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What the Foucault? In defence of theory OR Whatever happened to Lesson Evaluations? @sputniksteve sputniksteve.wordpress.com #rED17
What the Foucault? In defence of theory
OR
Whatever happened to Lesson Evaluations?
@sputniksteve
sputniksteve.wordpress.com
#rED17
“Science without epistemology is—insofar as it is
thinkable at all—primi<ve and muddled.”
(Einstein, 1949 p.683-‐684)
Einstein (1949) “Remarks Concerning the Essays Brought together in this Co-‐opera<ve Volume.” In Schilpp 1949, 665-‐688. From: hQps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/einstein-‐philscience/
EdD Learning & Learning Contexts University of Birmingham
Working <tle: Rise of the Tweacher: Towards a criBcal ontology of
the self Research Ques<ons • RQ1: How does TwiQer operate as a discursive space for teachers and others involved in educa<on?
• RQ2: How has TwiQer shaped educa<onal discourse and prac<ce?
• RQ3: How does use of TwiQer form and reform the Self?
So what?
EdD Learning & Learning Contexts University of Birmingham
Working <tle: Rise of the Tweacher: Towards a criBcal ontology of the self
Main elements: • Foucault’s Mirror – a framing of EduTwiQer
– EduTwiQer as heterotopia – The tweet and the Statement – The Author Func<on
• TwiQer and blogging as Self-‐Wri<ng • The impact of EduTwiQer
-‐ ResearchED -‐ Ofsted and DfE -‐ Individuals, including me
Medicine = Educa<on?
“The Scien<fic Method”
• “… the use of the definite ar<cle ‘The’ in the label ‘‘The Scien<fic Method’’ implies that there is a single method that scien<sts use. But, introductory presenta<ons do not agree in detail on what that one method is and neither have historians and philosophers of science.” (Woodcock, 2014, p.2075)
• Woodcock, B.A. (2014) “The Scien<fic Method” as Myth and Ideal. Science & EducaBon, (May): 2069–209
Science or Sciences
hQps://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=science%2Csciences&year_start=1700&year_end=2014&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cscience%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csciences%3B%2Cc0
Foucault’s Self Wri/ng
“It is well known that Foucault wrote in order to transform himself” (Rayner, 2006, p.27)
• “[wri<ng] offers what one has done or thought to a possible gaze; the fact of obliging oneself to write plays the role of a companion by giving rise to the fear of disapproval and to shame” (Foucault, 1997, p.207)
• “weapon in spiritual combat” (p.208) • “training of the self by oneself” (p.208)
Foucault’s Self Wri/ng
Hupomnemata
Correspondence
Hupomnemata • “a material record of things read, heard, or thought, thus offering
them up as a kind of accumulated treasure for subsequent rereading and medita<on” (Foucault, 1997, p.210)
• “an equipment of helpful discourses” that are “deeply lodged in the soul”, for “the soul must make them not merely its own but itself” (Foucault, 1997, p.210)
• “to capture the already-‐said, to collect what one has managed to hear or read, and for a purpose that is nothing less than the shaping of the self” (p.210).
• “the hupomnemata of the Greco-‐Roman era are not unlike some of the processes we engage with in contemporary social media sites, considering that these sites provide the technology to create digital records of the things we read, hear, or think” (Weisgerber and Butler, 2015, p.1341).
• Cura<ng the Soul: Foucault's concept of hupomnemata and the digital technology of self-‐ care (Weisgerber and Butler, 2015)
Correspondence
• “cons<tutes a certain way of manifes<ng oneself to oneself and to others. The leQer makes the writer "present" to the one to whom he addresses it” (Foucault, 1997, p.215)
• “cons<tutes for the writer a kind of training” (p.215)
• “becomes more capable, in his turn, of giving opinions, exhorta<ons, words of comfort to the one who has undertaken to help him” (p.215)
• “inspector of oneself” (p.219)
Self Wri/ng
Hupomnemata
Correspondence
Self Twee<ng
• “becoming oneself through self-‐care” (Weisgerber and Butler, 2015, p.1353)
• “I tweet therefore I become” (Rayner, 2012a)
So What?
“When researchers do autoethnography, they retrospec<vely and selec<vely write about
epiphanies that stem from, or are made possible by, being part of a culture and/or by possessing
a par<cular cultural iden<ty” (Ellis et al., 2011).
So What?
• “Thus, one’s iden<ty as a teacher is formed by our response to, and opinion of, such things as policy, professional standards, the inspectorate, and emergent en<<es such as the College of Teachers.” – @sputniksteve
• Engagement with and within EduTwiQer – through twee<ng and blogging – could become a powerful CPD tool
Self Wri<ng For Teachers
• Teachers as researchers of their own prac<ce – Cri<cal ontology of the self – Engagement with theory – Informed reflec<ve prac<ce – Autoethnography as professional development – Professional development as autoethnography
References • Ellis, C., Adams, T.E. and Bochner, A.P. (2011) Autoethnography: An Overview. Forum QualitaBve
Social Research Sozialforschung [online], 12 (1). Available from: hQp://www.qualita<ve-‐research.net/index.php/fqs/ar<cle/view/1589/3095 [Accessed 18 July 2017]
• Foucault, M. (1997) “Self Wri<ng.” In Rabinow, P. (ed.) Ethics, subjecBvity and truth. The essenBal works of Foucault, 1954–1984. Volume 1. New York: The New Press. pp. 207–222
• Rayner, T. (2006) Between ficBon and reflecBon : Foucault and the experience-‐book. [online], 36 (1): 27–43. Available from: hQp://download.springer.com.ezproxyd.bham.ac.uk/sta<c/pdf/815/art%253A10.1023%252FA%253A1025166608906.pdf?originUrl=hQp%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Far<cle%2F10.1023%2FA%3A1025166608906&token2=exp=1483100341~acl=%2Fsta<c%2Fpdf%2F815%2Fart%25253A10.102
• Rayner, T. (2012a) Foucault and social media: I tweet, therefore I become [online]. Available from: hQp://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/foucault-‐and-‐social-‐media-‐i-‐tweet-‐therefore-‐i-‐become/
• Rayner, T. (2012b) Foucault and social media: life in a virtual panopBcon [online]. Available from: hQp://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/foucault-‐and-‐social-‐media-‐life-‐in-‐a-‐virtual-‐panop<con/
• Rayner, T. (2012c) Foucault and social media: the call of the crowd [online]. Available from: hQp://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/foucault-‐and-‐social-‐media-‐the-‐call-‐of-‐the-‐crowd/
• Weisgerber, C. and Butler, S.H. (2015) Cura<ng the Soul: Foucault’s concept of hupomnemata and the digital technology of self-‐care. InformaBon CommunicaBon and Society [online], 4462 (August): 1340–1355. Available from: hQps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-‐s2.0-‐84945206352&partnerID=40&md5=d99bb9b799ba81405b0f6501177d5766
• Woodcock, B.A. (2014) “The Scien<fic Method” as Myth and Ideal. Science & EducaBon, (May): 2069–2093
