“Open source” is one of those concepts that is well-articulated through its phrase. Break it down. The source is the culmination of everyone’s collective discoveries. Open simply means access to everyone. Together, open source means free access and collaboration. It also means transparency, communication, and common goals.
The term and concept originated during the rise of the personal computer and internet. Education is increasingly inseparable from technology. Knowledge is expanding exponentially, due to technology. Academia can incorporate an open source mentality by adopting open source technologies and opensource principles. Education should naturally align with open source principles. Teachers and schools should be facilitating access to skills. What makes open source so powerful, is that money is the biggest barrier to access. Open source can pool knowledge in ways that overcome economic limitations. Open source software can bridge the gap, make modern tools easily accessible, and enable mass collaboration.
In production and development, open source as a development model promotes a universal access via a free license to a product’s design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone. WIKI
If you’re unfamiliar with, or interested in the idea of Open Source software and technology, The Codebreakers is a good way to delve into how open source software has and can assist a social justice agenda. Sharing knowledge and tools freely is the best way to facilitate individual agency. Open source also hinges on the concept of collaboration. Projects are collectively worked on. Anyone’s contribution can be modified by others, everything is shared toward a common goal.
Stories from The Codebreakers include computer and Internet access for school children in Africa, reaching the poor in Brazil, tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos, connecting villages in Spain, and disaster management in Sri Lanka. The documentary also includes interviews from key figures around the world.
That documentary is hosted on Internet Archivehttps://archive.org/, which is one of numerous different educational resources online. Technology and collaboration through the internet can create vast open-source resources.
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, and more.
Raise your hand and ask a question. Everything about school revolves around “The Question”, in every way. School is supposed to be about inquiry– not just to make sure your answer matches the cheat-sheet. But, most classroom questions are contrived. The teacher presents a stimulus, then asks questions looking for specific, pre-determined response. Most curriculum robs students of any agency or control throughout their schooldays. I think the biggest shift in education that could happen, could involve radical participation and inclusion, in a way, what Amanda Palmer describes as “The Art of Asking”.
What could happen if students were asked what they wanted to research? Every human has intrinsic motivation and curiosity. The teacher’s job is to facilitate another’s learning. What could happen if true collaboration happened among peers instead of many of the artificial group projects in action today? The biggest part about asking, for anything: consent.
What if the contrived classroom setting, was transformed into a participatory community with stations for different skills and numerous mentors and peers to ask for guidance? We often insist student go at the pace of their peers, insist on a project at a given time, schedule assignments and projects and– the best, deadlines. If you don’t meet a deadline, you’re penalized, often not encouraged to retry, and excluded.
Amanda Palmer’s talk about “The Art of Asking” can be summed up in:
“I didn’t make them, I asked them.”
Sounds simple, but it’s profound.
How do educator’s encourage and practice inquiry? We live in a mass media world. We need to be teaching independent research, inquiry, and critical thinking, as especially as it relates to our exponentially complex technology.
Standard #5: Innovative Applications of Content (was 4)
The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners incritical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.
connect concepts and use differing perspectives: scaffolding, diversity of artists and content, looking and talking with personal perspectives
critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving: critique, divergent problem solving, visual journal
local/global: big idea, life-centered issues
Standard #6: Assessment (was 8)
The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.
qualitative vs quantitative assessments
student self-reflection
performance based assessments
Standard #8: Instructional Strategies (was 6)
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections: looking and talking, subdisiplines of art field (aesthetics (form and structure, why is it art?), criticism, studio(production)) Art Context= art history/social issues
interdisiplinary, art skills, art context, interpreation crit
Standard #10: Collaboration
The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.
Well, here it is, fellow teachers! This philosophic inventory is the quiz that first helped me to form a philosophy of education. After two years of teaching, I got to take the quiz again and see how my philosophy had changed. Robert Leahy prepared the quiz for Becoming a Teacher: Accepting the Challenge of a Profession, 3d ed. 1995. Not only is the quiz great, but Leahy’s scoring guide gives an overview of six major schools of educational philosophy, and major figures in each school. Take the quiz! (Print it out or jot down your answers on a sheet of paper.)
