Radical Pedagogy: The Challenge of Change

GSLL 6806 80 Sec.2

Roger Johnson

March 17/2012

The growing need to solidify and strengthen educational outcomes in our existing societies has become central in today’s learning circles. The world appears to be rotating at a remarkable speed, and information is flowing like never before. In Mark Bracher’s book, Radical Pedagogy, s/he claims that identity plays a major role in the education of both teacher and student, and that there is a greater need for emotional and psychological balance. S/he insists that an identity centered approach is the key, if these emerging trends are to be significant for our well being and our capacity to learn. The affirmation of identity is a phenomenon that is categorically crucial for human growth whether social, political, economical, or personal.

As humans, we have the tendency to lean toward the type of education we have an interest in learning, rather than what is important or significant. In saying that, Bracher makes mention of a quote by Tom Fox who states, "African Americans define themselves, in part, by opposing white culture. And since the white majority dominates schools, to succeed in school is not just irrelevant to economic and social success, it also threatens the social and cultural identity of the successful student…" [inhibiting] "Success in school means joining the opposition threatening their identity as black Americans". I think the fact that white majority dominants schools is a major reason why Black's regress from attaining European academic education. It only stands to reason that the majority will primarily focus on its own knowledge, and understandings, or whatever that majority considers knowledge or education. Rarely do Black's have the educational opportunities to enjoy their enriched histories while attending European educational institutions. I think the exclusion of African American literature, and the lack of cultural understanding and awareness of the Black community, is the precursor preventing Black's from achieving at a high level academically. The fact that Black's view European education as irrelevant to economic and social success, as well as threatening their social and economic identity if academically successful, repudiates the contributions and accomplishments African Americans coherently achieved while sustaining cultural, social, and economic identity. I think cultural identity is only scared when African Americans exemplify Eurocentric education as a means to separate themselves from the African American community.

I also want to discuss Bracher's,
Identity Constriction through Historicism. Bracher states that, "historicism renders members of that identity group vulnerable by tempting them to put all their identity eggs into this one narrative basket". This single identity is typically determined by "gender, racial, national, sexual, etc and produces two negative consequences". Firstly, ones identity is at risk "because if this single investment does not pay dividends in the form of recognition and enactment opportunities in society at large... feelings of frustration, hopelessness, fatalism, meaninglessness, depression, and other passive and depletive states".

Secondly, "it leads people to develop only a very limited number of their various interests and abilities, and attributes and to neglect many others that could bring them greater fulfillment and also produce greater social benefits". I think that historicism has the characteristics of empowering the identity groups but only if the disenfranchised groups receive the benefits promised by identifying themselves as a member of that disenfranchised group. Once access is denied to those who are victimized, "historicism exacerbates some of the very social and psychological problems that it is suppose to ameliorate". If we continue to value historicism as a means to offer disenfranchised groups a feeling of belonging, then there must be a balance of power and authority among those who write the policy. According to Shelby Steele, "the civil rights movement and the more radical splinter groups of the late sixties were all dedicated to ending racial victimization, and the form of black identity that emerged to facilitate this goal made blackness and victimization virtually synonymous".

In relationship to the forces of sociopolitical histories within the context of western society, including the complexity of lifelong learning, I will close with the "assumption behind many of the current programs promoting multiculturalism and cultural diversity". I think "educators believe that historicism produces recognition and acceptance of difference and thus promotes the benign social and political change that those critics aspire to". For me, these concepts are totally dysfunctional and meaningless, because those who implement these concepts exclude themselves from the ideologies they expect to achieve. Multicultural and diversity programs includes all groups with the exception of white European society. That being said, privileged white males determine who should be included as the victims, and what they should do to overcome the feeling of victimization and exclusion. White's do not partake in multicultural, diversity, or affirmative action programs, other than who should benefit at any given time. On the one hand, privileged white's determine the victims, and on the other hand they implement the remedy to alleviate any problems that should arise.

Clearly, Bracher gives a compelling argument of an identity-centered approach. The notion could have positive effects on the academic successes of minority and underachieving students if white's include themselves in the process. In reference to the African American students feeling the sense of inclusion in the classroom, I think discussions must be implemented and strategized over time, rather than from Eurocentric facilitated programs. The issue of race must be taken seriously and collectively; therefore, both of these perspectives must be considered in a well executed planning process, and if utopia is obtained, the outcome will be legitimized.

References

Bracher, Mark (2006). Radical Pedagogy: Identity, generativity, and social transformation.

United States of America: Palgrave MacMillan