The biggest thing going on for me academically these days is that I’m taking my first education policy course. It’s this: HUDF 5645 Policy seminar I Conceptualization and identification of social and educational problems that can be subjected to policy interventions. Design and evaluation of alternative policy choices. Effective strategies for presenting policy analysis to multiple …
Tag Archives: philosophy of education
semester roundup, fall 2010
Well, things sure have been busy the past couple of months. I’ve gotten off to a solid start in my new PhD program. Here’s a roundup of this semester’s activities, for posterity and just in case anyone is interested (hello, fellowship committee!): Economics of Education: This was a fantastic class. We learned about human capital …
book review: Ivan Illich's "Deschooling Society"
Ivan Illich’s “Deschooling Society” is a classic in the alternative education scene, so I had been meaning to read it for ages and finally did. The book has seven shortish chapters, and is a pretty quick read. The first chapter, “Why We Must Disestablish School,” is very clearly the strongest one. Illich argues that institutionalized schooling …
what's in a name? - labels and tracking
Yesterday, I discussed the issue of whether work-related language is appropriate for describing learning. Here’s another language in education controversy that has made it into the news lately: ‘At hope’ kids better than ‘at risk’?: Washington state lawmaker wants to banish negative labels The bill is motivated by the good-hearted desire for disadvantaged children to …
the work of learning
Recently, Alfie Kohn tweeted an older article of his, “Students Don’t ‘Work’ — They Learn.” Sounded interesting, so I went and read it. Kohn’s main point is that work-related language encourages thinking about education in ways that are detrimental to student learning. This work-related language pervades education discourse — “homework,” “seat work,” “get to work,” “classroom …
