{"id":143,"date":"2008-10-09T00:28:59","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T07:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=143"},"modified":"2008-10-09T00:28:59","modified_gmt":"2008-10-09T07:28:59","slug":"border-crossing-%e2%80%9cin-a-network-of-lines-that-intersect%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"Border Crossing: \u201cIn a Network of Lines That Intersect\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

During one of my courses, the instructor encouraged us to have \u201cif not a whole foot, at least a toe\u201d inside some sort of primary or secondary school setting. Of course, still being a teacher, I don\u2019t really have a hard time getting a foot into that door. On the other hand, and this goes back to the previous border crossing post, such foot or toe dabbling doesn\u2019t occur very frequently from the other side of the fence (most teachers don\u2019t wade all that deeply into a research pool \u2013 I think there are a lot of explicit barriers that shy teachers away from considering this as viable).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, in addition to still being connected to schools in general, I think there is an importance in staying somewhat outside of the academy in some sense. That is, get outside of the academic head space once in awhile. One of my concerns about diving into this PhD program, in addition to ensuring I have time for my students, is that for the next few years I\u2019ll only<\/em> read texts and books purely about education. Yes, it is my primary interest at the moment, but I think it\u2019s important to place oneself in a body of literature that moves outside of traditional educational boundaries. This is what the Beyond Pedagogy<\/a> group was aimed toward. When going through the Masters program, I can\u2019t underplay the importance the Chronicles<\/a> played. Similarly, the inquiry that came out of it probably wouldn\u2019t have been the same without knowing the Gaviero<\/a> was out there somewhere. Aside from acting as some sort of geeky refuge, such \u201cnon-required\u201d reading helps provide the kind of outside perspective that helps provide the impetus for new ideas. Think of it as like one\u2019s reading vegetables \u2013 they\u2019re good for you!<\/p>\n

As anticipated, the workload for these classes is substantial. However, I\u2019ve set aside In Praise of Shadows<\/a> and The Invention of Morel<\/a> as occasional buoys in a sea of Ed. Theory.<\/p>\n

Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>