Knowledge

In Chapter 1 of Against Common Sense, Kumashiro poses the teacher as a researcher as an approach to teaching that has potential for anti-oppressive teaching but has not yet gotten there. The part of the section I found most interesting was the author's assertion that as well as building knowledge, the teacher learning to teach had to examine the knowledge they already had, but beyond that, the knowledge they didn't have, wouldn't build, or wanted to dismantle. It's interesting for me to think about the position of the teacher as someone who is unlearning or doesn't "know" because when we take away knowledge as a marker of a teacher it totally destabilizes our definitions. I think it's unsettling for us when we don't have clear boxes to put people in, and in definitions of what it means to teach, at least in my experience, the teacher is the holder of knowledge and is bequeathing it upon students. But even broadening the definition of knowledge and thinking of the teacher as a facilitator of knowledge building, knowing how to effectively help people build knowledge is knowledge too!! It's difficult for me to think of knowledge holding because I recognize both its limitations and its necessity in educating. It's so difficult to hold both of those ideas in my head.