Papers by Mordechai Gordon
This essay diverges from the majority of articles on Heart of Darkness in some important ways. Fi... more This essay diverges from the majority of articles on Heart of Darkness in some important ways. First, Mordechai Gordon offers a literal interpretation of Conrad's novella, one that maintains fidelity to the text itself rather than to his own feelings about the merits or deficiencies of this work. More importantly, the aim in this essay is not to analyze Conrad's intentions in Heart of Darkness since the author's true intentions are often hidden from the reader. Instead, Gordon's goal is to explore the fascination that readers of Heart of Darkness seem to have with the literary character of Kurtz. In effect, this essay attempts to provide an answer to a simple question: what makes Kurtz so intriguing to readers of Conrad's novella? Gordon argues that Kurtz possesses at least four characteristics that help make him so attractive to his readers: eloquent, charismatic, enigmatic, and hollow at the core.
Action in Teacher Education, 2011
ABSTRACT This article examines one attempt to empower teacher candidates to become researchers in... more ABSTRACT This article examines one attempt to empower teacher candidates to become researchers in their own classrooms through an integrated research course sequence in the Masters of Arts in teaching program at Quinnipiac University. The author first outlines a number of teacher education programs that have shown some success in preparing new teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills to engage in action-based teacher research. The author then describes the three-semester research course sequence at Quinnipiac while highlighting what students learn and are expected to do in each semester. The author analyzes the surveys and interviews he conducted with some recent graduates of this program who reported that they had already began doing action research in their own classrooms, while highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the research course sequence. The final part of this article discusses some implications that can be gleaned from this example of those teacher education programs that are attempting to cultivate teacher-researchers.
Philosophy of Education
attempt to demonstrate that books that are taught cannot speak and that, therefore, educators sho... more attempt to demonstrate that books that are taught cannot speak and that, therefore, educators should reconsider the ageless pedagogical method of choosing and then teaching books that they want their students to learn. In order to provide support for their assertion that the taught book cannot speak for itself, Bingham and his coauthors ("the authors") first draw on Plato's discussion of writing in the dialogue Phaedrus. They include the following comment by Socrates: Yes, because there's something odd about writing, Phaedrus, which makes it exactly like painting. The offspring of painting stand there as if alive, but if you ask them a question they maintain an aloof silence. It's the same with written words: you might think they were speaking as if they had some intelligence, but if you want an explanation of any of the things they're saying and you ask them about it, they just go on and on forever giving the same single piece of information. Once any account has been written down, you find it all over the place, hobnobbing with completely inappropriate people no less than with those who understand it, and completely failing to know who it should and shouldn't talk to. And faced with rudeness and unfair abuse it always needs its father to come to its assistance, since it is incapable of defending or helping itself. 2
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2012
Abstract A review of the literature in philosophy in the past 20 years indicates that relatively ... more Abstract A review of the literature in philosophy in the past 20 years indicates that relatively little has been written on the connection between friendship, intimacy and humor. This article is intended to begin to address the neglect of this topic among philosophers by focusing on some interesting aspects of the relationship between friendship, intimacy and humor. The author begins his analysis by examining the different types of friendships while highlighting the characteristics of the particular kind of friendship that involves intimacy. The second part of this article discusses the concept of intimacy, which has not received much attention among philosophers. Next, the author takes a close look at the issue of humor while distinguishing it from both joking and laughter. He then moves to the heart of this article, which focuses on the question of: how can humor enhance intimacy in friendship? In the final part of this article, the author briefly outlines some educational implications that can be gleaned from the analysis of the relationship between friendship, intimacy and humor.
