Overview

In Schoolishness, Susan D. Blum continues her journey as an anthropologist and educator. The author defines ""schoolishness"" as educational practices that emphasize packaged ""learning,"" unimaginative teaching, uniformity, constant evaluation by others, arbitrary forms, predetermined time, and artificial boundaries, resulting in personal and educational alienation, dependence, and dread. Drawing on critical, progressive, and feminist pedagogy in conversation with the anthropology of learning, and building on the insights of her two previous books Blum proposes less-schoolish ways of learning in ten dimensions, to lessen the mismatch between learning in school and learning in the wild. She asks, if learning is our human ""superpower,"" why is it so difficult to accomplish in school? In every chapter Blum compares the fake learning of schoolishness with successful examples of authentic learning, including in her own courses, which she scrutinizes critically. Schoolishness is not a pedagogical how-to book, but a theory-based phenomenology of institutional education. It has moral, psychological, and educational arguments against schoolishness that, as Blum notes, ""rhymes with foolishness.""

Full Product Details

Author:   Susan D. Blum
Publisher:   Cornell University Press
Imprint:   Cornell University Press
Weight:   0.907kg
ISBN:  

9781501774744

ISBN 10:   1501774743
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   15 May 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: The Education Gospel and the Deeply Held Structures of Schoolishness 1. Experiencing School: What's the Problem? 2. The Aims and the Ends, Values and Value: From Games, Sorting, and Exchange Value to Learning, Being ,and Use Value 3. Pedagogy and Pedagogizing: From Direct Instruction to Independent Learning 4. Teachers, Students, Classes: From Authorities and Competitors to Communities of Varied Learners 5. Questions: From Compliance, Control, and Evaluation(Authority) to Curiosity, Power, Wonder, andEffervescence (Democracy) 6. Time: From Speed, Uniformity, and Deferral to Need,Variation, and Sufficiency 7. Work, Labor, Play: From Toil and Exchange to Worth,Meaning, and Use 8. Spaces and Places: From Separation to Connection 9. Genres of Consumption: From Scarcity, Artificiality,Constraint to Abundance and Variety 10. Genres of Production: From Artificiality and Controlto Authenticity and Freedom 11. Tech and Media: From Clunky to Vibrant 12. Attending (to) Bodies: From Stillness, Isolation,Normativity, and Control to Action, Connection,Variation, and Agency 13. Selves: From Alienation to Authenticity, Wholeness,and Meaning 14. ""The Trees Need Water"": Authentic Learning in an Educational Ecosystem 15. Making Schools Less Schoolish: Of Evolutions and Revolutions Conclusion: Creating the World We Want to Live In

Reviews

Blum offers a well-evidenced critique of ""schoolishness,"" her term for the ""unchangeable structures"" in school systems that impede innovation, authenticity, and joy in learning. This text is an essential read for anyone interested in the state of education, teaching, and learning. (Choice)

Blum offers a well-evidenced critique of ""schoolishness,"" her term for the ""unchangeable structures"" in school systems that impede innovation, authenticity, and joy in learning. This text is an essential read for anyone interested in the state of education, teaching, and learning. -- ""Choice""

Author Information

Susan D. Blum is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of I Love Learning; I Hate School, and My Word!, as well as the editor of Ungrading.

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