JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocenc... more JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocence edited by Deron Boyles ... THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH This One IIIIIIIIIIIII APS1-ACZ-JNEJ ... AC SS Adolescent Cultures, School & Society Joseph L. DeVitis & ...
I wish to pick up where Terri Wilson ends in an effort to further problematize Arendt's notions o... more I wish to pick up where Terri Wilson ends in an effort to further problematize Arendt's notions of the public, private, and social, particularly as those concepts relate to schools as sites for consumerism. Wilson's nuanced reading and thoughtful interpretation of Arendt will not be repeated here. Instead, and as a way to problematize Arendt's concepts, I wish to challenge and explore an early assertion in Wilson's essay.
does an excellent job of laying out key relationships between consumerism, schooling, and what kn... more does an excellent job of laying out key relationships between consumerism, schooling, and what knowledge counts as valid (or, perhaps more accurately, more valid than other knowledge). Indeed, from the outside looking in, it might appear as though I would not find anything disagreeable in Norris's essay. He rightly indicts corporate interests influencing school policy (I am reminded of the Colorado school superintendent who ordered teachers to let students out of class so they could buy Coca-Cola products in order to meet the sales quota imposed by the exclusive contract he signed), the curricula (for example, the pasta sauce lab experiments from a few years ago that came complete with corporation-written lesson plans for teachers, centered on the burning educational question, is Prego thicker than Ragu?), and perhaps most importantly, the students themselves (who often amass large logo-ridden wardrobes and focus, in the words of Maxine Greene, on "having more rather than being more" 1). Further, by utilizing Jean Baudrillard's notion of simulation, Norris extends the myriad examples of corporate influence on and in schools to include a critique of consumption in a theoretically grounded and philosophically interesting way. My response, then, is merely an effort to extend Norris's work. I seek clarification about what I take to be two unintended outcomes and raise several questions regarding Baudrillard's metaphysics. I start with the unintended outcomes and move to metaphysical questions, essentially working backward through Norris's essay.
In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Lud... more In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Ludwig Wittgenstein asking this question of Bertrand Russell, "Am I a philosopher or am I a complete fool?" 1 Russell told Wittgenstein he was not a complete fool. But Cavell pointed out that there is still a prior question, which is why Wittgenstein asked his question to Russell in the first place, and why Russell was credible to him as an answerer. Cavell's moral was that you'"pick your shots." David Granger picked his shot by enlisting Cavell to help him battle the likes of Taylor, Carnap, Thorndike, Conant, and their current allies fighting on the side of positivism. In the process, Granger very nicely weaves testing, accountability, technology, humanism, and epistemology, into claims and arguments that should help those of us wishing to challenge positivism and the conservative, corporate ideologues who so tirelessly rely on it to establish and maintain power. My response briefly reminds us of some central claims Granger makes. I add a thought or two, then expand on at least one epistemological point in order to underscore Granger's concern regarding certainty and epistemology. Central to Granger's essay is the analysis of positivism, especially as it relates to the current standards movement. By listing Taylor, Carnap, and Thorndike, Granger connects the long history of the social efficiency theorists of the turn of the last century with the current standards movement. Sadly, the historical lesson may be lost on current defenders of the positivist ethos. That Joseph Mayer Rice went in search of replicable "good schools" in 1893 is only mirrored, it seems, in New York Education Commissioner Richard Mills-over a hundred years later. Progressive education suffered under the universalizing claims of Rice qua Taylor, just like the progressive independent schools in New York appear to be suffering now. One wonders aloud: "Does anything really change?"
JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocenc... more JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocence edited by Deron Boyles ... THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH This One IIIIIIIIIIIII APS1-ACZ-JNEJ ... AC SS Adolescent Cultures, School & Society Joseph L. DeVitis & ...
