| CODE | EDS3112 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Politics of Pedagogy | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Education Studies | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The aim of this study-unit is to enhance student teachers’ engagements with pedagogy encouraging a simultaneous interrogative reading and writing of their pedagogical practices. The course will question existing notions of pedagogy. What is commonly understood by pedagogy? What and how do dominant discourses of pedagogy and professionalism conceive of the political and ethical relations between teachers and students? How do these give shape to the possibilities and impossibilities of learning and teaching practices? This discussion leads to a focus on pedagogies of difference. It will critically engage in an understanding of difference and its manifestation in educational contexts that contradictorily construct and deconstruct these differences. Drawing on the work of poststructuralist, feminist and postcolonial thinkers it will explore how teachers are involved in differentiating acts and how they can make use of socio-cultural differences to contribute responsibly to just educational practices. The discussion of ‘othering’ within primary schools and classrooms will be related to practices of assimilation and integration and other socially just pedagogies that are open to the invention of the other, the creation of socio-cultural hybridised spaces and possibilities of conflict and misunderstandings. The course will also discuss teachers’ own learning desires and pleasures through the pedagogical encounter and particularly through their affective embodied relations with others. Study-unit Aims 1. Deepen student teachers’ critical engagement with notions of pedagogy to encourage deconstructive pedagogical approaches. 2. Sensitize teachers to their complex relations with students and knowledge. 3. Discuss teachers’ roles in engaging with pedagogies of difference and the challenges of socially just educational practices. 4. Enhance student teachers’ reflections on their own contributions to the development of pedagogical practices through the reading of texts and students’ own accounts of teaching and learning experiences within the primary school classroom. Learning Outcomes 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: a. understand the political and ethical complexities that give shape to pedagogical relations. b. acquire specific knowledges of the way primary schools create educational differences. c. acquaint themselves with approaches that eliminate disparities related to forms of ‘othering.’ d. develop their own philosophies of social justice that are sensitive to diversities as they take shape within the particular local contexts of early education 2. Skills (including transferable [generic] skills): By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: a. critically inquire into academic texts as well as their own experiences of teaching and learning. b. develop their philosophies about their pedagogical practices. c. make critical and creative use of student diversity as educational resources. d. actively engage in the creation of their own pedagogical practice. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings - Irigaray Luce (1994) Thinking the Difference, London, Athlone Press. - Young Iris Marion (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton University Press. - Young Iris Marion (2000) Inclusion and Democracy, Oxford, Oxford University Press. - Burch K.(2000) Eros as the Educational Principle of Democracy, New York, Peter Lang. - Peters M. A & Biesta G. (2009) Derrida, Deconstruction and the Politics of Pedagogy, New York, Peter Lang. - McWilliam E. (1999) Pedagogical Pleasures, New York, Peter Lang. - Todd S. (1997) Learning Desire. Perspectives on Pedagogy, Culture and the Unsaid, New York Routledge. - Irigaray L. with Greene M. (2008) Teaching London, Continuum. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Seminar & Independent Study | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Louise Chircop Carlos Grima |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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