Professional Reflection
Using a Philosophic Inventory
(Prepared by Robert Leahy for Becoming a Teacher: Accepting the Challenge of a Profession, 3d ed. 1995)
The following inventory is to help identify your educational philosophy. Respond to the statements on the scale from 5 “Strongly Agree” to 1 “Strongly Disagree” by circling the number that most closely fits your perspective.
Strongly Stronglyagree disagree
5 4 3 2 1
1. The Curriculum should emphasize essential knowledge, NOT students’ personal interests.
5 4 3 2 1
2. All learning results from rewards controlled by external environment.
5 4 3 2 1
3. Teachers should emphasize interdisciplinary subject matter that encourages project-oriented, democratic classrooms.
5 4 3 2 1
4. Education should emphasize the search for personal meaning, NOT a fixed body of knowledge.
5 4 3 2 1
5. The ultimate aim of education in constant, absolute, and universal: to develop the rational person and cultivate the intellect.
5 4 3 2 1
6. Schools should actively involve students in social change to reform society.
5 4 3 2 1
7. Schools should teach basic skills, NOT humanistic ideals.
5 4 3 2 1
8. Eventually human behavior will be explained by scientific laws, proving there is no free will.
5 4 3 2 1
9. Teachers should be facilitators and resources who guide student inquiry, NOT managers of behavior.
5 4 3 2 1
10. The best teachers encourage personal responses and develop self-awareness in their students.
5 4 3 2 1
11. The curriculum should be the same for everyone: the collective wisdom of Western culture delivered through lecture and discussion.
5 4 3 2 1
12. Schools should lead society toward radical social change, NOT transmit traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1
13. The purpose of schools is to ensure practical preparation for life and work, NOT to encourage personal development.
5 4 3 2 1
14. Good teaching establishes an environment to control student behavior and to measure learning of prescribed objectives.
5 4 3 2 1
15. Curriculum should emerge from students’ needs and interests; therefore, it should NOT be prescribed in advance.
5 4 3 2 1
16. Helping students develop personal values is more important than transmitting traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1
17. The best education consists primarily of exposure to great works in the humanities.
5 4 3 2 1
18. It is more important for teachers to involve students in activities to transform society than to teach the Great Books.
5 4 3 2 1
19. Schools should emphasize discipline, hard work, and respect for authority and NOT encourage free choice.
5 4 3 2 1
20. Human learning can be controlled: anyone can be taught to be a scientist or a thief; therefore, personal choice is a myth.
5 4 3 2 1
21. Education should enhance personal growth through problem solving in the present, NOT emphasize preparation for a distant future.
5 4 3 2 1
22. Because we are born with an unformed personality, personal growth should be the focus of education.
5 4 3 2 1
23. Human nature is constant – its most distinctive quality is the ability to reason; therefore, the intellect should be the focus of education.
5 4 3 2 1
24. Schools perpetuate racism and sexism camouflaged as traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1
25. Teachers should efficiently transmit a common core of knowledge, NOT experiment with curriculum.
5 4 3 2 1
26. Teaching is primarily management of student behavior to achieve the teacher’s objectives.
5 4 3 2 1
27. Educators should involve students in democratic activities and reflective thinking.
5 4 3 2 1
28. Students should have significant involvement in choosing how they learn.
5 4 3 2 1
29. Teachers should promote the permanency of the classics.
5 4 3 2 1
30. Learning should lead student to involvement in social reform.
5 4 3 2 1
31. On the whole, schools should and must indoctrinate students with traditional values.
5 4 3 2 1
32. If ideas cannot be proven by science, they should be ignored as superstition and nonsense.
5 4 3 2 1
33. The major goal for teachers is to create an environment where students can learn on their own by guided reflection on their experiences.
