Following the pattern this blog has established
in presenting, analyzing, and evaluating the main mental constructs Americans
have harbored concerning governance and politics, this posting will review how
critical theory will be presented.
Basically, in dialectic style, the blog will attempt to take on the view
of one who would advocate the construct.
That is, each posting, under the “judging” series, will begin with a reminder: “An advocate of critical theory continues
his/her presentation …”
The thing is, this blogger, as with natural
rights, is not an advocate but will try his best to present that view in
positive terms. The “judgments” will
utilize William Schubert’s commonplaces of curriculum, that being subject
matter, teachers, learners, and milieu.[1] Paralleling how these commonplaces have been
used in terms of parochial federalism and the natural rights view, each guides
what this blog will address.
Beginning with subject matter, those
presentations will focus on the morality of critical theory, the discipline of the
social sciences, and the interdisciplinary nature of critical theory. With the category, the “student,” this review
will sustain the subcategories used with natural rights. Those are personal student interests, student
social interests, students’ economic interests, political student interests,
and pedagogic student interests.
And with the category “teacher,” it will be
divided into two subcategories: teacher
effectiveness and teacher knowledge. Finally,
the commonplace “milieu” will direct attention to the expectation of schools,
school’s socioeconomic base, and youth culture.
Those are the areas of interests which the blog will further analyze by
implementing Aristotle’s categories of causation.
That is, specific questions of inquiry will be
derived from those categories, i.e., they will inquire into the state of
affairs, interactions, situational insights, and the capacity to act morally. Stated more descriptively,
·
The state
of affairs refers to the actual conditions found in schools, as opposed to
abstracted or hypothesized relations between factors or variables. Of particular concern will be dilemmas caused
by adherence to critical theory as opposed to another construct.
·
Interactions
refer to social encounters affected by the respective construct.
·
Situational
insights are interpretations of encounters gleaned from analyses of
practice.
·
And capacity
to act morally will be assessments of practices judged according to good
citizenship and social capital.
The reader is warned that these will not be addressed in order and there
will be a good deal of imagination in that critical theory is not that widely
employed in American schools. A lot of
what follows is speculation in the mode of “what would happen if” critical
theory became prominent – an eventuality this blogger does not anticipate.
And by further
introduction to this construct, here are some other broad-based facts regarding
critical theory. To begin, it is not a
predominately political construct. It is
more a sociological one or, better stated, it focuses on society and culture,
but with a determined interest in the power structures a society might have.
In terms of its moniker, it has a bent toward
critiquing how existing power structures function and pointing out that despite
“democratic” processes, power entities ensure its members secure policies that
advance their interests at the cost of those not in power. As such, related study delves into
understanding not only political realities, but also the vast array of human
concerns that help critical theorists determine which social forces are at play
in maintaining power relations.
Along with political science and sociology,
active areas of study include psychoanalysis, history, communication theory,
feminist theory, race theory, and philosophy.
To what end? To secure
understanding that deciphers the nature and cause of subjugated human
conditions, as it utilizes a varied and open approach to seek truth unadorned
by simplistic rationales.
One aim, it seems, is to understand the role that
ideology plays in hampering understanding.
It is adherence to such beliefs systems (capitalism, socialism, fascism,
and the like) that justify ongoing injustices keeping humans down, short of
true liberation. The aim of this view
is, according to Max Horkheimer, “to [achieve] liberated human beings from the
circumstances that enslave them.”[2]
In this vein, the following quote is useful in grasping
the conceptual boundaries of what critical theorists consider justice – or as
Helen Pluckrose refers to it, critical social justice (CSJ) – is:
CSJ holds that knowledge is not objective but is culturally
constructed to maintain oppressive power systems. This is believed to be
achieved primarily by certain kinds of knowledge being legitimised by powerful
forces in society, then being accepted by everyone and perpetuated by ways of
talking about things – discourses.
These oppressive power systems believed to exist and permeate
everything are called things like white supremacy, patriarchy, colonialism,
heteronormativity (assuming that most people are heterosexual), cisnormativity
(assuming that people are men or women depending on their reproductive
systems), ableism and fatphobia. However, it is believed, most of us cannot see
these oppressive discourses and systems because they are just the water we swim
in. The marginalised have a greater ability to see them and so have a greater
competence to define them and point them out. Knowledge is thus tied to
identity and one’s perceived position in society in relation to power – often
referred to as “positionality.”[3]
One current study that amply describes this
sort of mental bondage that transforms into subjugation of the severest form is
found in Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste:
The Origins of Our Discontents.[4] It turns out that casteism functions as an
ideology.
[1] William H. Schubert, Curriculum: Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility
(New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing
Company, 1986). The commonplaces can be
defined as follows:
·
The subject matter refers to the academic
content presented in the curriculum.
·
The teacher is the professional instructor
authorized to present and supervise curricular activities within the classroom
setting.
·
Learners are defined as those individuals attending
school for the purpose of acquiring the education entailed with a particular
curriculum.
·
Milieu refers to the general cultural setting
and ambiance within the varied social settings found at the school site.
[2] Raymond Guess, The Idea of a Critical Theory (Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 2-3.
[3] Helen Pluckrose, “What Do We Mean by Critical Social
Justice, Counterweight (February 17, 2021), accessed March 11, 2023, https://counterweightsupport.com/2021/02/17/what-do-we-mean-by-critical-social-justice/.
British spelling.
[4] Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (New York,
NY: Random House, 2020).
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