As Tibor Solymosi recently pointed out, there appear to be "neurophiles" who are proclaiming neur... more As Tibor Solymosi recently pointed out, there appear to be "neurophiles" who are proclaiming neuroscience as so wonderfully revolutionary as to make it on par with steam engines, electricity, and iPads. 1 On this view, we only stand to benefit from the work of neuroscientists who unlock the puzzles of the human brain. Zack Lynch proclaims, "'neurosociety's' … arrival is both inevitable and already in progress.… It will be nothing less than the birth of a new civilization." 2 Once we piece together how alleles, synapses, and frontal cortexes function, in other words, we can solve the mysteries Tom Wolfe once noted as "the riddle of the human mind and the riddle of what happens to the human mind when it comes to know itself absolutely." 3 For education, "Mind-Brain Education" (MBE) advocates are already publishing research that trumpets which brain functions are most important for success in school, how to identify the parts of the brain "responsible" for those functions, and what models and strategies exist for "maximizing" brain control for increased success in learning. 4
European Journal of Educational Technology, Dec 30, 2022
The authors examine the functions of online proctoring services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Che... more The authors examine the functions of online proctoring services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cheating itself is then examined using a four-part question from Martin Heidegger's lecture What is Called Thinking? Aspects of this analysis include the historical conceptions of cheating and the environmental factors that lead to cheating. The authors determine that cheating is a response to the inauthenticity of schooling, as well as to the anxiety that accompanies modern conceptions of time. They conclude that learning is the existential call of responsibility for one's being, and that a re-conception of education based on Heidegger's conception of being and time would negate the incentives to cheat.
Analyzes and critiques several aspects of recent U. S. laws which favor certain definitions of sc... more Analyzes and critiques several aspects of recent U. S. laws which favor certain definitions of scientific educational research; provides in-depth philosophical analysis and arguments on this and other topics such as Dewey\u27s ideas on educational research, doctoral training in educational research, governing through science, and the grants culture in educational research
In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Lud... more In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Ludwig Wittgenstein asking this question of Bertrand Russell, "Am I a philosopher or am I a complete fool?" 1 Russell told Wittgenstein he was not a complete fool. But Cavell pointed out that there is still a prior question, which is why Wittgenstein asked his question to Russell in the first place, and why Russell was credible to him as an answerer. Cavell's moral was that you'"pick your shots." David Granger picked his shot by enlisting Cavell to help him battle the likes of Taylor, Carnap, Thorndike, Conant, and their current allies fighting on the side of positivism. In the process, Granger very nicely weaves testing, accountability, technology, humanism, and epistemology, into claims and arguments that should help those of us wishing to challenge positivism and the conservative, corporate ideologues who so tirelessly rely on it to establish and maintain power. My response briefly reminds us of some central claims Granger makes. I add a thought or two, then expand on at least one epistemological point in order to underscore Granger's concern regarding certainty and epistemology. Central to Granger's essay is the analysis of positivism, especially as it relates to the current standards movement. By listing Taylor, Carnap, and Thorndike, Granger connects the long history of the social efficiency theorists of the turn of the last century with the current standards movement. Sadly, the historical lesson may be lost on current defenders of the positivist ethos. That Joseph Mayer Rice went in search of replicable "good schools" in 1893 is only mirrored, it seems, in New York Education Commissioner Richard Mills-over a hundred years later. Progressive education suffered under the universalizing claims of Rice qua Taylor, just like the progressive independent schools in New York appear to be suffering now. One wonders aloud: "Does anything really change?"
Jerry Kirkpatrick\u27s new book, Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free... more Jerry Kirkpatrick\u27s new book, Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education, presents a provocative synthesis of the educational philosophies of Maria Montessori and John Dewey, with the economic philosophies of Ayn Rand and Ludwig Von Mises. At the center of Kirkpatrick\u27s thesis is the belief that public education be subject to a free market model. Kirkpatrick holds that students would thrive in an educational system free from all forms of coercion; something he believes can only be accomplished in a free market educational system that is not bound by government intervention. He borrows from Ayn Rand in arguing that only the individual matters and that all forms of imposed authority, including compulsory, state-run education, need to be abolished
This paper is a representational conversation between the authorsa social foundations professor a... more This paper is a representational conversation between the authorsa social foundations professor and a leadership professor- regarding a leadership program in which both faculty members teach. Tensions between social foundations and leadership have historically been characterized by different interpretations (or narratives) of scholarship, student roles, and resulting course content. Where foundations courses often explore interpretive- sometimes unanswerable- theoretical questions, leadership courses, in their traditional variety, explore answerable, practical questions. This "conversation" intends to show how even when disparate historical contexts are mediated, shared ideas between social foundations and leadership faculty still face challenges. The challenges asserted here are, in part, due to traditions within the school spheres from which leadership students come and a resulting hegemony as a byproduct of those spheres. To be clear, when foundations and leadership fac...
