Frank Margonis, Ph.D. Associate Professor 308K MBH, 587-7807 Frank.Margonis@utah.edu

Teaching

As an educational philosopher, my overarching aim in teaching is to prepare students to be confident and knowledgeable participants in the centuries-long discussions of the goals and methods of education in a society that aspires to democratic principles. I try to bring students into contact with the best philosophical thought about the aims of democratic education, the best historical research explaining the current character of education in the United States, and the best sociological and anthropological studies capturing the educational processes that work for some students while denying other students access to meaningful educational opportunities. I hope that our research in the Department of Education, Culture & Society will better prepare all of us to pursue a more just educational system and society.

As a philosopher trained in continental philosophies, especially Marxism and existentialism, I try to expose students to some of the most progressive philosophical thought of the western tradition. My seminar in philosophy of education focuses, for instance, on the student-centered tradition of pedagogy, especially on the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, and Paulo Freire. Yet, we have reached a historical juncture where it is clear that the philosophical discussions in the western tradition need to be in dialogue with the philosophical perspectives of many people who have suffered the abuse of European colonization. For the philosophies of European thinkers are complicit in justifying colonization and contain the blindnesses that have allowed US philosophers to outline principles of democracy without coming to terms with US imperialism abroad as well as segregation and job discrimination at home. Thus, my current research and teaching focuses partly upon disclosing the blindness of European educational philosophies.

Philosophical principles gain their most dramatic meaning in relation to the concrete world of public schooling, so I also teach courses which bridge philosophical discussions and the rapidly-developing controversies over contemporary educational practice. My course, "Critical Pedagogy," considers influential proposals for developing pedagogical approaches which serve the cause of social justice. Authors like Paulo Freire, Peter McLaren, and Henry Giroux have spurred a spirited debate about the possibilities and difficulties of attaining equitable conditions in classrooms shaped by race, class, and gender inequities. I also teach a course on educational policy, called "The Culture Wars and Educational Policy," which focuses upon current trends that threaten to limit public commitment to equitable public schooling. Movements towards educational choice may actually end the public school system as we know it. Even though proposals for educational choice may institutionalize dramatic funding disparities between different school districts, some grassroots educators, such as Afrocentric teachers and parents, have seized upon educational choice as a way of gaining control over the education of students in their community.

We study contemporary debates so that we might all keep abreast of the issues that are shaping the present educational institutions. Since the ultimate aim is for students to develop their own--well grounded, scholarly--perspectives on the topics under study, in the classroom I strive to balance the didactic presentation of knowledge with teaching techniques that call for student engagement. Philosophers like Rousseau distinguished between true and "merely verbal" understanding--the latter referring to cases in which people mouth words but cannot apply the concepts to their own decisions. By continually asking students to articulate their views on the texts and ideas under study, we are able to draw the implications of authors' views for students' lives and for teachers' future classrooms. I think we move beyond a merely verbal understanding, because students come to see the implications of a particular idea as we all talk about the way it would change our beliefs or educational practices.

My classroom pedagogy also focuses on basics: reading, writing, and speaking. Students read important--but often difficult--texts, and I provide a seminar context where students are expected to defend their interpretations by citing passages in the text. Writing assignments are always emphasized in my courses. On all assignments, students receive detailed written feedback, so they will be able to perform better in the future. In both lectures and discussions, I try to create an atmosphere where students will feel comfortable articulating their viewpoints on the issues under study. Students will only articulate their own views if they are consistently shown that their perspective will be respected and no educational or political viewpoints will be censored. I take my relationships with students seriously. Since my classrooms are interactive and I assign lots of writing, I am able to develop an understanding of each student's educational perspective. The more I understand a student's views, the better I can ask questions that will provoke thought on her or his part or direct the student to research that she or he will find interesting. By keeping track of a student's interests and perspectives, I am able to think of ways to push her or him to work toward a higher level of understanding.

I have high expectations for all students. We expect graduate students to leave our program with an ability to be contributing members in the national community of scholars pursuing social justice in education. When high expectations are combined with supportive teaching and a sincere respect for the perspectives students bring to our program, we have found that students will create a broad range of powerful ideas and research visions. When an entire department encourages students to develop their distinctive viewpoints, the intellectual community is powerfully enriched; for all of us are asked to come to terms with the implications one person's perspective has for the rest of us. Since our Department brings students and teachers together from diverse cultural, racial, economic, and regional backgrounds, we are assured that our intellectual community will include a dynamic array of educational perspectives.

Frank Margonis' Vita