Ann Chinnery

AESTHETICS OF SURRENDER: LEVINAS AND THE DISRUPTION OF AGENCY IN MORAL EDUCATION

Education has long been charged with the taskof forming and shaping subjectivity andidentity. However, the prevailing view ofeducation as a project of producing rationalautonomous subjects has been challenged bypostmodern and poststructuralist critiques ofsubstantial subjectivity. In a similar vein,Emmanuel Levinas inverts the traditionalconception of subjectivity, claiming that weare constituted as subjects only in respondingto the other. In other words, subjectivity isderivative of an existentially priorresponsibility to and for the other. Hisconception of ethical responsibility is thusalso a radical departure from the prevailingview of what it means to be a responsible moralagent. In this paper, I use jazz improvisationas a metaphor to focus on three interrelatedaspects of ethical responsibility on Levinassaccount: passivity, heteronomy, andinescapability. I then point toward some waysin which reframing responsibility andsubjectivity along this line might offer newpossibilities for conceiving subjectivity andmoral agency in education.

Bridging Policy and Professional Pedagogy in Teaching and Teacher Education: Buffering Learning by Educating Teachers as Curriculum Makers

This essay reviews the three chapters contained in Section D on Teaching Curriculum of The SAGE Handbook, focusing on the relationship of policy to professional pedagogy in teaching and teacher education. It suggests that educating teachers as curriculum makers is key to the connection between policy and pedagogy and the protection of “the practical” space for the development and exercise of professional expertise and judgment so necessary for learning to occur (Schwab, 1969). We use bridging to refer to both the connection between policy and pedagogy and to the act of con-

Revisiting “The Master's Tools”: Challenging Common Sense in Cross-Cultural Teacher Education

According to Kevin Kumashiro (2004), education toward a socially just society requires a commitment to challenge common sense notions or assumptions about the world and about teaching and learning. Recalling Audre Lordes (1984) classic essay, “The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masters House,” I focus on three common sense notions and practices within cross-cultural teacher education that often leave marginalized students bearing the burden of cross-cultural work at the expense of their own learning. Specifically, I critique the assumptions that students ought to share their experiences with others, that they should do so willingly, and that they should tell the truth in these exchanges (whether in reflective journals or in-class discussions). I offer no easy solutions; instead I call for re-examination of the ways in which everyday practices in teacher education risk serving as tools to “keep the oppressed occupied with the masters concerns” (p. 113) as an important step toward social justice in teacher education. Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and our needs. This is an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the masters concerns. Now we hear it is the task of women of Color to educate white women—in the face of tremendous resistance—as to our existence, our differences, and our relative roles in our joint survival. This is a diversion of energies and a tragic repetition of racist patriarchal thought. (Lorde, 1984, p. 113)

Introduction: Section 3 – Revisiting Enduring Educational Debates

Debate is arguably a central aspect of philosophy. There are a number of topics, however, on which the weighing of argument and counter-argument does not reach a final conclusion, but only a temporary settlement before the issue raises itself again. Understanding the historical development of such debates in philosophy of education is crucial to an appreciation of contemporary discussions in the field of education more broadly. They are debates that seem to have been always there and that continue to challenge new developments. Each chapter in Section 3, Revisiting Enduring Educational Debates, situates the debate related to a particular topic, considers its relevance, and highlights how it continues to influence educational theory and practice today.