This May Not Make Sense...but I'm Sure Going to Try!
This week has been more problematic for me than most. I am trying
to make meaning of our conversations from last week and the array of reading I
have done this week. Starting with with the sense of “self” is what I need to
address in order for me to create further meaning of figurative worlds,
identities, agency and power.
We all have similarities of our “hardware” (the brain) as the basic
of science, but what differs is our ability to store or hold memory. When one
acts upon objects or artifacts, the objects or artifacts are physically there,
but it is the set of actions by a human which modify the objects to their
figurative worlds. A child can receive information from their environment, but
can only begin to create meaning if they are ready for this information to be
added to a memory file-
adding to a file cabinets. .
If we look at the way which we learn, we can observe learning is
provoked by external situations. I do believe “self” exists and we aren’t just
a processor of information, but rather a “self” that uses our figured worlds to
file away information to create meaning when in specific situations (teaching,
school, friends).
Thinking about what artifacts pivot activity, I relate to Gelfuso
and Dennis (2017) study to this idea of equilibrium within figured worlds. If inside
our self, we don’t stop to reflect or bring ourselves to a disequilibrium, then
we are not able to pivot the activity. Without causing some disturbance one cannot
stop to pivot the activity to inform our future.
Figured worlds can also be
constructed through the internal process of egocentrism. Barron (20013)
mentions the awareness of self to others, giving recognition to the
perspectives of “others”. This can lead to awareness of others but also leads a
path to rejection of others.
While many young children/adolescence are situating their identity in a
figurative world, how are these worlds being supported inside the classroom? I connected
much of this week’s reading to an event that happened inside the classroom this
week. Our elementary teachers have created a classroom environment to celebrate
Black History Month:
The children (who are
majority white) have be immersed in conversation with support from their
teachers. One of the teachers is white and one is black and they themselves are
beginning to intertwine their figurative worlds and use it as a force to
embrace identity inside the classroom to expose students to other identities.
Yesterday, they were reading a book with all black princesses and one child
(white) asked why there wasn’t any white princesses in the book? To me this
child is using this artifact to situate her figurative world of only seeing
white in the books she is reading. Was she questioning this because she expects to see white in the book? Or was she asking this because she has created other as a negative in her identity? Then students created self-portraits to
embrace the different identities within our community and examined who they see in theirselves.
I know you all will push me
on this idea of self, but I feel true to the idea that self does exist and outside forces are what help ourselves to make meaning that is important to us. Our figurative worlds are the framework which gives us identity, but under it all we are genetically created as an individual.
Beth,
ReplyDeleteI feel that a state of disequilibrium is necessary when an individual in a figured world wants to resist or influence change within the figured world. I believe it is possible for someone to still be "pivoted" by artifacts but remain within a state of equilibrium. I think Sherry (Gelfuso & Dennis, 2017) is an excellent example of that. The materials (Common Core Standards, the Somebody Wanted But Then graphic organizer, etc.) did cause Sherry to pivot her identity, and possibly even change her. She felt compelled to follow the curriculum map and the materials it recommended. I'm not sure that Sherry was cognizant of her choices, and, sadly, I think may schools and districts almost use this as a way to make sure teachers enact their values. I feel many teachers, especially beginning teachers, trust that the school and the district are making choices for the benefit of the students. I think this figured world of "doing what's right/best" in teaching is a strong and influential figured world with many, many layers of values that teachers have to sort out and understand.
What I think your response did well was show that teachers need to be searching for a state of disequilibrium. That causes teachers to reflect and think about what changes need to happen to truly "do what is right/best" for students. Your example of your students participating in Black History month activities also reinforces the importance for teachers to create disequilibrium in their students learning and to create deliberate spaces for authoring within the classroom.
Your princess book reminded me of the CELT session I attended at NCTE where a classroom teacher did a unit of fairy tales where they replaced the heroine with heroines of color, instead of white, blonde-haired heroines. Like your student, this was very difficult for some of the white girls in the classroom, especially when it came to Rapunzel. So strong was the visual of Rapunzel as being white with long blonde hair, they could not let it go.
~Sarah
Beth, something about your blog made me go back to my blog to check Barton et al.'s (2013) model and I realized the model did not copy and paste from my Google doc. I posted it in a followup blog just a moment ago. I think it was the line "Figured worlds can also be constructed through the internal process of egocentrism" (Watson, 2018) that grabbed me. Barton et al. (2013 discuss how the figured world of science play into both current sense of self and future self(s). They also mention a hybrid space of future self in science formed by the meeting of future self, figured world, space and an interaction of science club and school science. I think this also answers your question about how figured worlds are being supported in the classroom. Barton et al. combined with your post made me better understand that teachers are agents when it comes to identity work and figured worlds. I am pondering, are we the most powerful agents in figured worlds in our classroom?
ReplyDeleteVery thought-provoking ideas. When I read this, "If inside our self, we don’t stop to reflect or bring ourselves to a disequilibrium, then we are not able to pivot the activity. Without causing some disturbance one cannot stop to pivot the activity to inform our future," I paused on it for a while. If you could expand on this further. Who causes the disturbance? You or other identities within the figured world?
ReplyDeleteBeth, thank you for sharing your question about self and self in relation to figured worlds. I believe that your students (pre-school through elementary) are doing some great work on self, identity and positionality and a text like the one you mentioned could serve as a disruption to figured worlds causing students to pivot in one way or another. It's like Sarah shared, "so strong was the visual of Rapunzel as being white with long blonde hair, they could not let it go" - the ability to identify with an image or presentation of one's perceived or imagined self and then the resistance to accepting that others could also have a similar identity is just like Hamad's resistance to identifying as England. England is white and he is not, therefore he is not England. I would venture to argue that for your white students - princesses are white and they are white; therefore a texts failure to depict white princesses does not fit within their world of understanding. It is not that they are against black princesses; it's more of that they had never envisioned them.
ReplyDelete