Postcolonial Pedagogy: Using the Net to Introduce Postcolonialism
While Postcolonialism--its methods and practices and related theories--have gained currency in academia over the past decade, this study has remained the province of the graduate and professional arenas. If it enters the undergraduate or high school curriculum at all, it is through sporadic course offerings and perhaps inclusion as one unit among many in critical methods courses. Undergraduates and advanced high school students remain virtually excluded from an area of study where a great deal of new and exciting work is being done. Perhaps one reason for this exclusion is that the sheer volume of work being done in postcolonial studies at present requires extensive and detailed study beyond the ability of the typical advanced high school or undergraduate course outside the senior seminar. But another reason for this exclusion—and the one that concerns us here—is the difficulty, indeed the complexity, of postcolonial discourse itself and its historical, political, cultural, and theoretical background.
Because of the increased importance of this area of study, we feel it is desirable and necessary to include undergraduates and advanced high school students in this project; academia should not remain insular, especially in regards to an area such as postcolonialism that has far-reaching political and cultural consequences. Also, postcolonialism bears a striking resemblance to the multicultural education programs currently being implemented in high schools (and universities) around the country. Thus, the study of postcolonialism would not stray far from current high school or undergraduate curricula, and it would provide a theoretical counterpoint to the moral...
... middle of paper ...
...which we must conform our ideas...we must use the Internet to raise debates, ask questions, and interrogate the existing structures which remain patriarchal, capitalist, and western-centered." And we should provide the means and information for others outside academia to engage these questions and interrogate these structures if our work is to have real efficacy in expanding knowledge and visions of the world.
Works Cited
Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: U of Texas P, 1981.
Bothun, Greg. "CyberProf: The University in the Next Millenium." Educom Review 34:5 (1999): 16-19.
Carchidi, V. "Come Into My Web: Literary Postcolonialism in the Information Technology Age." http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/staff/conf/poco/paper1.html. October 22, 1999.
Snyder, Ilana. Hypertext: The Electronic Labyrinth. New York: New York UP, 1996.
Tong, Rosemarie (2009) “Multicultural, Global, and Postcolonial Feminism” & “Postmodern and Third Wave Feminism” In Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. Westview Press; 200-236, 270-291
...e Flexibility Supporters Seek, TEA Says." Dallas News. N.p., 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. .
In the movie “Boyz in the Hood” director John Singleton, paints a clear image of the problems that happen very often in the African American communities. The movie deals with issues such as: the importance of a father in a young man’s life, the ongoing violence of black on black crime, and how black people are put in situations where they are put to fail and not succeed in life.
When it comes to post-colonial literature, most initially think about the colonization of other countries and how it has affected the natives. Though it is the most well known form of post-colonial literature, it is not the most wide-spread. By slightly altering the framing in which one looks at it, the idea that feminist literature by women from a patriarchal society is post-colonial literature begins to make sense.
A survey of OEF/OIF Veterans identified major rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, alcohol-related problems, social and family problems, and suicidal behavior. However the most alarming statistic is not about deployment rates or rates of diagnoses, the most alarming fact is that fewer than 10% of those diagnosed with PTSD or depression have received the recommended the mental health treatment upon re-integration into society. The dropout rate at the Veterans Association (VA) PTSD clinics is distressingly high as well when looking into VA records it was found that 68% of OEF/OIF Veterans dropped out of their prescribed counseling and programs prior to completion (Garcia et al., 2014). Because most of these men were deployed mul...
The colony is not only a possibility in the geographical; it is a mental dominance that can imperialize the entire self. Entire continents have be domineered, resources completely dried, and at colonialism’s usual worst, the mental devastation of the indigenous culture has left a people hollow. Indigenous culture is no longer that. In the globalized world, no culture is autonomous; culture cannot breathe without new ideas and new perspectives, perspectives that have traditionally come from the people who have lived within the culture. But, the imposition of dominant cultures has certainly benefited from culture’s own vulnerability, as global similarities now exist throughout most different, yet not separate cultures. Postcolonialism is imperialism with a mask on, nothing less. As Franz Fanon puts it “that imperialism which today is fighting against a s true liberation of mankind leaves in its wake here and there tinctures of decay which we must search out and mercilessly expel from our land and our spirits.”
