2014年6月8日日曜日

Maxine Greene: "There are no final words, but only questions."

*This is an elaboration of the eulogy I shared at Maxine's funeral on June 5, 2014.


I first came across Maxine’s work in 1996, when I was at Colgate University, I read her Dialectic of Freedom in a class titled “Democracy and Education.” It was unlike any kind of writing that I had experienced before. It had poems, literature, films and art works…  It was like reading her life stories that weaved together all the beauties that have touched her life with educational thought. Her writing invited me into her world, and made me think, “I know her.

After Colgate, I stayed in the U.S. to do my masters degree and then went back to Japan to teach. I returned to the U.S. in 2008, this time to pursue a doctoral degree at Teachers College. I was surprised to learn that Maxine was still alive, and even more, that she was still teaching. Her class, Education and the Aesthetic Experience was the first class I took at TC. It took place on Tuesday afternoons, in her apartment by the Central Park. We would sit around in her living room and together discussed novels, films, art works, and connected to issues of schools and the broader sociopolitical landscape. It was wonderful, but I stayed quiet in the class, trying to take it all in, speaking up only in two occasions throughout the course.

Now, I did my master in philosophy of education and, this time, I was thinking of doing something “practical,” like education policy. So I went on to take numerous courses in education policy and law. But Maxine’s words kept coming back, haunting me like ghosts. Among them were “The most important questions are those without answers,” and “Philosophy is something that we do.”

So I began to write emails and engage in conversations with her. She began to invite me to her apartment for conversations. And, eventually, she invited me to be her teaching assistant.

When I became her TA, it all began to make sense why she wrote the way she did. In the middle of the conversation, she would suddenly look outside and be marveled by one particular tree outside her dining window. She would say, “Oh, look at the tree. Look at the curves and braches. How wonderful.” Or, she would be entertained by the double-decker bus that pulled outside of her window and say, “My audience has arrived!” She was the most easily fascinated person that I have ever met.

Also, at one point, I saw how she made an outline of her writing. You see, my understanding of outlining was, “Here are the points I would like to make. One, two, three, and here is the conclusion.” But hers was like, “OK, Camus’s Plague, Picasso’s “Guernica,” “Integrity” by Adrianne Rich, and, yes, Tony Morrison’s Bluest Eyes…” That was how she outlined her thoughts. 

It all made sense.

Another thing I can share with you is Maxine’s final years in the classroom. Constantly fighting the curse of being an existentialist—never satisfied, never meaningful enough, creative enough—Maxine taught to the very end. She only missed two classes this semester, including the final class, when she became sick. I remember how, that day in the class, there was a strange sense of shared responsibility and determination—that we can do this without her, we will make her proud. We took it as if Maxine was preparing us for her departure.

In her final years, she would only speak in a couple of occasions during each class, largely because it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to follow large-group discussions. Yet, it was fascinating to see how students would cling onto those few words she would speak, taking notes, nodding, trying to take it all in. It made me realize how, at this point in her life, she was teaching with her presence.

That Maxine came to the class in her wheelchair even on a snowy day,
that she engaged in conversations with them,
that she resonated with what they said,
that she appreciated them coming back to her class every week,
that she emphasized again and again the significance of questions rather than answers,
that she dedicated her life to the search of education for freedom,
will, no doubt, have lasting impact on so many of them.

I remember how, at the end of one class this spring, I asked her for final words because she hadn’t spoken much. She said,

"There are no final words, but only questions."

That's how I will forever remember Maxine.

I’m reminded of how she expressed her hopes in her Dialectic of Freedom:

“My hope is to reawaken concern for and belief in a humane framework for the kinds of education required in a technological society. It is to recall those who read to some lost spontaneity, some forgotten hunger for becoming different, becoming new. My hope is to remind people of what it means to be alive among others, to achieve freedom in dialogue with others for the sake of personal fulfillment and the emergence of a democracy dedicated to life and decency” (1988. p. xii)



Maxine once told me: “I don’t want to save the world. I only want to start a conversation.”

   That, she certainly did.





Daiyu Suzuki
June 5, 2014.