5 4 3 2 1
34. Teachers should create opportunities for students to make personal choices, not shape their behavior.
5 4 3 2 1
35. The aim of education should be the same in every age and society, NOT differ from teacher to teacher.
5 4 3 2 1
36. Education should lead society toward social betterment, not confine itself to essential skills.
Philosophic Inventory Score Sheet
In the space available, record the number you circled for each statement (1-36) from the inventory. Total the number horizontally and record it in the space on the far right of the score sheet. The highest total indicates your educational philosophy.
Essentialism: 6
Essentialism was a response to progressivism and advocates a conservative philosophic perspective. The emphasis is on intellectual and moral standards that should be transmitted by the schools. The core of the curriculum should be essential knowledge and skills. Schooling should be practical and not influence social policy. It is a back-to-basics movement that emphasizes facts. Students should be taught discipline, hard work and respect for authority. Influential essentialists include William C. Bagley, H.G. Rickover, Arthur Bestor, and William Bennett; E.D. Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy could fit this category.
Behaviorism denies free will and maintains that behavior is the result of external forces that cause humans to behave in predictable ways. It is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific Experiment and observation; behaviorists are skeptical about metaphysical claims. Behaviorists look for laws governing human behavior the way natural scientists look for empirical laws governing natural events. The role of the teacher is to identify behavioral goals and establish reinforcers to achieve goals. Influential behaviorists include B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov, J.B. Watson and Benjamin Bloom.
Progressivism focuses on the child rather than the subject matter. The students’ interests are important; integrated thinking, feeling and doing is important. Learners should be active and learn to solve problems by reflecting on their experience. The school should help students develop personal and social values. Because society is always changing, new ideas are important to make the future better than the past. Influential progressivists include John Dewey and Francis Parker.
Existentialism is a highly subjective philosophy that stresses the importance of the individual and emotional commitment to living authentically. It emphasizes individual choice over the importance of rational theories. Jean Paul Sarte, the French Philosopher, claimed that “existence precedes essence.” People are born, and each person must define himself or herself through choices in life. Influential existentialists include Jean Paul Sartre, Soren Keirkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Gabriel Marcel, Albert Camus, Carl Rogers, A.S. Neill, and Maxine Greene.
The aim of education is to ensure that students acquire knowledge about the great ideas of western culture. Human beings are rational, and it is this capacity that needs to be developed. Cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority of an education worth having. The highest level of knowledge in each field should be the focus of curriculum. Influential perennialists include Robert Maynard Hutchins, Mortimer Adler, and Allan Bloom.
Resconstructionists advocate that schools should take the lead to reconstruct society. Schools have more than a responsibility to transmit knowledge, they have the mission to transform society as well. Reconstructionists go beyond progressivists in advocating social activism. Influential reconstructionists include Theodore Brameld, Paulo Friere, and Henre Giroux.
Prince EA is a brilliant example of the power of spoken word. Words are powerful. We should look to our poets, musicians, and leaders for the words to help inspire humanity.
READING:CONTEMPORARY ART and MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
By Susan E. Cahan and Zoya Kocur
“Millennial Generation, those born between 1978 and 2000, are significantly more progressive than earlier generations” ((4))
“…acceptance of the diversity of human experiences, cultures, and choices. However, we also believe there is a need for continued understanding and action against systemic, institutionalized discrimination and oppression. “((4))
“Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. Ethnocentric individuals judge other groups relative to their own ethnic group or culture, especially with concern for language, behavior, customs, and religion.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism
Multicultural=
ambiguous word because of misapplication
Cultural Pluralism
“various ethnic groups collaborate and dialog with one another without having to sacrifice particular identities and this is extremely desirable” ((5))
OR
Misapplication
“tutti frutti cocktail of cultures” …
“Everything becomes everything else” …
“bankrupt concept of the melting pot” ((5))
The Tsar Cannon, the largest howitzer ever made, cast by Andrey Chokhov
“The term multicultural, as we use it, is an attempt to destabilize thevery structures that elevate one style of art or one group of artists over another and create the linear succession of dominant art styles that make up the historical canon.” ((5))
The canon is Oh-so-Pretty, but it’s time to break the Canon! Multiculturalism more than an art movement (e.g. Impressionism, Pop Art, etc), it is a disruption of the idea of a historical canon and ideas of correct style. Multiculturalism is what can correct ethnocentrism.