Philosophy of Education
Maurice Merleau-Ponty's essay "Cezanne's Doubt" provides the reader a glimpse of what it must hav... more Maurice Merleau-Ponty's essay "Cezanne's Doubt" provides the reader a glimpse of what it must have been like for an artist to live one's life consumed with existential self-doubt. According to Merleau-Ponty, Paul Cezanne, the nineteenth-century French painter, spent about one hundred working sessions on each still life and one hundred fifty on a portrait:
Qualitative Social Work, 2010
This essay seeks to add to a growing body of literature in philosophy of education that focuses o... more This essay seeks to add to a growing body of literature in philosophy of education that focuses on issues of historical consciousness and remembrance and their connections to moral education. In particular, I wish to explore the following questions: What does it mean to maintain a tension between remembering and forgetting tragic historical events? And what does an ethical stance that seeks to maintain this tension provide us? In what follows, I first describe two contemporary approaches to cultivating historical consciousness and advocate for the need to integrate the insights from both these strands rather than choosing between them. Based on some of the insights of Nietzsche, Arendt and other thinkers, I then explore the notion of forgetting while highlighting its educational and moral significance. In order to further explore the moral significance of forgetting, I highlight some of the similarities and differences between forgetting and the virtue of forgiving. Next, I consider the case of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa as a contemporary example of an attempt to strike a balance between remembering and forgetting. I conclude this essay by briefly outlining some of the advantages of an ethic of remembering and forgetting. Keywords Remembering Á Forgetting Á Forgiving Á Historical consciousness Á Education Á Ethics Residents of the town of Newtown Connecticut voted recently to demolish Sandy Hook Elementary School (where 20 children and 6 adults were killed in December of 2012) and build a new school in the same location as well as a suitable memorial on the exact site in which the shooting took place. A Connecticut media outlet reported that ''The plan is to have the school completely disappear by the first anniversary of the shootings and that every effort humanly possible is being made that no trace of the Sandy Hook Elementary
Journal of Teacher Education, 2008
Parker Palmer is correct in his claims that good teaching depends more on the capacity for connec... more Parker Palmer is correct in his claims that good teaching depends more on the capacity for connectedness than on technique and that helping teacher candidates cultivate a strong sense of personal identity is crucial. However, to what extent are Palmer's claims compatible with the various constructivist models of learning that are now prevalent in many colleges of education? Moreover, how are the goals of Palmer's approach integrated with those of constructivism? This essay responds to these questions and negotiates between constructivism and Palmer's educational approach. First the author lays out a predominant constructivist model of teaching and learning. Next, he explores some potential limitations facing constructivism and argues that Palmer's notion of connectedness can help mitigate against some of the shortcomings of constructivism. Finally, the author examines a specific example from an English methods course that represents an attempt to integrate the virtue...
Educational Theory, 2010
In this essay Mordechai Gordon begins to address the neglect of humor among philosophers of educa... more In this essay Mordechai Gordon begins to address the neglect of humor among philosophers of education by focusing on some interesting connections between humor, self-transcendence, and the development of moral virtues. More specifically, he explores the kind of humor that makes fun of oneself and how it can affect educational encounters. Gordon begins his analysis by discussing the nature and purpose of humor in general, while distinguishing it from laughter and amusement. In the next part of the essay, he takes a close look at the characteristics and benefits of the type of humor that we use when we make fun of ourselves. He then turns his attention to exploring the relation between laughing at ourselves, self-transcendence, and a number of moral virtues. The final part of this essay briefly examines what might happen to the quality of educational encounters when teachers become more comfortable with laughing at themselves.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1998
... 3, 1998 239 John Dewey on Authority: a radical voice ... We shall see that Dewey believes tha... more ... 3, 1998 239 John Dewey on Authority: a radical voice ... We shall see that Dewey believes that theconflict between authority and freedom can be reconciled if we view it in light of the collective knowledge and 'organiscd intelligence' gained by the use of scientific inquiry. ...
