Turning Resistance into Passion for Knowledge with the Tools of Agency: Teaching-Learning about Theories of Evolution for social justice among foster youth

Auteurs

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-795X.2019.e61082

Résumé

We discuss implementing critical-theoretical pedagogy within a collaborative transformative project in a foster care program in the U.S. to showcase the activist role of the educator in providing tools of agency for youth struggling against oppression. This project aimed at enhancing and spurring the residents’ (adolescent boys’) agency through collaborative learning activities. The cornerstone was to explore the ethical-political dimensions of knowledge in connection with the boys’ own thematic universe, thus compelling them to take a stand on social and scientific issues in their own lives, their communities, and the society at large. The topic of evolution was chosen to critically examine erroneous and nefarious assumptions associated with a reductionist version of evolutionary theory that promotes the fallacious and racist, and quite widespread, view that race-based social inequality is biologically determined. This was a view that some boys apparently took up from social discourses and practices in their surrounds. A workshop on evolution led by the first author provided a forum for the boys to discuss their views on such contentious matters as social ranking and presumed inequalities in human potential while confronting outrageous stereotypes about so called “Black inferiority” and whether notions of evolution and human nature support or challenge such views.

 

Bibliographies de l'auteur

Eduardo Vianna, LaGuardia Community College and The Graduate Center - City University of New York

Professor of LaGuardia Community College and The Graduate Center - City University of New York.

Anna Stetsenko, Cuny - University of New York City

Professor of Graduate Center in Cuny - University of New York City

Références

ALLEN, G. E. (2001). Essays on science and society: Is a new eugenics afoot? Science, 294 (5540), 59– 61. Doi: 10.1126/science.1066325.

ARIEVITCH, I. M. (2017). Beyond the brain: An agentive activity perspective on mind, development, and learning. Boston/Rotterdam: Sense.

ARIEVITCH, I. M.; STETSENKO, A. (2000). The quality of cultural tools and cognitive development: Gal'perin's perspective and its implications. Human Development, 43, 69-92.

CHARLESWORTH, W.R. (1992). Darwin and developmental psychology: Past and present. Developmental Psychology, 28, 5-16.

DAVYDOV, V. V. (1990). Types of generalizations in instruction. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

FANCHER, R. (2004). The concept of race in the life and thought of Francis Galton. In A. Winston (Ed.), Defining difference: Race and racism in the history of psychology, (pp. 49-75). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association

FREIRE, P. (1970/2002). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. (Original work published 1970).

GALPERIN, P. Ia. (1989). Study of the intellectual development of the child. Soviet Psychology, 27, 26–44. (Original work published 1969).

GOULD, S. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man (2nd edition). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

HEDEGAARD, M. (1996). How instruction influences children’s concepts of evolution. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3 (1), 11-24.

HOLLAND, D.; LACHICOTTE, W.; SKINNER, D.; CAIN, C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

LAVE, J.; WENGER, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

POLSKY H. W.; BERGER, R. (2003). From custodialism to community. University Press.

POLSKY, H. W. (1962). Cottage six: The social system of delinquent boys in residential treatment. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publisher.

STETSENKO, A. (2018a). Research and activist projects of resistance: The ethical-political foundations for a transformative ethico-onto-epistemology. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2018.04.002.

STETSENKO, A. (2018b). Natureculture in a transformative worldview: Moving beyond the “interactionist consensus.” In G. Jovanovich and C. Ratner (Eds.), The Challenges of Cultural Psychology (pp. 37-57). London: Routledge.

STETSENKO, A. (2018c). Confronting biological reductionism from a social justice agenda: Transformative agency and activist stance. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, & Practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/2381336918787531.

STETSENKO, A. (2017a). Science education and transformative activist stance: Activism as a quest for becoming via authentic-authorial contribution to communal practices. In: L. Bryan and K. Tobin (Eds.), 13 Questions: Reframing Education's Conversation: Science (pp. 33-47). NY: Peter Lang.

STETSENKO, A. (2017b). Putting the radical notion of equality in the service of disrupting inequality in education: Research findings and conceptual advances on the infinity of human potential. Review of Research in Education, 41, 112–135.

STETSENKO, A. (2016). The transformative mind: Expanding Vygotsky’s approach to development and education. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

STETSENKO, A. (2014). Transformative activist stance for education: Inventing the future in moving beyond the status quo. In T. Corcoran (Ed.), Psychology in Education: Critical Theory~Practice (pp. 181-198). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

STETSENKO, A. (2013). The challenge of individuality in cultural-historical activity theory: “Collectividual” dialectics from a transformative activist stance. Outlines - Critical Practice Studies, 14(2), 7-28.

