Chronicles of Resistance: a Borderlands Testimonio
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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt CHRONICLES OF RESISTANCE: A BORDERLANDS TESTIMONIO by Jeanne Pearlman MA, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh, 1997 MEd, University of Pittsburgh, 1976 BS, University of Pittsburgh, 1972 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2010 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF EDUCATION This dissertation was presented by Jeanne Pearlman It was defended on March 17, 2010 and approved by Michael G. Gunzenhauser, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Administrative and Policy Studies Patricia McMahon, PhD, Associate Professor, Carlow University, Secondary Education Maria Piantanida, PhD, Adjunct Faculty, Carlow University, Secondary Education David Trend, PhD, Professor, University of California, Irvine, Studio Art Department Advisor: Noreen Garman, PhD, Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Administrative and Policy Studies ii Copyright © by Jeanne Pearlman 2010 iii CHRONICLES OF RESISTANCE: A BORDERLANDS TESTIMONIO Jeanne Pearlman, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2010 This inquiry is an arts-based, narrative study that examines multiple manifestations of resistance as expressed by ordinary individuals who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. These expressions of resistance are offered as testimonios, defined as first-person narratives that bear witness to individual responses to systems of oppression. The testimonios are created within the context of the relationship between resistance and freedom, which can be seen as a mutual dependency, grounded in the reality that if some small amount of freedom did not exist, resistance could not manifest within the structures of domination. The key to enacting this freedom is the development of critical consciousness, a heightened awareness of the emancipatory power that lies in the recognition of the paradox of the few controlling the lives of the many. Often critical consciousness arises within an environment where imagination is reawakened by artists whose lives and work are situated within a practice of liberation and transformation. With a newly awakened critical consciousness, the oppressed are empowered to consider the option of critical resistance, those forms of dissent that arise not in opposition to a particular manifestation of oppression but rather in pursuit of imagined landscapes where social justice is the norm and oppression is vanquished. These utopian spaces arise within the Borderlands, liminal spaces where illusions of reality are jettisoned and creativity flourishes. iv The application of this form of resistance within public education requires the recognition that the current climate reflects a convergence of government surveillance through high-stakes testing and educational colonization manifested through the infusion of profit-driven consultants and product lines within the system. This study includes three testimonios, created to offer examples whereby individuals respond to oppression by imagining and the enacting diverse manifestations of critical resistance in their everyday lives. v ACKNOWLEDGMENT I owe significant thanks to each member of my dissertation committee. I am grateful to Dr. Noreen Garman, my advisor and committee chair, for her stalwart guidance and counsel throughout this process; to Dr. Michael Gunzenhauser, for sharing his deep knowledge of educational philosophy and for helping me to see Michel Foucault’s work through a new and invigorating lens; to Dr. Patricia McMahon for her compassion and her humor which, when added to her deep knowledge and passion for teacher education, offered a safe haven where I could conduct my rather odd thought experiments without fear; to Dr. Maria Piantanida who challenged me at every point in this journey and who first directed me to the genre of testimonio; and to Dr. David Trend, whose work on radical democracy continues to shape my worldview and who remembers me from another time, when job and work and life merged into a exhilarating practice of cultural and social change. I have been fortunate to have had such wonderful teachers and guides each of whom gave me the freedom to carry out this inquiry honestly and with integrity. I gratefully acknowledge the members of my study group, who welcomed a stranger into their circle of friendship and study. They are a strong, cohesive group of women, whose on- going support for each other’s work serves as an exemplar of the value of deliberation as a way of constructing and sustaining a practice of critical inquiry. They patiently read and responded through all of my struggles, and I thank them for their generous assistance. Through the process of my doctoral study, I have earned the right to say that I have studied with Dr. Noreen Garman. With the completion of this degree, I now join the ranks of a very special collection of teachers and scholars who have been privileged share in her profound scholarship and to model her compassion and her intense commitment to the children of this vi world. I do not take this privilege lightly, and I promise her that I will continue to work to justify her faith in me and that in every context within which I teach from this point forward, I will press on, I will honestly deliberate, and I will speak the truth to power without hesitation. My inner circle of friends and family believed in me and didn’t laugh out loud five years ago when I announced that I was returning to school yet again. In particular, I want to thank my children, Melissa and David, and the members of my chosen family, with special gratitude to Edwin, Alice, Toby and Leo, who often sat with me in the early morning light and offered silent encouragement as I waited impatiently for deep channels to open and the words to flow through me to the blank page. Donna, my beloved companion and best friend, has been by my side throughout this life- changing journey. She is my courage and my strength and a source of unconditional support through every phase of this great adventure, whether walking with me down the Boulevard Saint-Germain or offering a soothing cup of tea to comfort me as I wrestle with wizards and weathermen who just wouldn’t behave as they should. She is a determined soul, this woman who has shared my life for 26 years; so much so that I believe her when she tells me that she is so proud of me and that I am going to attend my graduation ceremony if she has to carry me there herself. She is my other half, and I thank her and dedicate this dissertation to her. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 SHOW ME THE MONEY ..................................................................................................... 8 2.1 HIGH STAKES TESTING AND GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE ....................... 8 2.2 PRIVATE INCURSIONS INTO PUBLIC EDUCATION ............................................ 13 2.2.1 The Broad Foundation .............................................................................................. 14 2.2.2 The Gates Foundation ............................................................................................... 16 2.3 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................... 18 3.0 THEORIES OF RESISTANCE........................................................................................... 20 3.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 21 3.2 CRITICAL RESISTANCE .............................................................................................. 21 3.2.1 Critical Consciousness and Freedom ...................................................................... 23 3.3 UPRISING IN PARIS MAY 1968 ................................................................................... 24 3.3.1 May 68 as a Model of Critical Resistance ................................................................ 28 3.4 ETHICAL RESISTANCE ............................................................................................... 33 3.4.1 The Public Intellectual ............................................................................................... 34 3.4.2 Émile Zola ................................................................................................................... 36 3.5 CULTURAL RESISTANCE............................................................................................ 38 3.5.1 Pablo Picasso and Guernica ...................................................................................... 38 3.5.2 Cultural Resistance as Critical Resistance ............................................................. 41 viii 3.5.3 Cultural Resistance as Everyday Resistance ........................................................... 42 3.6 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................... 44 4.0 THE TRIAL OF DOCTOR BILL ....................................................................................... 46 4.1 PROLOGUE ...................................................................................................................... 46 4.2 BACKGROUND ..............................................................................................................