Moving Out of the Cellar: A New (?) Existentialism for a Future without Teachers

Autor/inn/en	Kline, Kip; Abowitz, Kathleen Knight
Titel	Moving Out of the Cellar: A New (?) Existentialism for a Future without Teachers
Quelle	In: Critical Questions in Education, 4 (2013) 2, S.156-167 (12 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2327-3607
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Accountability; Faculty Mobility; Foundations of Education; Teaching Experience; Anxiety; Teacher Morale; Philosophy; Professional Identity; Educational Philosophy; Self Concept; Futures (of Society) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Verantwortung; Grundlagenausbildung; Angst; Teacher; Teachers; Morale; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; Moral; Philosophie; Bildungsphilosophie; Erziehungsphilosophie; Selbstkonzept; Future; Society; Zukunft
Abstract	In this article authors Kip Kline and Kathleen Abowitz write that the "new breed of accountability-driven schools is more interested in reaching some number at the end of the school year" than in actually constructing places where teachers can create meaningful learning experiences for students. In this article they argue that educational systems increasingly reward the most machine-like teachers; those who focus fully on achieving the highest test scores and the most efficient use of instructional time toward that end. Curricula are increasingly evaluated and adopted based on their technical relevance alone, and the delivery of this technical curriculum itself has become highly routinized and technicized through a process that twenty-five years ago critical scholars called the "deskilling of teachers" and which appears to only have intensified. Kline and Abowitz point out that this dehumanization has particular forms and effects, including anxiety and angst. As one measure of the affect this has on teachers, teacher attrition rates have risen 50% in the United State in the last fifteen years. A 2009 survey of teachers revealed 40% to be "disheartened" by contemporary classroom working conditions. These statistics indicate a growing sense of angst among the U.S. teaching corps. Kline and Abowitz argue that that the dehumanization of teaching and the corresponding fears accompanying this are all around, compelling an existentialist response from educational foundationalists and specifically, philosophers of education. Their arguments explicitly stand upon the work of others, particularly the noted philosopher of education Maxine Greene. They use Greene's considerable existential insights to assert their argument for the continuing relevance of existentialism to education in response to the considerable anxiety that plagues the spirit of the contemporary teacher. A bibliography is included. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Academy for Educational Studies. 2419 Berkeley Street, Springfield, MO 65804. Tel: 417-299-1560; e-mail: cqieeditors@gmail.com; Web site: http://academyforeducationalstudies.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10