First reading discussion - Douglas Kellner, "Toward a Critical Theory of Education"

Hi all -

Apologies for the delay in posting this thread - I've been traveling along the Oregon coast and internet reception has not been as common as I'd hoped. Which, aside from being late with getting this up, is not altogether a bad thing.

Please post your thoughts on the first reading for summer, Douglas Kellner's "Toward a Critical Theory of Education" (and thank you to Vanessa for already getting the discussion started! You can see her post in the previous welcome thread).

This is a very informal discussion just meant to share our responses to the reading, so you don't need to write anything formal or even terribly thoroughly thought out - the summer readings are primarily an opportunity to take some ideas out for a walk and see where they go as well as an opportunity to become more familiar with the SSCE program's professors and their work.

Any responses are welcome, but some things you might consider for this week's reading -

* What's your previous familiarity with critical theory (either related to education or not)?

* To what degree has your educational experience - that is, the educational environments you've studied in and/or worked in - been informed by a critical theory perspective? How might Kellner's perspective here influence the environments you've seen?

* To what degree have you seen the digital divide that Kellner describes, and what has the impact been?

* What's your sense of what a critical theory-influenced educational model would look like? What's your sense of what the current goals or ends of public education are, whether intentional or not, and how would a model influenced by the perspective that Kellner describes be different?

Thank you for your thoughtful & engaging posts to the welcome thread so far - I'll respond over the next few days (I'm practically on dial-up speed right now and posting anything takes about a half hour, so I'll wait until I'm back to normal speed, but I'm looking forward to rejoining the discussion).

cheers
Gabe

Welcome! We're delighted you'll be joining the master's program in Social Sciences and Comparative Education in the Department of Education at UCLA this fall, and we'd like to use this space over summer to get to know each other, share our personal and professional stories and what's led each of us to this point, and have an informal discussion of the readings by several UCLA Education professors as a way to become more familiar with both the department and the field. We'll also use this space to post useful information about UCLA, the department, and Los Angeles/Southern California in general.  

More to come soon, but for now, please respond to this message by Sunday, August 11, with an informal essay (roughly 400 to 800 words, give or take) briefly explaining some of your expectations for the M.A. program and providing a short description of your research/professional experience and interests. And feel free to respond to each other's posts, since we'd like this to be an engaged discussion as a way to learn from each other as well. 

Cheers 
Gabe