Whose Idea was the Scarlet Letter?

Agency, Authority, Autonomy, Access & Ability:

Portfolios, Pedagogy & Praxis

Horrace Mann suggested that the role of the education was to be “beyond all other devices of human origin…the great equalizer of conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery”; however, as demonstrated in studies by Anyon (1981) and Kozol (2005), the role of education has evolved into the social reproduction of identity among students.  In this age of accountability (and by accountability I mean TESTING), educational policy has continued to divide students, and reproduce social hierarchies of difference and otherness to create character molds for students.  Rather than facilitating student learning, and critical thinking with regard to their social positions in society, traditional pedagogy has evolved overtime to encourage automaticity, mechanization, and obedience among the identity development of students and teachers.  Compliance is ingrained in student/teacher relationships and identities through curriculum and instruction. 

In her article The Digital Imperative:  Making the Case for a 21^st – Century Pedagogy (2009), Elizabeth Clark begins with an allusion to Gutenberg’s printing press in 1450.  She suggests that this technological innovation changed education and literacy among the masses by providing access to information through its “rapid distribution of knowledge” (28).  As we consider the ways in which we construct our identities within the myriad of forums that make up society, it is difficult to overlook the ways in which aspects of Agency (power), Authority (right/ownership), Autonomy (freedom), and Access affect our Ability to do so.  Citing Siva Vaidhyanathan and John Dewey, Clark suggests that the identities we construct in an effort to function in mainstream society are a result of habits of thought.  She states, “[t]hese ‘habits’ among individuals build into ‘cultural habits,’ or ideologies, though discussion, deliberation, and distribution” (28).  These ‘cultural habits’ develop along with a collective identity.  As a shared community (Clark 28), we move into another stage in the process of social construction since these ‘cultural habits’ often develop into a shared identity, and later a shared relationship with information and the world.  There is no individuality of thought or thought process among cyber socialites.  So how can there be individuality in our identity construction?

The ePortfolio is among the pedagogical tools/methods invoked by Elizabeth Clark.  As a tool for instruction or evaluation it seems that the use of portfolio pedagogy will work to promote individuality of thought in education and identity construction by encouraging students to think about their identity and relationships to their work (in progress) and ultimately (or eventually) the world around them.  What’s more, as an evaluative tool it forces teachers and administrators to judge students on an individualized, rather than a collective, basis/criteria.  My limited experiences as a teacher have helped me to understand how the development of individual relationships with information among students affects their academic performance.  As a machine for social reproduction, education does more than its fair share of facilitating group-think (much like the mentality that punished Hester Prynne) and the collective identity of students, and does nothing to help students learn a concept, let alone process information.  The implementation of pedagogical tools that open the world up to students will change the way they think about their world because, like Gutenberg’s printing press, there will be marked improvement in their Accessibility to information.  Students will no longer be robbed of their Ability to develop a relationship with the world and understand their position in it through education.  In their social lives students understand that a simulated power, freedom, and right exists which allows them to “express themselves”.  This is something that is missing in education because we are so focused on teaching to the test – Agency, Autonomy, and Authority have been taken out of education, in turn retarding our Access to information and Ability to understand the self in relation to the world.  The classroom has been closed off from the world by educational policy, and curriculum reform.  According to Clark, the use of technology and new media in the classroom creates a learning experiences for students that enable them to “tailor their…identities…to see how the function within different communities...[contest] knowledge production…question…make connections…between their academic and lived lives” (29 – 30).  Students and teachers are able to engage in dialogue, reflection, and analysis of their social conditions and positions right now, and even social action toward social justice because technology gives us the ability right now (in this moment…TODAY) to bring the world, literally the world, right into our classrooms.