‘How Does Knowin’ My Business Make You Any Safer?': Critical Pedagogy in Dangerous Times

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their support of this research.

Notes

The annual Jackson Lecture was held at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto on October 14th, 2004. Dr. David Livingstone's lecture was titled, The Learning Society: Past, Present and Future Views.

For a further discussion of these ideas, see Gallagher and Fusco's (in press) paper, I. D. ology and the Technologies of Public (School) Space: Who Are The Terrorists Among Us, which explores spatial and architectural theory in a Foucauldian analysis of space, power, and the subject, as a frame within which to examine moves toward security in Canadian urban schools. Policies and technologies of record-keeping, identification-verifying, and spatial arrangements are producing altered experiences of subjectivity and the ways in which youth, workers, and researchers experience public (school) space. The paper argues that notions of “risk” and “otherness” in the nation state, and the exploitation of real fears in the wake of real school violence, have permitted a culture of acute surveillance.

“Process drama” is a general term used to describe a method of drama instruction in which, typically, the teacher and the whole class enter into an imaginary context, often based on source material gathered by the teacher or students. The goal is to investigate any of a number of possible themes through sustained improvisation, during which students and teacher might take on a variety of roles and relationships through various theatrical conventions.

See Morwena Griffiths (1998) for a developed thesis on productively biased research for social justice.

Though chosen apparently at random, those brought forward were mostly the quieter students for whom Dr. Gallagher wanted to provide a performance opportunity. This is an example of how teachers working within dramatic forms can unobtrusively interrupt standard classroom inequities.

In addition, in one of our New York school sites, the students were subjected to random drills throughout the school day, in which the principal would announce an “Operation Clear Sweep” over the public address system and all students were required to vacate the hallways immediately or they would be taken down to the “Office of Discipline and Security” for reprimand.

W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, was the site of a “copycat” school shooting a short time after the shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.