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Inventions of Teaching: A Genealogy
Inventions of Teaching: A Genealogy is a powerful examination of current metaphors for and synonyms of teaching. It offers an account of the varied and conflicting influences and conceptual commitments that have contributed to contemporary vocabularies--and that are in some ways maintained by those vocabularies, in spite of inconsistencies and incompatibilities among popular terms. The concern that frames the book is how speakers of English invented (in the original sense of the word, "came upon") our current vocabularies for teaching. Conceptually, this book is unique in the educational literature. As a whole, it presents an overview of the major underlying philosophical and ideological concepts and traditions related to knowledge, learning, and teaching in the Western world, concisely introducing readers to the central historical and contemporary discourses that shape current discussions and beliefs in the field.
Because the organization of historical, philosophical, theoretical, and etymological information is around key conceptual divergences in Western thought rather than any sort of chronology, this text is not a linear history, but several histories--or, more precisely, it is a genealogy. Specifically, it is developed around breaks in opinion that gave or are giving rise to diverse interpretations of knowledge, learning, and teaching--highlighting historical moments in which vibrant new figurative understandings of teaching emerged and moments at which they froze into literalness.
The book is composed of two sorts of chapters, "branching" and "teaching." Branching chapters include an opening treatment of the break in opinion, separate discussions of each branch, and a summary of the common assumptions and shared histories of the two branches. Teaching chapters offer brief etymological histories and some of the practical implications of the terms for teaching that were coined, co-opted, or redefined within the various traditions.
Inventions of Teaching: A Genealogy is an essential text for senior undergraduate and graduate courses in curriculum studies and foundations of teaching and is highly relevant as well for students, faculty, and researchers across the field of education.
Because the organization of historical, philosophical, theoretical, and etymological information is around key conceptual divergences in Western thought rather than any sort of chronology, this text is not a linear history, but several histories--or, more precisely, it is a genealogy. Specifically, it is developed around breaks in opinion that gave or are giving rise to diverse interpretations of knowledge, learning, and teaching--highlighting historical moments in which vibrant new figurative understandings of teaching emerged and moments at which they froze into literalness.
The book is composed of two sorts of chapters, "branching" and "teaching." Branching chapters include an opening treatment of the break in opinion, separate discussions of each branch, and a summary of the common assumptions and shared histories of the two branches. Teaching chapters offer brief etymological histories and some of the practical implications of the terms for teaching that were coined, co-opted, or redefined within the various traditions.
Inventions of Teaching: A Genealogy is an essential text for senior undergraduate and graduate courses in curriculum studies and foundations of teaching and is highly relevant as well for students, faculty, and researchers across the field of education.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 2, 2014
Inventions of Teaching: A Genealogy By: Brent Davis
Reflection by: Pashew Nuri
Inventions of Teaching: A Genealogy By: Brent Davis
An un-putdown-able book, but I was obliged to put it down time to time. Making me think of the ideas and views to look them up, sometimes stumbled but I was obliged again not to stop. The idea that teaching is not a profession to provide the teacher a provision to live was always in my mind that it’s a false assumption, because what is the purpose of learning if this is the case for teaching? The meaning of teaching and learning is a must for every teacher and learner to understand, which doesn’t mean they have to understand it as I understand it but rather their own understanding of it almost underscores the entire course of what Brent Davis says the book.
Reading this book gave me a flashback to the rest of the books I read in this semester, when I finished I said to myself “well, there was not a big difference among them”, as the previous ones were also possessing the same idea of the philosophy of education. The two chapters of Foundation of American Education by L. Dean Webb, Arlene Metha and K. Forbis Jordonn were telling the same things that teaching is not and cannot be out of nothingness. Teachers possess their own personal philosophy of education and compare that to the philosophy of education. All those philosophies and theories showing the way we teach and the way the students learn give the meaning to what education is and what the educators do, The Mindful Teacher by Elizabeth Macdonald and Dennis Shirley was asking educators to stop for a while and think of what they are doing and why they are doing it, through meditations and constant contemplations, and Neil Postman in his masterpiece The End of Education told me how to redefine the value and meaning behind schooling and education, he basically focused on the why quest during his book which also refers to the philosophy of education. So, basically in all the books the same idea was a focal point in the education issue.
Read the rest here http://pashewmajeed.blogspot.com/2013...
Reflection by: Pashew Nuri
Inventions of Teaching: A Genealogy By: Brent Davis
An un-putdown-able book, but I was obliged to put it down time to time. Making me think of the ideas and views to look them up, sometimes stumbled but I was obliged again not to stop. The idea that teaching is not a profession to provide the teacher a provision to live was always in my mind that it’s a false assumption, because what is the purpose of learning if this is the case for teaching? The meaning of teaching and learning is a must for every teacher and learner to understand, which doesn’t mean they have to understand it as I understand it but rather their own understanding of it almost underscores the entire course of what Brent Davis says the book.
Reading this book gave me a flashback to the rest of the books I read in this semester, when I finished I said to myself “well, there was not a big difference among them”, as the previous ones were also possessing the same idea of the philosophy of education. The two chapters of Foundation of American Education by L. Dean Webb, Arlene Metha and K. Forbis Jordonn were telling the same things that teaching is not and cannot be out of nothingness. Teachers possess their own personal philosophy of education and compare that to the philosophy of education. All those philosophies and theories showing the way we teach and the way the students learn give the meaning to what education is and what the educators do, The Mindful Teacher by Elizabeth Macdonald and Dennis Shirley was asking educators to stop for a while and think of what they are doing and why they are doing it, through meditations and constant contemplations, and Neil Postman in his masterpiece The End of Education told me how to redefine the value and meaning behind schooling and education, he basically focused on the why quest during his book which also refers to the philosophy of education. So, basically in all the books the same idea was a focal point in the education issue.
Read the rest here http://pashewmajeed.blogspot.com/2013...
August 31, 2021
While Davis' descriptions are sound his presumptive nature is discouraging. Was his invent to write about the "Invention of Teaching" or "invention of learning"? His approach seems to reflect the latter but in a divisive and privileged way. There was a lot of opportunity for this read but it's approach was as divisive as the theories upon which he chose to model them... unnecessarily so.
January 5, 2013
Brent Davis describes the genealogy of teaching through history in the context of epistemological discourses. The structure of the book follows the branching of a tree as various concepts are described as bifurcations of more basic conceptions of knowledge. Complexity thinking, post-structuralism, mysticism, postivism, critical theory, ecological discourses,and empiricism are among the concepts that are fleshed out and their impact on current understandings of teaching are addressed. This book would be useful to any teacher who wants to recognize their philosophical position within the ongoing evolution of teaching.
September 30, 2010
Second time through--better than the first time. I could actually understand it mostly. Again, another reference book. Still, after learning about all the different worldviews, I think I'm sticking with my new form of Joeism, a bifurcation from fullofcrapism.
April 6, 2011
A cool look at where our ideas and vocabulary about teaching and learning originate from. So much for separation of church and state...our whole education system finds its origins with the Benedictine Monks...
June 8, 2011
A cool look at where our ideas and vocabulary about teaching and learning originate from. So much for separation of church and state...our whole education system finds its origins with the Benedictine Monks...
September 20, 2016
Made me think of teaching in a whole new light even if it took me a few tries to understand what it was saying
December 9, 2015
Was actually really awesome but too dense to read for the semester :(
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews