p-out

Stance

My motives for taking ORLD 5815, Critical Theory & Adult Learning,
are not easy admissions for me.

Watchmen, Chapter V: Fearful Symmetry

An example must suffice:

The authority to sponsor an apprenticeship program in New York lies not with the Regents, but the Department of Labor. For example, the Industrial Commissioner of the NY DOL registered the NYC Electricians apprenticeship program in 1943.

Praxis

ORLD 5815 ended on November 10th. Nov 18, 2023 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) I led a Digital Literacy Professional Development Zoom session for my fellow members of the UFT’s CWE chapter.

Texts

this process of differentiation and specialization has taken place chaotically, without clear and precise principles, without a well thought out and consciously fixed plan.

, The Organization of Education and Culture

I opened with a questionnaire “UFT-CWE Learning Community” Padlet that confirmed this “organic crisis.”

I had a followup Padlet, “the first thing I think of when I hear, ‘standards’ is”

I think it’s fair to say my learning community doesn’t think much of them.

How can my learning community gain digital literacy skills across such disparate content areas? Gramsci imagines a “creative school,” where original, spontaneous methods of research can be pursued in seminars, libraries and laboratories.

I’m not one of those who try to elicit the effects of power at the level of ideology. Indeed I wonder whether, before one poses the question of ideology, it wouldn’t be more materialistic to study first the question of the body and the effects of power on it. Because what troubles me with these analyses which prioritise ideology is that there is always presupposed a human subject on the lines of the model provided by classical philosophy, endowed with a consciousness which power is then thought to seize on. …It was on the basis of power over the body that a physiological, organic knowledge of it became possible.

, Body/Power

Simply building labs for our members to explore digital literacy won’t work, because of “biopower.”

From any standard or rubric, I think its fair to say the PD failed its objectives. One data point: I spent 5 minutes troubleshooting why a member could see the box on her screen, but could not type into it. Handing the problem off to a fellow member, he saw the problem, she was trying to click into the Zoom shared screen.

In consultative situations stakeholders treat each other as allies or misguided foes. No enemies exist here. The parties know and trust each other; their common interests vastly outweigh conflicting ones; and interactants work in mutually supportive ways. The injuries inflicted in such situations are unintended, and relatively inconsequential—resulting truly from mistakes, ineptitude, neuroses, and such like. Consultative situations demand consultative strategies and tactics—non-coercive, communicative actions in which information and resources are freely shared between and among stakeholders.

It is in the spirit of consultation, that I offer the Post Training Satisfaction Survey. From it, perhaps, we can extend our language of Digital Literacy which in turn will do the same for our DL skills.

Gramsci was prescient in seeing our “organic crisis.” Coupled to it is our resistance to using technology as a medium for our andragogy. We, members of the UFT-CWE chapter, should keep in mind that we all have the same interests in ensuring that all of us remain viable workforce development instructors as our trade is digitized.