In the late 1960’s the social sciences (mainly anthropology and sociology) entered a crisis period in which traditional ways of conducting the study of the Other were re-examined in the context of their association with dominance-submission hierarchies and the objectification of the subjects of study. There was seen to be an association between Western imperialism’s objectification of the Third World and the Western ‘data imperialism’ that objectified the subjects of study. Increasingly social science research was called to task in the creation of new ways of conducting social science research outside of the positivist-empiricist paradigm and conducting research that was relevant and useful to the people studied.
In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.
Love plays a very significant role in this Shakespearian comedy, as it is the driving force of the play: Hermia and Lysander’s forbidden love and their choice to flee Athens is what sets the plot into motion. Love is also what drives many of the characters, and through readers’ perspectives, their actions may seem strange, even comical to us: from Helena pursuing Demetrius and risking her reputation, to fairy queen Titania falling in love with Bottom. However, all these things are done out of love. In conclusion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream displays the blindness of love and how it greatly contradicts with reason.
Multicultural Education in the United States made its debut beginning with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. Its intent was to become part of the cultural mainstream. The Civil Rights Movement brought to light the apparent concerns of discrimination, intimidation and inequality. During this period, pressure was placed on the Federal Government to examine their roles in the perseverance of inequalities when it came to Multicultural Education (Russell, Robert, The History of Multicultural Education, 2011). It can be compared to “Affirmative Action” where whites were asked to leave behind their own point of view and gain knowledge of the traditions of Multicultural groups (Taylor, Samuel. The Challenge of 'Multiculturalism' In How Americans View the Past and the Future, 2011).
“The subaltern studies is certainly related to south Asia history, as Gramsci was related to Italy, its theoretical position, of studying how the continuity of supposedly pre-political insurgency brings culture to crisis and confronts power would make post-colonial studies more conventionally political. One major difference is that the disciplinary connection of post-colonial studies is to literary criticism rather than history and the social science. Subaltern studies has not pursed oral history as unmediated narrative, and its investigation and testimony have generally confined themselves to legal
Multicultural Education The inclusion of multiculturalism into schools has become an increasingly hot topic as of late. Being a future teacher, I have taken a natural interest in the topic as well. It seems that most of the push to incorporate the multicultural issue into the school system has been a reaction to the thought that the American “melting-pot” metaphor is on the decline. Knowing that the demographics of the United States are changing continuously, the main issue about the inclusion of multiculturalism is not whether to place it into the schools, but rather how to position this controversial topic into the curriculum.
In order to develop her argument, Mould relies on the texts of three authors and their contributions to the postcolonial discourse: Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, Homi Bhabha’s foreword to the 1986 edition of this book, and Chilla Bulbeck’s, Re-Orientating
Mohanty is drawing upon theoretical perspectives of postmodernism to understand difference and by that uncover essentialist and Universalist interpretations (Uduyagiri 1995:159). In particular she is drawing upon approaches familiar to Edward Said’s Orientalism and Focault’s approach to discourse, power and knowledge. Foucault’s theories are especially useful in a postmodernist argument since he acknowledge that there are several structures of power, and that the there is a diversity of localized resistances ( Udayagiri 1995: 161). Mohanty uses Foucault’s conception of power to uncover Universalist categories and how feminist writers define power as a binary structure – to be in possession of power versus being powerless (Mohanty 1991:71). This limited way of theorizing power fails to recognize counteroffensives and the varied forms of power. Mohanty uses Said’s Orientalism to show how the way Western cultural perceptions of the Orient “became a means of controlling the regio...
Getting educated is one of the most important things in life when it comes to getting a good future. By developing good knowledge of schooling, it helps establish and maintain new information as needed throughout the real world. As books are one the essential tools in learning, eBooks are being used in a everyday lifestyle. Traveling to get away places from city life, helps give reading a comforting feel. Students that use print books are eventually going to use ebooks in the future. By educating students with ebooks, it is more efficient than carrying textbooks; ebooks is more convenient and reliable to read, write and store notes. Print books are being replaced by eBooks, it helps on keeping files together and it makes notes