The purpose of this paper is to argue that however impressive and useful its results, neuroscienc... more The purpose of this paper is to argue that however impressive and useful its results, neuroscience alone does not provide a complete theory of mind. We specifically enlist John Dewey to help dispel the notion that the mind is the brain. In doing so, we explore functionalism to clarify Dewey’s modified functionalist stance (biological psychology) and argue for avoiding “the mereological fallacy.” Mereology (from the Greek μερος, “part”) is the study of part-whole relations. The mereological fallacy arises from confusing the properties of a necessary subfunction with the properties that derive from the unity of the whole functional coordination. We conclude that the mind is a complex distributed biologicalsociocultural function that is not simply located anywhere and, therefore, is not completely in the possession of any one (person, place, or thing): it occurs wherever it has consequences.
JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocenc... more JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocence edited by Deron Boyles ... THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH This One IIIIIIIIIIIII APS1-ACZ-JNEJ ... AC SS Adolescent Cultures, School & Society Joseph L. DeVitis & ...
I wish to pick up where Terri Wilson ends in an effort to further problematize Arendt's notions o... more I wish to pick up where Terri Wilson ends in an effort to further problematize Arendt's notions of the public, private, and social, particularly as those concepts relate to schools as sites for consumerism. Wilson's nuanced reading and thoughtful interpretation of Arendt will not be repeated here. Instead, and as a way to problematize Arendt's concepts, I wish to challenge and explore an early assertion in Wilson's essay.
does an excellent job of laying out key relationships between consumerism, schooling, and what kn... more does an excellent job of laying out key relationships between consumerism, schooling, and what knowledge counts as valid (or, perhaps more accurately, more valid than other knowledge). Indeed, from the outside looking in, it might appear as though I would not find anything disagreeable in Norris's essay. He rightly indicts corporate interests influencing school policy (I am reminded of the Colorado school superintendent who ordered teachers to let students out of class so they could buy Coca-Cola products in order to meet the sales quota imposed by the exclusive contract he signed), the curricula (for example, the pasta sauce lab experiments from a few years ago that came complete with corporation-written lesson plans for teachers, centered on the burning educational question, is Prego thicker than Ragu?), and perhaps most importantly, the students themselves (who often amass large logo-ridden wardrobes and focus, in the words of Maxine Greene, on "having more rather than being more" 1). Further, by utilizing Jean Baudrillard's notion of simulation, Norris extends the myriad examples of corporate influence on and in schools to include a critique of consumption in a theoretically grounded and philosophically interesting way. My response, then, is merely an effort to extend Norris's work. I seek clarification about what I take to be two unintended outcomes and raise several questions regarding Baudrillard's metaphysics. I start with the unintended outcomes and move to metaphysical questions, essentially working backward through Norris's essay.
