Session Information
25 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Exhibition
General Poster Session during Lunch
Contribution
The issue of self-expression as one of the basic conditions for shaping a young person’s subjectivity is extremely important in an educator’s critical reflection on the education process. The skill of and readiness for conscious, critical and responsible expression of one’s own views, thoughts and emotions are crucial elements in the process of independent maturity gaining. The importance of free expression for gaining the fullness of humanity is so great that is has been recorded as a right in two fundamental documents concerning human and child rights - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Convention on the Rights of the Child. These international law acts guarantee that all countries that signed them protect and respect the right to self-expression. However, numerous scientific studies concerning the status of respecting the recommendations of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Convention on the Rights of the Child show a disturbing state of disrespecting the right to self-expression as well as other rights enclosed in these documents in Poland.
Self-expression is a process in which one is able to use one’s own voice and becomes a causative entity that does not necessarily comply with the pattern imposed by the dominant culture. Because of this, one becomes different from other individuals who indiscriminately obey authority. The importance of the term was described rightly by E.W. Emerson: The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.
School as an educational institution and, at the same time, as a propagator of the dominant culture tries to deal with the issue of students’ expression. Usually, however, it does not create conditions that would make their self-expression possible. It is done both deliberately and unknowingly.
In my research, I focused on diagnosing the level of respect for the right to self-expression in middle schools and communicative rationality among students. The main research problem comes down to the following question: What is the relation between the level of the respect for the right to self-expression in middle schools and shaping communicative rationality among students? In addition, the following hypothesis has been formulated: the higher the level of respect for the right to self-expression at school, the more often students display communicative rationality.
The concept of communicative rationality has been drawn from JürgenHabermas’ theory of communicative action. Communicative rationality manifests itself in a speech act that leads to consensus through the use of rational arguments. One has to emphasize that this discussion is free of any pressure. If validity claims (claims to authenticity, effectiveness, intelligibility and sincerity) are met, communicative rationality becomes foundation for undisturbed communication and, as a result of this, for emancipation (Habermas, 1999).The concept of communicative rationality is strongly connected with critical pedagogy described by Henry A. Giroux who emphasizes the importance of students’ voice and their free expression for young people’s development,also in a non-verbal dimension.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bilińska-Suchanek, E. (2003). Opór wobec szkoły. Dorastanie w perspektywie paradygmatu oporu. Kraków: Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”. Czerepaniak-Walczak, M. (2006). Pedagogika emancypacyjna. Rozwój świadomości krytycznej człowieka. Gdańsk: Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne. Fine, M. (1989). Silencing and Nurturing Voice in an Improbable Context. Urban Adolescents in Public School. W: Critical Pedagogy, the State and Cultural Struggle. Edit.: H. Giroux, P. McLaren. New York: State University of New York Press. Giroux, H. A. (2001). Theory and Resistance in Education. Towards a Pedagogy for the Opposition. Bergin & Garvey. Giroux, H. A. (2010). Teoria krytyczna I racjonalność w edukacji obywatelskiej. Tłum. P. Kwieciński, A. Nalaskowski. W: Edukacja i strefa publiczna. Idee i doświadczenia pedagogiki radykalnej. Red. H. A. Giroux, L. Witkowski. Kraków: Oficyna Wydawnicza “Impuls”. McLaren, P. (1985). The Ritual Dimension of Resistance: Clowning and Symbolic Inversion, Journal of Education. Vol. 167, nr 2. Habermas, J. (1999). Teoria działania komunikacyjnego. Racjonalność dziłania a racjonalność społeczna, T.I. Przekł. A. M. Kaniowski. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. Habermas, J. (2002). Teoria działania komunikacyjnego. Przyczynek do krytyki rozumu funkcjonalnego, T.II. Przekł. A. M. Kaniowski. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. McLaren, P. (1999). Schooling as a Ritual Performance: Towards a Political Economy of Educational Symbols and Gesture. Rowman & Littlefield, Inc. Emerson, R. W., The Poet http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/poettext.html Emerson, T. I. (1963). Towards a general theory of the first amendment. Faculty Scholarship Series, Paper 2796, http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/2796
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