Archive for April 24th, 2008
Statement of Pedagogy
Statement of Pedagogy
One of the most mysterious of semi-speculations is, one would suppose, that of one Mind imagining another.
John Keats – note on his copy of Paradise Lost, 1.59-94
Cognition as Specter: Towards Pedagogy
I break a sweat attempting to articulate the praxis/making of the collective classroom mind. Yet, everything I do within the territory of the classroom is a conscious effort towards these felt moments of cognition. I want to see established ideas break down under the pressures of a shared analysis and in their remains, an immediate forging of something that integrates remnant philosophies and hard-won facts with present meditations and experience. These felt experiences of cognition are a phenomenon of sorts, specters that float between mouth and mind, between teacher and taught.
How can one instigate this act of knowing anew? There are a number of ways. One is to make ‘unholy unions’ of intra and extra disciplinary texts, that is, to create a syllabus that combines science, history, aesthetics, performance, literature, and the material objects that surround us. Another tactic is to vary students’ means of production: spoken discourse will give way to a speculative written response which will give way to a visual reinterpretation which will transform itself into a critical analysis. An alternating but strenuous process has the potential to push the mind into both unexpected and lovely places.
Yet it is not enough to employ clever assignments, intellectually engaging lectures, and in-class exercises. An ecology of risk and trust must be developed within the classroom. The student must be willing to expose their ideas to the scrutiny of both fellow students and the teacher. This should ultimately manifest itself in the student’s increased ability to take intellectual and aesthetic chances within the form pursued and intellectual risks during the spoken discussion. Complex and inventive thought is dependent on multi-party dialogue and generosity of spirit, that is not hierarchical but shared.
A bookmobile is approached by boat in the swamps of Louisiana.