STETSENKO, A. (2012). Personhood: An activist project of historical Becoming through collaborative pursuits of social transformation. New Ideas in Psychology, 30, 144–153.

STETSENKO, A. (2011). Darwin and Vygotsky on development: An exegesis on human nature. In: M. Kontopodis, Ch. Wulf & B. Fichtner (Eds.), Children, Culture and Education (pp.25-41). New York: Springer.

STETSENKO, A. (2010). Teaching-learning and development as activist projects of historical Becoming: Expanding Vygotsky’s approach to pedagogy. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 5(1), 6–16.

STETSENKO, A. (2009). Vygotsky and the conceptual revolution in developmental sciences: Towards a unified (non-additive) account of human development. In: M.Fleer, M. Hedegaard, J.Tudge & A.Prout (Eds.) World Year Book of Education. Constructing childhood: Global–local policies and practices (pp. 125-142). Routledge.

STETSENKO, A. (2008). From relational ontology to transformative activist stance: Expanding Vygotsky's (CHAT) project. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3, 465-485.

STETSENKO, A.; ARIEVITCH, I. (2004). The self in cultural-historical activity theory: Reclaiming the unity of social and individual dimensions of human development. Theory & Psychology, 14 (4), 475-503.

STETSENKO, A.; VIANNA, E. (2009). Bridging developmental theory and educational practice: Lessons from the Vygotskian project. In O.Barbarin and B.H.Wasik (Eds.), Handbook of Child Development and Early Education. Research to Practice (pp. 38-54). NY: Guilford.

WILLINSKY, J. (1988). Learning to divide the world: Education at empire’s end. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

WINSTON, A. S. (2004). Introduction: Histories of psychology and race. In A. S. Winston (Ed.), Defining difference: Race and racism in the history of psychology (pp. 3–18). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

VIANNA, E. (2009). Collaborative transformations in foster care: Teaching-learning as a developmental tool in a residential program. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.

VIANNA, E.; HOUGAARD, N.; STETSENKO, A. (2014). The dialectics of collective and individual transformation. In A. Blunden (ed.), Collaborative Projects (pp. 59-87). Leiden, the Netherlands: Brille Publishers.

VIANNA, E.; STETSENKO, A. (2017). Expanding student agency in the introductory psychology course: Transformative activist stance and critical-theoretical pedagogy. In Obeid, R., et al. (eds.). How We Teach Now: The GSTA Guide to Student-Centered Teaching. http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/

VIANNA, E.; STETSENKO, A. (2014). Research with a transformative activist agenda: Creating the future through education for social change. In J. Vadeboncoeur (ed.), Learning in and across Contexts: Reimagining Education. National Society for the Studies of Education Yearbook, 113(2), pp. 575–602.

VIANNA, E.; STETSENKO, A. (2011). Connecting learning and identity development through a transformative activist stance: Application in adolescent development in a child welfare program. Human Development, 54, 313-338.

Téléchargements

Publiée

2019-12-19

Comment citer

Vianna, E., & Stetsenko, A. (2019). Turning Resistance into Passion for Knowledge with the Tools of Agency: Teaching-Learning about Theories of Evolution for social justice among foster youth. Perspectiva, 37(4), 864–886. https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-795X.2019.e61082

Numéro

Vol. 37 No 4 (2019): Dossiê Retratos da Educação Infantil do/no Campo

Rubrique

Dossiê Retratos da Educação Infantil do Campo

Licence

 Esta revista proporciona acesso público a todo seu conteúdo, seguindo o princípio de que tornar gratuito o acesso a pesquisas gera um maior intercâmbio global de conhecimento. Tal acesso está associado a um crescimento da leitura e citação do trabalho de um autor. Para maiores informações sobre esta abordagem, visite Public Knowledge Project, projeto que desenvolveu este sistema para melhorar a qualidade acadêmica e pública da pesquisa, distribuindo o Open Journal Sistem (OJS) assim como outros software de apoio ao sistema de publicação de acesso público a fontes acadêmicas. Os nomes e endereços de e-mail neste site serão usados exclusivamente para os propósitos da revista, não estando disponíveis para outros fins.

A Perspectiva permite que os autores retenham os direitos autorais sem restrições bem como os direitos de publicação. Caso o texto venha a ser publicado posteriormente em outro veículo, solicita-se aos autores informar que o mesmo foi originalmente publicado como artigo na revista Perspectiva, bem como citar as referências bibliográficas completas dessa publicação.