Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Critical Thinking and Social Justice



The article by that was given to us for reading I found to be very insightful.  Nakkula & Toshalis (2010) did an excellent job explaining the co-construction of identity between adults and adolescence. This article really emphasis the importance of positive expectations on behalf of the adults, as well as for adults own self-awareness. The example given was between Ms. Peterson and Antwon.

When adolescence act in rebellious or deviant ways, they are in fact exploring relationships, power structures, dynamics, and relationships. An adolescent’s behaviors is not only to make the adult react in order to test an adolescent hypothesis, but to also see what the adult thinks (or confirms) about the adolescent’s behavior.

A term from Vygotsky known as interpsycholigcal development which is a concept that implies that individual psychological development is a relational process. The mind develop in context with others. This article also then introduces scaffolding and zone of proximal development to better help the reader to understand the co-construction process of identity.

This article was very powerful for me, as it broke down adultcentric belief systems. The message of this article also suggest that schools and youth programs to be more mindfully of the concept of co-construction when imperative perceived deviant behaviors. In terms of education reform and closing the achievement gap, the concept of co-construction is one of many tools that can help create academic and social equality in the U.S.

This Ted Talk: Every Child Needs a Champions, complements this article well. Please check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw

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