discussion post on critical thinking and ideology
Name: Matthew Smith
Course Department, Number & Title: D524 Power and Voice in Adult Education
Semester & Year Enrolled: Fall 2016
Document: Discussion Post on Critical Thinking and Ideology
I included the final discussion post from a course on power and voice which focused on the relationship between critical thinking and critical theory as well as my understanding of how ideology influences our everyday thoughts and actions for one reason. Namely, each is central to my theme, emancipatory dialogue.
To begin, critical education theory is plainly radical in nature. The same is true of emancipatory dialogue. In fact, the two are inextricably tied. As stated in the artifact, for example, critical theory is a revolutionary path toward oppressed groups reclaiming control of their station. As it stands, the United States is a country in which fables like Horatio Alger are simply not attainable, regardless of individual effort. We are a fractured and caste-based country. As I lay out in the discussion post, American manifestations of ideology are wrapped around capital, country and me. Even those with nothing either buy into the idea success is tied to individual effort or have succumbed to a fate of destitution and struggle. There are exceptions, of course, though the hegemony largely controls everything we do. This course and this post, in specific, brought the bits and pieces I’d recognized in previous courses into focus. It solidified a direct understanding of the political nature of adult education and how my mission in life is to bring power to the oppressed so that we might live in a just society, collectively free of social striations.
I immediately applied what I wrote in my work as a socialist organizer. I went into neighborhoods comprised of individuals with little support and no hope of escaping abject poverty and brought community leaders together to begin the work of changing the reality. We worked on organizing listening sessions across neighborhoods wherein each participant shared experiences of ideology in action (or inaction). We discussed how we might become better at understanding why things are the way they are and what recourse is available. Naperville and Glen Ellyn, IL, for example of both well-off suburbs of Chicago with large immigrant populations. Each community has organizations dedicated to helping such populations. These are led by only a few, however, and weren’t working together. The communities needed to come together if they had any hope of increasing their abilities to create social change. Bringing them together to have a conversation wrapped around empathy, understanding and critical thinking led to the formation of a coalition. We are all now working on a wage initiative in Naperville which will extend into surrounding cities. In the process, I learned much about how others process oppression and what groups can do when they work together. I was not only a facilitator, I was a student. Exactly as it should be with emancipatory dialogue.
I don’t think there is anything I would do differently in the completion of this artifact. My focus was direct and encompassing. That said, the applications of the assignment I completed are decidedly community focused. Moving forward, my goal is to take the lessons and apply them in professional spaces. I need to find a way to instill critical thinking as it relates to emancipation into professional development sessions. Transformative learning focuses on critical thinking and autonomous learners in the workplace with a goal of socially conscious employees. In practice, though, the sessions delivered though human resource development almost universally applies these concepts in the context of efficiency and productivity, not fighting structural oppression in the community.
There is a way to do both.
Course Department, Number & Title: D524 Power and Voice in Adult Education
Semester & Year Enrolled: Fall 2016
Document: Discussion Post on Critical Thinking and Ideology
I included the final discussion post from a course on power and voice which focused on the relationship between critical thinking and critical theory as well as my understanding of how ideology influences our everyday thoughts and actions for one reason. Namely, each is central to my theme, emancipatory dialogue.
To begin, critical education theory is plainly radical in nature. The same is true of emancipatory dialogue. In fact, the two are inextricably tied. As stated in the artifact, for example, critical theory is a revolutionary path toward oppressed groups reclaiming control of their station. As it stands, the United States is a country in which fables like Horatio Alger are simply not attainable, regardless of individual effort. We are a fractured and caste-based country. As I lay out in the discussion post, American manifestations of ideology are wrapped around capital, country and me. Even those with nothing either buy into the idea success is tied to individual effort or have succumbed to a fate of destitution and struggle. There are exceptions, of course, though the hegemony largely controls everything we do. This course and this post, in specific, brought the bits and pieces I’d recognized in previous courses into focus. It solidified a direct understanding of the political nature of adult education and how my mission in life is to bring power to the oppressed so that we might live in a just society, collectively free of social striations.
I immediately applied what I wrote in my work as a socialist organizer. I went into neighborhoods comprised of individuals with little support and no hope of escaping abject poverty and brought community leaders together to begin the work of changing the reality. We worked on organizing listening sessions across neighborhoods wherein each participant shared experiences of ideology in action (or inaction). We discussed how we might become better at understanding why things are the way they are and what recourse is available. Naperville and Glen Ellyn, IL, for example of both well-off suburbs of Chicago with large immigrant populations. Each community has organizations dedicated to helping such populations. These are led by only a few, however, and weren’t working together. The communities needed to come together if they had any hope of increasing their abilities to create social change. Bringing them together to have a conversation wrapped around empathy, understanding and critical thinking led to the formation of a coalition. We are all now working on a wage initiative in Naperville which will extend into surrounding cities. In the process, I learned much about how others process oppression and what groups can do when they work together. I was not only a facilitator, I was a student. Exactly as it should be with emancipatory dialogue.
I don’t think there is anything I would do differently in the completion of this artifact. My focus was direct and encompassing. That said, the applications of the assignment I completed are decidedly community focused. Moving forward, my goal is to take the lessons and apply them in professional spaces. I need to find a way to instill critical thinking as it relates to emancipation into professional development sessions. Transformative learning focuses on critical thinking and autonomous learners in the workplace with a goal of socially conscious employees. In practice, though, the sessions delivered though human resource development almost universally applies these concepts in the context of efficiency and productivity, not fighting structural oppression in the community.
There is a way to do both.
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