Beyond interests, we look for people who are like us because this is easier, more comfortable. Sociologists call this “homophily” — birds of a feather stick together. But there are choices that we make in an education context that increase or decrease the diversity of people’s social networks. And those choices have lifelong and societal consequences. Those choices happen whether we intend for them to or not.
boyd argues that there are three ways in which people bond: an intrinsic alignment, extrinsic enemy and shared vulnerability. I guess this is why things like school camps and outdoor education activities are so powerful. However, with all this, building bonds and social ties seems to have been something overlooked during the pandemic and offsite learning.
For the last year, as students have negotiated K-12 and college during a pandemic, the lack of awareness about the importance of social tie development became even more profound. We’ve seen countless tools built to help students obtain the school material. Teachers invested in finding ways to transfer classroom pedagogy to the internet, to produce more interactive and compelling video content, often using tools like polls to interact with students. But the primary relationship that was considered was one rooted in a notable power differential — the dynamic between the teacher and the student. Yes, students have still been required to negotiate group projects on Zoom, but how many tools have been rolled out this year that are really about strengthening ties between students? Helping students connect with others in a healthy way? Most of what I’ve seen has focused on increasing competition and guilt. Tools that are designed so that everyone can see each other’s assignments, complete with timestamps that reveal the complex lives students face navigating virtual school. Tools that privilege those who can perform. And tools that are rooted in accounting and accountability. Why are we not seeing tools to help students bond across difference?
The problem is that in a world of polarisation and social fracture, connections are the strongest weapons we have. As boyd explains,
To radically alter how people see the world, you have to alter their connections to those who might challenge these new frames.
boyd puts forward some ideas for a more thoughtful social fabric. These include pushing back on drumbeat around stranger danger so that we can actually speak to others, creating digital outreach programs to support those in pain online, and being more deliberate about social networks within schools.
If you put the social network at the center of your work, how might that change some of your practices? As an administrator, you could assign classrooms strategically. As a teacher, this could shape how you constructed group projects, how you seated students. You do much of this by feel already, but a tool lets you shift your goals. Rather than making your goal be about the success of the group project, imagine a goal that’s about strengthening the graph of the students.
Although boyd’s focus is on the American education system, it is still an interesting concept to consider. Personally, I have not seen a lot of opportunity to build social ties. Sadly, when there is a will there is a way and some students find their own way to connect in less structured spaces. Although I am an advocate for more deliberate social spaces in education, someone has to support such spaces.
So here we are again. One week I am catching up with Richard Olsen and co for drinks in the city and then the next week we are in lock-down again. I remember reading about the hammer and the dance early on in the pandemic, where we lock-down to get on top of things and then dance with the ever changing rules and restrictions. The problem is, I do not think we are very good at dancing. Coming home from my night out, face-masks on public transport were near on non-existent. On top of that, the bar thanked me for clicking on the QR code at the door. Maybe he was just being courteous, but it did not feel like it.
In lock-down, I took our daughters for a ride. At the local reserve, there was a food truck set up with two guys selling take-away. Sadly though, there were no face-masks. I contacted the company privately raising my concern and got the following response:
I am not sure he quite understands how masks work. That I wear a mask for him and he and his colleague wear a mask for me. To be fair, my greater fear is not catching COVID from him, although it is a possibility, but rather that such small businesses will no longer exist if we do not all do our bit to get on top of things. Personally, I am able to work from home, so other than having to support our children with their learning, I am not impacted. Sadly, I am not sure everyone quite sees it that way.
On other matters, I have been listened to new albums by Olivia Rodrigo, Haerts and St. Vincent, but have found myself retreating to the more familiar with Estelle Caswell’s ode to gated reverb playlist. In addition to this, I have been tinkering with Google Sheets and XML, as well as started a few posts, but with jobs around the house and work at the moment, I seem to be failing with following through.
Here then are some of the posts that have had me thinking:
Education
The Trouble with Teaching: Is Teaching a Meaningful Job?
John Danaher dives into his frustrations with teaching in a university setting, providing a provocation to reflect upon in respect to all aspects of learning and teaching.
Knitting a Healthy Social Fabric
danah boyd explores role played by schools in building the social fabric and democracy of the future.
Is De-Implementation the Best Way to Build Back Better?
Peter DeWitt reflects on the need to de-implement and take things off the plate in order to build back better.
Mapping Assessment
Ron Ritchhart provides a model for mapping assessment based on two dimensions: integration and evaluation.
On Rereading
Victor Brombert reflects upon the different forms of rereading and the uncanny experience of coming upon lost notes in the margins.
Technology
The Global Smartphone
A team of anthropologists spent a year conducting an ethnographic study in nine different countries documenting the ways in which smartphones are used by older people. The team come to the conclusion that the smartphone has come to represent the place where we live.
Pedagogy, Presence and Placemaking: a learning-as-becoming model of education.
David White talks about the issue of simply moving face-to-face learning online and the need to foster presence to help make online spaces places that foster learning.
YouTube’s kids app has a rabbit hole problem
Rebecca Heilweil takes a look at the way in which YouTube Kids and the autoplay function acts as a gateway to questionable content.
Data isn’t oil, so what is it?
Matt Locke suggests that we need more effective metaphors to help people understand the place and purpose of data in our world today.
On the temptation to nuke everything and start over
Influenced on Kin Lane’s decision to leave the past behind, Doug Belshaw reflects on the temptation to start over.
General
The Case for Letting People Work From Home Forever
Jaclyn Greenberg makes the case for a permanent move to working from home, while Cal Newport pushes back instead arguing for near-home locations.
Welcome Back, Darling
Kath Sullivan and Nathan Morris explore what it means to have water back in the Darling River. In contrast with the past few years of dry river beds, towns like Brewarrina, Wilcannia and Menindee have become energised once again.
In the Air Tonight’s influence, intrigue, and THAT drum break that endures 40 years on
Matt Neal reflects on the forty years since Phil Collins’ released In the Air Tonight and its ongoing legacy, especially in regards to gated reverb.
Tao of WAO
Laura Hilliger and Doug Belshaw have started a new podcast associated with their participation in We Are Open Co-op.
The Weaponization of Care
Autumm Caines discusses the way in which survelliance technology is packaged with notions of care as a way of normalising various practices.
Read Write Respond #065
So that was May for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well.
Cover Image via JustLego101
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