Jesse Rathgeber
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Infrequent Musings

Of Strawmen/women and Dialogue

10/21/2017

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It has been a long and hard few weeks and I'm finally finding/forming words to articulate my thoughts (be it in long-winded and maybe too theoretical a form). I share this as an illustration of my internal dialogue right now:
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It is awe-ful/some what kind of strawmen/women we can make of each other when we are entrenched within a point of view/regime of truth and confronted by challenging discourses. I am as guilty as any in this as we all are. In encountering strawmen/women, we encounter distorted shadows, jarred reflections of one another. In attempting to communicate in such an "encounter," we rarely find dialogue or openings to commune.
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I'm meditating on Sandy Stauffer's discussion of "radical listening" and the notion of being a "friend" to a text-person-idea (in a DeleuzeoGuattarian sense, see "What is Philosophy"). I'm contemplating on how learners and colleagues (be they "teachers," "students," "peers," etc.) can foster intellectual friendships in which radical-critical-ethical listening can support genuine dialogue as a ground for mutual learning-grown-exploring
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Reflecting

9/19/2017

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A reflection one criticism and self-critique. 

To hear the concern from students (directly or indirectly) that they feel that "I want them to think like me" causes me to ask myself so many things:
- What am I doing that might feed this misconception?
- What am I doing to welcome everyone to think/do in their own ways and have troubling but safe discussions/actions when we have conflicting visions?
- What am I doing to encourage everyone that they can be critical and caring at the same time?
- What am I doing to model ethical thinking and doing?
- What can more can I do? What should I minimize? What should I stop doing?
- What can I do to encourage purposeful thinking and doing?
- What can I do to encourage multiple ways of thinking and doing?
- What can I do to constantly open up things that might be closed in ways that are playful, welcoming, and engaging (but not easy)?
- How can I encourage all to explore cognitive dissonance and ambiguity?
- How do I respond if this concern is actually a veiled avoidance of critical thinking and doing?

Teaching is hard. Reflecting is hard. Trying to constantly become a more reflective teacher is so exhausting, but so very worthwhile.
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    Infrequent Musings

    In this space, you will find short writings inspired by readings, current events, and things that manifest in my consciousness at any given time. No need to check back regularly, as who knows when I will update it.  

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The sound in your mind  is the first sound that you could sing" - Jack Kerouac
  • Jesse Rathgeber
  • Scholarship
    • Manuscripts
    • Presentations
  • Teaching
    • College Teaching
    • EC-12 Teaching
  • Musicianship
  • Engagement
    • Blog
    • Engagement
  • CV