Educational Studies, 2009
In the past few decades, a constructivist discourse has emerged as a very powerful model for expl... more In the past few decades, a constructivist discourse has emerged as a very powerful model for explaining how knowledge is produced in the world, as well as how students learn.' For constructivists like Joe Kincheloe (2000) and Barbara Thayer-Bacon (1999), knowledge about the world does not simply exist out there, waiting to be discovered, but is rather constructed by human beings in their interaction with the world. "The angle from which an entity is seen, the values of the researcher that shape the questions he or she asks about it, and what the researcher considers important are all factors in the construction of knowledge about the phenomenon in question" (Kincheloe, 2000, 342). Thayer-Bacon (1999) invoke a quilting bee metaphor to highlight the fact that knowledge is constructed by people who are socially and culturally embedded, rather than isolated individuals. To assert that knowledge is constructed, rather than discovered, implies that it is neither independent of human knowing nor value free. Indeed, constructivists believe that what is deemed knowledge is always informed by a particular perspective and shaped by various implicit value judgments. According to Mark Windschitl (1999), constructivism is based on the assertion that learners actively create, interpret, and reorganize knowledge in individual ways. "These fluid intellectual transformations," he maintain, "occur when students reconcile formal instructional experiences with their existing knowledge, with the cultural and social contexts in which ideas occur, and with a host of other influences that serve to mediate understanding" (752). In this view, teaching should promote experiences that require students to become active, scholarly participators in the learning process. Windschitl (1999) goes on to note that "such experiences include problem-based learning, inquiry activities, dialogues with
Education in a Cultural War Era, 2022
Educational Theory, 1999
His primary areas of scholarship are philosophy of education, Hannah Arendt, and democratic educa... more His primary areas of scholarship are philosophy of education, Hannah Arendt, and democratic education.
Philosophy of Education
Staying and working at home during the Coronavirus outbreak gave me a great deal of time to read ... more Staying and working at home during the Coronavirus outbreak gave me a great deal of time to read and reread some critical discourses on truth, power, and democracy. Specifically, during the Spring and Summer of 2020, I examined some writings on truth and democratic pluralism by Michel Foucault and Chantal Mouffe as well as a number of important critiques of these thinkers. Reviewing the writings of Foucault and Mouffe emerged for me because of two parallel discussions that were taking place while we were quarantined at home. On the one hand, was the barrage of misinformation that came out of the daily briefings of the Trump White House, not to mention the conspiracy theories that were perpetuated on various websites and in many social media outlets. On the other hand, was the emergence of a debate among medical experts, national and local leaders, and reporters in the United States about a regime of testing, contact tracing, surveillance of people that were infected, and mandated quarantine. The convergence of these two discourses reinforced my hunch that if I immersed myself in the writings of some critical theorists who have addressed the issues of truth, power and democratic pluralism, I might gain some valuable insights about the crisis of truth in which we are currently living. 1 My intention in this essay is to analyze both the promises and limitations of some critical discourses on power and democratic pluralism in a post-truth era marked by fake news, alternative facts, and misinformation. In what follows, I first explore the significance of Foucault's and Mouffe's discourses on power and democratic pluralism while explaining how each advances our understanding of truth in politics. Next, I focus on how the current phenomenon of post-truth serves to illuminate a major weakness of Foucault's and Mouffe's discourses-their failure to anticipate or adequately
Educational Theory
Inspired by Orwell's chilling account of brainwashing, propaganda, and the obliteration o... more Inspired by Orwell's chilling account of brainwashing, propaganda, and the obliteration of the lines between fiction and truth, Mordechai Gordon attempts to make sense of the phenomenon of lying in politics as a challenge to deliberative civics education. His analysis begins with a detailed consideration of the distinctions Hannah Arendt draws between factual truth, lying, and opinions in several works but with particular reference to her essays "Lying in Politics" and "Truth and Politics." Gordon shows that although Arendt recognized many of the dangers to the vitality of a democracy when the lines that distinguish between facts, lies, and opinions become blurred, she could not have anticipated the extent to which the advent of modern technology and online media would exacerbate this problem in contemporary society. Next, he draws on the theory of deliberative democracy to argue that the lack of a clear distinction between fiction and factual truths serves to undermine the quality of political debates in a democratic society. In the final part of the essay, Gordon discusses the challenges that the advent of fake news organizations and the dissemination of alternative facts as truth pose to deliberative civics education, specifically how the trend of a diminishing space of truth and fact undermines efforts to teach students how to engage effectively and productively in democratic deliberations.
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Papers by Mordechai Gordon