Are we putting up documentation that supports these values? How can we combine theory and practice to “create a ‘democratic space’ and create the conditions for an active democratic practice” (Moss, 2007,p13).
As Carla Rinaldi (2005) explains, “sharing documentation means participation in a true act of democracy, sustaining the culture and visibility of childhood, both inside and outside the school: democratic participation, or participant democracy, that is a product of exchange and visibility” (as cited by Moss, 2007 p.26). Participation which allows for “a framework for listening to children” such as the mosaic approach can be used to support a democratic practice. The mosaic approach is a multi-method approach (Moss & Clark, 2008) that recognizes the richness of children voices and embraces their participation in the documentation process. Do our classrooms allow for multiple voices and perspectives to be heard in this public space? If we aren’t including children’s voices in our documentation, how can we say we have a democratic practice?
Clark & Moss.(2008) Research on Listening to Children. Draft Early Years Participation Toolkit.[on-line version].
Moss,P. (2007).Bringing Politics into the Nursery. Early Childhood Education as a Democratic Practice. [on-line version].
Moss, P. & Dahlberg, G. (2008). Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care-Languages of Evaluation.
The Egyptian revolution was an inspiration to many, more so for those that can relate to the struggles of living under authoritarian regimes. The first casualty of dictatorships is the loss of hope and self worth; however, when the voices of the Egyptian mass triumphed over Mubarak’s tyrannical regime a new chapter was re-opened. Hopefully this will lead to a democratic process that gives the Egyptians the dignity that is every human being’s right. The symbolism of the clean-up has multiple dimensions to it, some of which you indicated. The following quote by Rami Ali, a British-Egyptian University researcher, I felt captured the essence of the cleaning exercise: “One of the things that emerged from the last two weeks is that people feel a sense of ownership of the public space. I think for the first time people feel it’s worth cleaning their own streets and taking pride in where they live. It is a simple thing but it’s been totally absent here for a long time” (egysinbad3.blogspot.com/2011 /.../egypt-after-mubarak-clean-start.html).
ReplyDeleteWhat Rami Ali’s quote does for me that relates to your thought about democracy in education and the possibilities for public spaces in our society, is that he brings to our attention the Egyptian people’s sense of finally feeling at home, and thus being comfortable enough to take responsibility for the well-being of their country; through a simple but profound action of cleaning. Like in the words of Paulo Freire (1970), “I work, and working I transform the world” (P. 14). The trigger for the occurrences in Egypt was a selfless act of defiance by a Tunisian young man who set himself on fire because he was tired of living in a system that dehumanized its own citizens. Thus the changes that we are witnessing unfold throughout North Africa and the Middle East were born out of care for the other, and consequently for the self, and the collective.
How do we nurture the acts of caring in ourselves, and all those that we are in partnership with, such that like in the words of Toronto, it becomes a “general habit of Mind (P. 74)?” And possibly this will truly open up the endless possibilities of working in a true democratic environment that we so desire, and deserve.
References
Ali, Rami (2011). Egypt after Mubarak: A clean start. egysinbad3.blogspot.com/2011 /.../egypt-after-mubarak-clean-start.html).
Dahlberg, G. & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and Politics in Early childhood Education. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Freire, Paulo (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The Seabury Press, New York.
Thanks for your comments and questions Maureen,
ReplyDeleteWhen you speak about documentation, and particularly the importance of documenting children's voices to promote democratic practice in our classroom, I wonder about the conditions that invite children to speak in the first place. Stuart J. Murray (in Malewski, 2010, p.243) responds to a chapter on bodied curriculum in a book that has compiled many educators and educational theorists discussing the next moment in curriculum:
Bodies arrive on the scene with many dissonant conversations already underway. Dissonant as they may be, some will speak to and bolster my prejudices, others will include me, some may exclude, while still others will set forth in advance the terms by which my body will be experienced by me, how it will appear in the world, and how- if I am so entitled- I may touch or be touched. The ongoing task of our "bodied curriculum" is perhaps to find the language to enter these conversations, without necessarily reproducing them.
I think when we question how democracy is allowed to exist in our classrooms- we cannot only question how the voices that are spoken are taken up and allowed to exist in their diversity. I think we must also questions if the physical, social and political environments in our classroom allow children to speak in diverse ways: Is there space for children to speak out against the dominant discourses? Is there space for children, teachers and families to speak in ways that don’t fit into the dominant discourses?
Thanks again for your thoughts and questions,
Lucy
Murray, S.J. (2010). Response to Stephanie Springgay and Debra Freedman making sense of touch: Phenomonology and the place of language in a bodied curriculum. In E. Malewski (Ed.), Curriculum studies handbook: the next moment (1st ed., pp. 240-243). New York: Routledge.