Robert,
I am a trained teacher (high school), and I did some research into Foucault and education when I was doing my teaching qualification. I have a PhD in political theory and have written some pieces on Foucault in the past, so when I decided to do school teaching (due to lack of opportunities in the academic job market) I tried to incorporate some Foucault into my essays and looked at what was on offer in the Education discipline from that perspective.
To be honest I found the whole lot to be superficial and disappointing. The reason for this I feel is that the problems of Education depts come from their need to produce educators, whereas the general thrust of Foucault's work on discipline etc is to make you question the foundations of the educational project. This results in work on Foucault in the discipline being either very superficial and 'cherry picking' in its approach or, alternatively, in the same marginal position that Marxist education theory is in, of 'critical education studies' that end up doubting the ethical value of education altogether.
There may be some work that doesn't fall in to such broad categories, but I would assume that it tends to be of the type that considers the "late Foucault" as some sort of neo-Kantian attempt to rethink the subject and thus rejects large chunks of Foucault's '70s writings.
Personally I haven't had any experiences as a teacher that have led me to question the radical critiques of education, but I'm forced to sell my labour-power every day ...
DM
On 07/08/2008, at 1:23 AM, Robert Nava wrote:
I am a trained teacher (high school), and I did some research into Foucault and education when I was doing my teaching qualification. I have a PhD in political theory and have written some pieces on Foucault in the past, so when I decided to do school teaching (due to lack of opportunities in the academic job market) I tried to incorporate some Foucault into my essays and looked at what was on offer in the Education discipline from that perspective.
To be honest I found the whole lot to be superficial and disappointing. The reason for this I feel is that the problems of Education depts come from their need to produce educators, whereas the general thrust of Foucault's work on discipline etc is to make you question the foundations of the educational project. This results in work on Foucault in the discipline being either very superficial and 'cherry picking' in its approach or, alternatively, in the same marginal position that Marxist education theory is in, of 'critical education studies' that end up doubting the ethical value of education altogether.
There may be some work that doesn't fall in to such broad categories, but I would assume that it tends to be of the type that considers the "late Foucault" as some sort of neo-Kantian attempt to rethink the subject and thus rejects large chunks of Foucault's '70s writings.
Personally I haven't had any experiences as a teacher that have led me to question the radical critiques of education, but I'm forced to sell my labour-power every day ...
DM
On 07/08/2008, at 1:23 AM, Robert Nava wrote:
Gail,
You are in Education? That's wonderful! I have been looking for other educators who use Foucault in their research/work, but I've had little success. I will definitely read your book! Thank you.
To the list:
How many of you are faculty/researchers in the field of education (K-12 or higher ed.)and use Foucault's concepts/work as your research framework? We should read each others work to better understand how Foucault's work is influencing/impacting our field. Anyone attending AERA and/or the Qualitative Congress? We should meet!
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: foucault-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:foucault-l- bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of gjardine@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 7:26 AM
To: Mailing-list
Cc: Mailing-list
Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] Foucault terms
Hello, Robert
I'm an educator who is fascinated by Foucault and have written a primer
that fits your description, I think. I share my sense of important
questions Foucault seems to be adressing, offer one
description/understanding of some of his important analytic tools and
concepts, and offer extensive pointers for each one as to where you can go
throughout Foucault's writings to read his words about the concept.
The reference for it is:
Gail McNicol Jardine, Foucault and Education. New York: Peter Lang.
It has also been translated into Portuguese.
It is a short book, around 100 pages, and is pure primer so may be
helpful--I hope &:)
Gail Jardine
Robert Nava a écrit :
Hello,Hello
I was wondering if a dictionary exists of the many terms Foucault used
in his work (power-knowledge, governmentality, bio-power, discourse,
etc). I know that a website exists, but I am looking for a more
complete
dictionary with references where the terms come from.
Thank you,
Robert
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there's a book that may interest you though i haven't read it myself:
http://www.amazon.fr/vocabulaire-foucault-Judith-Revel/dp/2729810889
best regards
ben
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