Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching

Power of minute Theory for cock-a-hoop Learning and TeachingUnmasking Power Stephen Brookfield in the Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching, OUP Maidenhead 2005Brookfields chapter on the unmasking of business leader leads him immediately to consideration of the French theorist, Michel Foucault, by whom he was first introduced to the image of regimes of truth the types of discourse which it (society) accepts and makes function as true (Foucault). Regimes of truth turn to lull teachers into believing they are operating in a berth free setting. Brookfield uses Foucaults description of origin to explore the paradox that apparently emancipatory great(p) tuition practices faecal matter contain oppressive dimensions.Brookfield rebrands Foucault as a vital theorist on two grounds, firstly that he focuses, in a Marxian fashion, on how existing power relations reproduce themselves and secondly, that he is self-critical close his own theoretical formulations of po wer. I quote Marx without saying so. (Foucault). However, Foucault did non chance upon power only as being imposed from above by a dominant elite. Using the analogy of the connections made by synapses, power is seen as flowing by dint ofout the social body. We are all interested in the exercise of power, even we do not believe we sustain it.Fundamental to Foucaults analysis of power is the humor of disciplinary power which is malevolently attentive to our every move and which is constantly exercised by means of surveillance exemplified by a panopticon.Brookfield balances this analysis of power with what Foucault sees as its necessary corollary, resistance. manage power, resistance seat be found in multiple places and posterior be integrated in global strategies. One example disposed of this is how oppositional groups can use the internet to organise effectively. Foucault himself was deeply involved in contravening the status quo because he believed in essence that theory is practice.Looking at the world we now inhabit, it is clear that the all-seeing operation control centres in impudently prisons are replicated in many other areas of our lives including education, social services and plumpplaces. Foucaults belief that surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action, strikes a very sombre chord, particularly as we are voluntarily submitting ourselves, more and more, to such surveillance through the use of social media. Images and comments from decades ago can be retrieved with ease. We may have moved on, but what we did or say is frozen in time, ready to be immediately defrosted at a touch of a search button. Within education, opportunities for asynchronous scholarship through virtual learning environments can in fact be holy weapons of surveillance used to assess the apparent engagement of the learner with the materials provided.The idea that we can derive pleasure from disciplining ourselves is disturbing , but it rings true. Brookfield makes an association amid this and Gramscis notion of most peoples willingness happily to embrace ideas, value and interests which actually work against our freedom. Brookfield applies Foucaults ideas across a number of staple items in the heavy(a) educators toolkit learning journals, learning contracts and discussion groups, and shows how such techniques, which we adopt unquestioningly, can inadvertently beef up the discriminatory practices we seek to challenge.The effect of disciplinary power on education resonated with me. Far from the mutuality that pervades the relationship of a voluntary tutor with a 11 student or the collaborative learning in small groups, the drive for perpetual assessment and indicative content of courses drives tutors to keep apart individual projects so that collaborative projects are seen as a derived diversion of the intellectually weak. Similarly the discrete tests which make up the awards agreement serve technolog ical rather than educational ends. That simply is not the instruction learning happens.Brookfields example of changing seating practices made an impression on me. Despite the unquestioning belief on the part of many adult educators that it has an equalising effect, in fact such actions do not magically do away with power, but rather displace it and reconfigure it. Circular seating can be intimidating, too open and too exposed and thus not necessarily less oppressive.Word count 653