Jacques Ranci

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Jacques Rancière

• The Master,
• the Mentor and The Ignorant Schoolmaster

A Presentation by Gordon Fitt
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Premise

• Our culture is deeply invested in narratives of
• The
• Emancipatory
• Schoolmaster

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Leading Questions

• Within a contemporary British Columbian public
  school context, who do we imagine needs to be
  emancipated?
• How (do we imagine) ought those individuals be
  emancipated?
• How do we imagine an emancipatory teacher
  looks/acts/instructs?

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What is a (possible) conceptual framework?
Emancipation Stultification Egalitarian
(taught material (Learning The (ENFORCED) GAP PERSON BEING INSTRCUCTED) Understanding)
Aesthetics Explication Translation
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Leading Questions

• Within a contemporary British Columbia public
  school context, who do we imagine needs to be
  emancipated?
• How (do we imagine) ought those individuals be
  emancipated?
• How do we imagine an emancipatory teacher
  looks/acts/instructs?

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Central Question

• Using these (or your own) constructs for The
  Ignorant Schoolmaster, are these imaginaries
  productive?

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Some Examples

• Karate Kid
• Freedom Writers
• School of Rock

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The Master

• Presents emancipation through wisdom/discipline
• There is no authorial text
• Miyagi, the handyman, is the karate authority
• The inequalities emphasized are skill based.

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The Mentor

• Presents emancipation through empathy/compassion
• Again, there is no authorial text student
  generated text is central.
• The mentor, Ms. Gruwell, is both the authority on
  and for the students writing.
• Inequality is systemic and integral to the plot.

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The Ignorant Schoolmaster?

• Presents emancipation through ignorance/incompeten
  ce?
• Again, there is no authorial text
• The mentor, Dewey Finn, is an authority on music
• The emphasis on inequality (between teacher and
  student) appears to be minimal

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The problem of Will

• What constitutes the/a will to learn?
• Who possesses a will to learn?
• Does this necessity expose inequalities other
  than intellectual?
• Does it expose other intellectual inequalities?

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Who is missing?

• The Flemish law students of Jacotot were there
  because they wanted to be.
• Is anyone missing/erased within these theories?
• How do they relate to notions of difference?

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Rethinking Teaching

• Rancière offers a productive disruption in the
  paradigm of teacher as master