Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is a detailed article delving deep into the language and presumptions shared by educational foundations and associated articles in EdWeek. I think it would have benefited from a wider range of media sources. The authors focus on what is called the 'dominant discourse' - a "focus on advantages; focus on what works and organizational efficiencies; limited attention of analysis of asymmetrical power dimensions; and an assumption that schools are broken." The authors write "Their voices in the landscape of K-12 education are particularly loud, amplified by their grant dollars and their networks of influence." They also note - briefly - an emerging 'alternative' point of view challenging the dominant discourse. "From the perspective of the alternative discourse, learning is all about content, and the teacher's role is one of curating that content to provide students with access to materials that will support high quality learning opportunities." There is such a point of view in the literature, but I see it as contributing to, not countering, the dominant discourse. The real alternative view (which I lable under the heading of 'personal learning') is not considered at all.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 04:28 a.m.

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