In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Lud... more In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Ludwig Wittgenstein asking this question of Bertrand Russell, "Am I a philosopher or am I a complete fool?" 1 Russell told Wittgenstein he was not a complete fool. But Cavell pointed out that there is still a prior question, which is why Wittgenstein asked his question to Russell in the first place, and why Russell was credible to him as an answerer. Cavell's moral was that you'"pick your shots." David Granger picked his shot by enlisting Cavell to help him battle the likes of Taylor, Carnap, Thorndike, Conant, and their current allies fighting on the side of positivism. In the process, Granger very nicely weaves testing, accountability, technology, humanism, and epistemology, into claims and arguments that should help those of us wishing to challenge positivism and the conservative, corporate ideologues who so tirelessly rely on it to establish and maintain power. My response briefly reminds us of some central claims Granger makes. I add a thought or two, then expand on at least one epistemological point in order to underscore Granger's concern regarding certainty and epistemology. Central to Granger's essay is the analysis of positivism, especially as it relates to the current standards movement. By listing Taylor, Carnap, and Thorndike, Granger connects the long history of the social efficiency theorists of the turn of the last century with the current standards movement. Sadly, the historical lesson may be lost on current defenders of the positivist ethos. That Joseph Mayer Rice went in search of replicable "good schools" in 1893 is only mirrored, it seems, in New York Education Commissioner Richard Mills-over a hundred years later. Progressive education suffered under the universalizing claims of Rice qua Taylor, just like the progressive independent schools in New York appear to be suffering now. One wonders aloud: "Does anything really change?"
JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocenc... more JL. JUL.., i, THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocence edited by Deron Boyles ... THE CORPORATE ASSAULT on YOUTH This One IIIIIIIIIIIII APS1-ACZ-JNEJ ... AC SS Adolescent Cultures, School & Society Joseph L. DeVitis & ...
As Tibor Solymosi recently pointed out, there appear to be "neurophiles" who are proclaiming neur... more As Tibor Solymosi recently pointed out, there appear to be "neurophiles" who are proclaiming neuroscience as so wonderfully revolutionary as to make it on par with steam engines, electricity, and iPads. 1 On this view, we only stand to benefit from the work of neuroscientists who unlock the puzzles of the human brain. Zack Lynch proclaims, "'neurosociety's' … arrival is both inevitable and already in progress.… It will be nothing less than the birth of a new civilization." 2 Once we piece together how alleles, synapses, and frontal cortexes function, in other words, we can solve the mysteries Tom Wolfe once noted as "the riddle of the human mind and the riddle of what happens to the human mind when it comes to know itself absolutely." 3 For education, "Mind-Brain Education" (MBE) advocates are already publishing research that trumpets which brain functions are most important for success in school, how to identify the parts of the brain "responsible" for those functions, and what models and strategies exist for "maximizing" brain control for increased success in learning. 4
European Journal of Educational Technology, Dec 30, 2022
The authors examine the functions of online proctoring services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Che... more The authors examine the functions of online proctoring services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cheating itself is then examined using a four-part question from Martin Heidegger's lecture What is Called Thinking? Aspects of this analysis include the historical conceptions of cheating and the environmental factors that lead to cheating. The authors determine that cheating is a response to the inauthenticity of schooling, as well as to the anxiety that accompanies modern conceptions of time. They conclude that learning is the existential call of responsibility for one's being, and that a re-conception of education based on Heidegger's conception of being and time would negate the incentives to cheat.
Analyzes and critiques several aspects of recent U. S. laws which favor certain definitions of sc... more Analyzes and critiques several aspects of recent U. S. laws which favor certain definitions of scientific educational research; provides in-depth philosophical analysis and arguments on this and other topics such as Dewey\u27s ideas on educational research, doctoral training in educational research, governing through science, and the grants culture in educational research
In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Lud... more In an interview with Harry Kreisler at Berkeley, Stanley Cavell recounted the famous story of Ludwig Wittgenstein asking this question of Bertrand Russell, "Am I a philosopher or am I a complete fool?" 1 Russell told Wittgenstein he was not a complete fool. But Cavell pointed out that there is still a prior question, which is why Wittgenstein asked his question to Russell in the first place, and why Russell was credible to him as an answerer. Cavell's moral was that you'"pick your shots." David Granger picked his shot by enlisting Cavell to help him battle the likes of Taylor, Carnap, Thorndike, Conant, and their current allies fighting on the side of positivism. In the process, Granger very nicely weaves testing, accountability, technology, humanism, and epistemology, into claims and arguments that should help those of us wishing to challenge positivism and the conservative, corporate ideologues who so tirelessly rely on it to establish and maintain power. My response briefly reminds us of some central claims Granger makes. I add a thought or two, then expand on at least one epistemological point in order to underscore Granger's concern regarding certainty and epistemology. Central to Granger's essay is the analysis of positivism, especially as it relates to the current standards movement. By listing Taylor, Carnap, and Thorndike, Granger connects the long history of the social efficiency theorists of the turn of the last century with the current standards movement. Sadly, the historical lesson may be lost on current defenders of the positivist ethos. That Joseph Mayer Rice went in search of replicable "good schools" in 1893 is only mirrored, it seems, in New York Education Commissioner Richard Mills-over a hundred years later. Progressive education suffered under the universalizing claims of Rice qua Taylor, just like the progressive independent schools in New York appear to be suffering now. One wonders aloud: "Does anything really change?"