“Strategies such as student-centered pedagogy, community involvement in policy-making and governance and equitable distribution of resources in order to increase parity for a range of cultural ethnic and economic groups. ”((5)) It’s time to “Change the power structure… to foster social and political empowerment for all students” ((5))
Pitfalls of the Additive Approach in Multicultural Curriculum
(aka, in my words, the crutch, the afterthoughts)
The additive approach “expands the curriculum without challenging the Eurocentric, patriarchal, and exclusionary biases of the overall framework” ((6))
Additions are made to the traditional canon, often only using the “token”, usually more vanilla types of artists.
Token masters: Georgia O Keefe, Frida Kahlo, etc.
VIDEO: Morgan Freeman on Black History Month on 60 Minutes
“You’re going to relegate my history to a month?”
“Occasionally, tow-way flows of influence are recognized, such as the Portuguese influence on Benin sculpture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but rarely are artistic developments linked with historical and political events, such as colonialism, global imperialism, or the slave trade, which in many cases set the context for cross-cultural interaction” ((6))
“As Brian Bullivant points out, ‘culture’ is not a set of artifacts or tangible objects, but the very way that the members of a particular group interpret, use, and perceive them.” ((7))
“students become more aware of their role as cultural interpreters” ((7))
“Many surveys of contemporary art contain a section that clusters artists of color, women, and other groups in a discrete chapter on identity or alternative art. The problem here is not only one of segregation in the guise of integration, but also one of point of view; who decides what is alternative and what is considered the normative center?” ((7-8))
Contemporary Art and Multicultural Ed
Many teachers “are reluctant to introduce their students to anything they may not have mastered themselves” which includes much of our contemporary art ((9)) “The absences of curriculum materials about contemporary art reflects the attitude that the only valuable art is the which has withstood the test of time.” ((9))
Cornel West
“Politics of difference” ((9))
“challenging monolithic and homogenous views of history in the name of diverse, multiple, and heterogeneous perspectives; rejecting abstract, general, and universal pronouncements in the light of concrete, specific, and particular realities; acknowledging historical specificity and plurality.” ((9))
Social Reconstructionist
“Prepares students to become active citizens who fully participate in society”
VIDEO: Theory in Action: Constructivism
Democratizing the classroom discourse
“Students are encouraged to bring their own existing knowledge and experiences into the learning process, lessening the privileging of one dominant ‘voice”. ((10))
Museums and Arts Organizations: Into the Classroom
“defunding of arts in public schools that began in the late 1970s… public school funding for the arts has been in decline, if not in crisis, for nearly twenty-five years” ((10))
“The backlash against multiculturalism and the rise of conservatism in the late 1980s and 1990s, which was made manifest in the culture wars of the 1980s, eventually led to government censorship, elimination of funding at the NEA for individual artists, and attempts to eliminate the NEA itself, all of which created a negative impact on arts institutions that also reverberated in schools.” ((11))
“general trend in education toward standardized testing, which has led to an overwhelming emphasis on achieving quantifiable results in reading, writing, and math at the expensive of learning in other subject areas, including not only art but also history, social studies, and science” ((11))
“evaluations of academic success almost entirely through the standardized measurement of reading and math skills is the2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB)Act signed into law by President George W Bush.” ((11))
“the higher the percentage of low-income students at a school the less likely it is to have an arts teacher and the less likely it is to have the students visiting a museum or gallery, contributing work to an art exhibition, attending or participating in a dance, theater, or concert performance.” ((12))
More low-income students = less likely to have arts teacher, program. This contributes to a deepening racial inequality and income inequality.
“few low-income communities have the ability to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to supplement the budgets of their local schools. Despite the efforts of advocates, it appears that the fight to include and support the arts in every school without regard to the financial resources of parents will remain an uphill battle.” ((12))
Teacher's 3rd Eye 