Bryant Griffith

What Does it Mean to Question

The purpose of this paper is two fold: first, to tease out the meaning inherent in the correlativity of the question and answer process and second, to suggest a philosophical answer to the question “What does it mean to question?” in the context of teacher education. To that end, we want to claim that R.G. Collingwood’s “Logic of Question and Answer” is a valuable tool in filling the gap in scholarship concerning the art of questioning. While research into the activity of teaching often emphasizes the role and effectiveness of questioning, these studies have largely focussed on the strategies and results of the practice of questioning. We argue that they place too little emphasis on making sense of the process itself and that more time should be spent on the Logic of Question and Answer. To accomplish our goal, in Collingwoodian form, we will contextualize an example of how the understanding of the question and answer complex informs the practice of teacher education in the specific area of the Social Studies Methods Course.

Why? Why not?

When I discovered that my mother had saved many of my elementary school report cards, I was shocked for two reasons. First, we had made several major moves and subsequently my mother had thrown out most of our family records without the family’s knowledge. This didn’t seem to be a concern to me at the time. I hadn’t particularly enjoyed growing up and I had spent a great deal of time and energy in distancing myself from it.

Critical Pedagogy for a Polymodal World

Today was an appropriate day to write the last chapter of this book. As I reflect on critical pedagogy and polymodal education, I was reminded, in a very concrete way, of the shifting nature of learning and of the impact that digital technologies have had on our lives. A few hours ago, I went to a meeting on the other side of my university’s campus.

The Liquidity of Teaching

While we believe that an appropriate form of polymodal education involves non technologized practices, digital technologies are a necessary component of learning in the 21st century. Teachers must be effective users of technology, combining functional and critical abilities to become reflective consumers/producers of digital content. Thus, teachers and students can fully participate in the dominant computer culture while avoiding indoctrination into its value systems of consumerism and the technocracy described in chapter one.

Criticity in Chaos

The first chapter of this book included commentary from Wolfgang’s (2013) online article in The Washington Times. The trolling nature of that commentary initiated reflections of popular thinking regarding education. Trolling (2013a, 2013b) in cyberspace is slang for anonymous users starting online arguments by posting inflammatory messages in an online community with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response.

Teaching and Learning in Complex Times

On January 28, 2013, Ben Wolfgang reported in The Washington Times that teachers in Seattle refused to administer standardized tests to their students. This boycott occurred at a divisive time in the educational environment of the United States. On one hand, federal and state governments as well as educational agencies and associations were endorsing the latest version of standardized curriculum in the Common Core State Standards.

Mavericks and Narratives

As discussed earlier, the answers to these and many other related questions lie in the transformation of how we think of ourselves and the world we live in. In very broad and sweeping terms, Western philosophy has used the debate between Plato and Aristotle as its crucible. Knowing what and how and what constitutes necessary or sufficient conditions for proof have revolved around the same presuppositions for almost two thousand years.

Cultural Narrations Veering Towards Coherence

I’ve always been drawn to the conflict between storytelling and the details that seem to almost get in the way; yet I also understand Frank Kermode’s (1980) comment that “Anyone presuming to review works in modern literary theory must expect to be depressed by an encounter with large quantities of deformed prose” (p. 85). I’d make the same claim in regards to most academic writing. In one of his last interviews, Tony Judt (2010) said that he thought his historical writing was boring but that when he wrote normatively he made contact with people.