Jerry Kirkpatrick\u27s new book, Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free... more Jerry Kirkpatrick\u27s new book, Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education, presents a provocative synthesis of the educational philosophies of Maria Montessori and John Dewey, with the economic philosophies of Ayn Rand and Ludwig Von Mises. At the center of Kirkpatrick\u27s thesis is the belief that public education be subject to a free market model. Kirkpatrick holds that students would thrive in an educational system free from all forms of coercion; something he believes can only be accomplished in a free market educational system that is not bound by government intervention. He borrows from Ayn Rand in arguing that only the individual matters and that all forms of imposed authority, including compulsory, state-run education, need to be abolished
This paper is a representational conversation between the authorsa social foundations professor a... more This paper is a representational conversation between the authorsa social foundations professor and a leadership professor- regarding a leadership program in which both faculty members teach. Tensions between social foundations and leadership have historically been characterized by different interpretations (or narratives) of scholarship, student roles, and resulting course content. Where foundations courses often explore interpretive- sometimes unanswerable- theoretical questions, leadership courses, in their traditional variety, explore answerable, practical questions. This "conversation" intends to show how even when disparate historical contexts are mediated, shared ideas between social foundations and leadership faculty still face challenges. The challenges asserted here are, in part, due to traditions within the school spheres from which leadership students come and a resulting hegemony as a byproduct of those spheres. To be clear, when foundations and leadership fac...
The purpose of this paper is to argue that however impressive and useful its results, neuroscienc... more The purpose of this paper is to argue that however impressive and useful its results, neuroscience alone does not provide a complete theory of mind. We specifically enlist John Dewey to help dispel the notion that the mind is the brain. In doing so, we explore functionalism to clarify Dewey’s modified functionalist stance (biological psychology) and argue for avoiding “the mereological fallacy.” Mereology (from the Greek μερος, “part”) is the study of part-whole relations. The mereological fallacy arises from confusing the properties of a necessary subfunction with the properties that derive from the unity of the whole functional coordination. We conclude that the mind is a complex distributed biologicalsociocultural function that is not simply located anywhere and, therefore, is not completely in the possession of any one (person, place, or thing): it occurs wherever it has consequences.
This volume makes a philosophical contribution to the application of neuroscience in education. I... more This volume makes a philosophical contribution to the application of neuroscience in education. It frames neuroscience research in novel ways around educational conceptualizing and practices, while also taking a critical look at conceptual problems in neuroeducation and at the economic reasons driving the mind-brain education movement. It offers alternative approaches for situating neuroscience in educational research and practice, including non-reductionist models drawing from Dewey and phenomenological philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty.
The volume gathers together an international bevy of leading philosophers of education who are in a unique position to contribute conceptually rich and theoretically framed insight on these new developments. The essays form an emerging dialogue to be used within philosophy of education as well as neuroeducation, educational psychology, teacher education and curriculum studies.
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The volume gathers together an international bevy of leading philosophers of education who are in a unique position to contribute conceptually rich and theoretically framed insight on these new developments. The essays form an emerging dialogue to be used within philosophy of education as well as neuroeducation, educational psychology, teacher education and curriculum studies.