2014年6月1日日曜日

PISA批判の署名 フランス語でも登場

アメリカで始まり、世界規模の広がりを見せるPISA批判の署名運動だが、英語、ドイツ語、中国語、スペイン語に続き、今度はフランス語の翻訳版が登場した。韓国語、ギリシャ語版も近々公表される予定だ。この運動、どこまで広がるのだろうか。

次回: マキシングリそしてPISA

そもそも何でOECDが国際的な学力到達度調査を行うのか

PISAとフーコー

前々回、そして前回の投稿で紹介した、PISAに懸念を示すオープンレター。私が署名した一番の理由は、

「そもそも何でOECD(経済協力開発機構)が
国際的な学力到達度調査を行うのか」

という根本的なところだ。1970年代から既に新自由主義の危険性に警鐘を鳴らしていたフランスの哲学者、ミシェル・フーコー[1]は、新自由主義は、社会のあらゆる活動を経済的に分析する全く新しい価値観を人々に提供したと捉えている。それは、人間を経済的合理性を行動の基準とする生き物として位置づけるため、人々のいかなる関係も、行動をも経済的に分析してしまうp. 243。そして、このような理解の原則を受け入れ続ける限り、私たちは新自由主義の呪縛から抜けられないと示唆している。

PISAを批判するオープンレターの中では、「新自由主義」(neoliberalism)という言葉は一度も使われていない。しかし、OECDが世界各国の公立学校を評価するということ以上に、新自由主義の世界的な影響力を象徴するものが他にあるだろうか。

オープンレターの執筆者の一人であるHeinz-Dieter Meyer博士は、Global Policyに寄せた手紙で、「経済市場とITのグローバリゼーションの結果、市場経済の成長に献身する機関であるOECDが、今では世界中の公立学校の標準を定め、パフォーマンスを評価し、公教育の世界的権威として振る舞っている」と指摘。

なぜ私たちはこの歪んだ状況を当たり前のように受け入れているのだろうか。


教育の世界的権威となったOECD

勿論、OECDが勝手に世界の公立学校を評価するのは構わない。ただ、その評価が教育における世界的な権威となって各国の教育政策を誘導することは危険極まりない。

PISAの結果をどう受け止めるかは各国の政府次第だ、という反論もあるかと思う。ただ、世界のニュースを見るだけで、多くの国々がPISAの結果に一喜一憂し、いいように振り回されているのが良くわかる。

世界中で拡大するPISAの公教育への影響力は必至で、「PISAショック」という言葉にも象徴されるように、PISAに合わせて国の教育政策が動いていると言っても過言ではない。

例えば安倍政権は、PISAを利用して「グローバル人材の育成」の必要性を説き、公教育における英語、数学、理科、ICTのエリート教育を正当化した。このように、

「各国政府が、自国の教育政策を再編成、正当化、展開することにより、グローバルな統治の場において頭角を現そうとする」[2]のは、もはや世界的な徴候だ。

OECDの学力観


PISAの土台をなすOECDが打ち出す学力観も同様に歪んでいる。それは、「学力」=「世界市場における競争力」といった、経済的競争力増強を目的とする、狭く、偏った学力観であり、人間の教育の経済的アジェンダへの服従といっても過言ではない。

PISAの対象となるのは、解力数学科学のみ。

社会、外国語、美術、音楽、体育などの他教科はPISAの眼中にすら入っていない。

社会の経済的なニーズは満たしているものの、民主主義社会のニーズは、子どものニーズはどうなってしまうのだろうか。

私たちは、なぜこのように偏狭な学力観を、当たり前のように受け入れているのだろうか。これこそ、新自由主義が私たちの心の奥底まで浸透している証拠なのではないだろうか。

フーコーの理論は、30年の時を超え、今でも警鐘を鳴らし続けている。

私たち自身が知らず知らずのうちに、新自由主義的な世界観を内在化していること。

私たちが、それに従って自らの行動を制御し、競い合うことによって新自由主義の歯車となっていること。

そして「小さな政府」による支配を支えているのは、実は私たち自身なのだということ。[3]






[1] Foucault, M. (2008). The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College De France, 1978-79. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
[2] Simons, M, Olssen, M, & Peters, M (Eds.). (2009). Re-reading education policies: A handbook studying the policy agenda of the 21st century. Boston: Sense Publisher. p. 44.
[3] 鈴木大裕 「教育を市場化した新自由主義改革 〜崩壊するアメリカ公教育の現場から〜」(『ジャーナリズム』2014年4月号)