A Justice Site
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: March 17, 2001
Latest update: March 17, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org
Essay: Sharing Our Learning with the Community Discussion Questions Our Inclusion on Other Sites 
Sharing Our Learning with the Community
Review and Teaching Essay by Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata
Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, March 2001. "Fair Use" encouraged.Responsible democracy, representational or otherwise, requires a citizenry able to hear validity claims in good faith and come to collective action. Habermas refers to the administered society and his fears that modern democracies have lost the skills of public discourse which permitted us to come to democratic results.Looking back on the 20th Century, I feel that we may never have been too skilled at this endeavor. But as Fellman points out, this is no longer a time to "control" nature in order to survive, but a time to learn to act interdependently with nature and with each other. The 20th Century placed tremendous importance on rational discourse, rational science, as the means to "truth." But few of us are trained as scientists and academics, so that few of us are trained in rational discourse skills. It was one of the dreams of Frederick Jackson Turner (of frontier thesis infamy or fame, depending on your persuasion) that the land grants which funded the growth in state colleges would provide that learning for the masses. In the 21st Century we have achieved the goal of mass acceptance of and attendance in education, but not of learning and teaching shall be made effective over ever-increasing numbers of students.
The major goals of this site are:
- To invite all to share in academic discourse.
- To make us all aware that we are not privileged to "know the answers," for most knowledge is too complex and ever growing, and there are always new prespectives.
- To recognize that humans are not always "rational" creatures; we act also out of feelings.
- To respect each other in expressing our ideas and feelings.
Real learning occurs as we listen in good faith to one another and question our own ideas and their unstated assumptions. And that kind of learning can be readily shared with others. One example is found in Camp Mom and Me. By respecting others, by not presuming privilege on the basis of our own cognitive training, we all learn to consider each others validity claims in good faith. Such learning should bring us closer to public discourse skills that will promote democracies that work for all.
Our Inclusion on Other Sites
Helps Outreach to a Broad CommunityType "Dear Habermas" in the search for box, and click on Go.
You will find a link to Dear Habermas on your screen!On March 14, 2001, Schoolsnet sent us notice that they had included us in their Web Guide:
The listing:
"Dear Habermas
Audience: Undergraduates
This is a journal of postmodern culture by undergraduates at the California State University for undergraduates everywhere. Follow the navigation instructions to get the most out of the extensive resources."Their e-mail:
"I am writing from Schoolsnet (www.schoolsnet.com), the UK’s leading education website for parents, pupils and teachers, informing you that your site is one of those chosen by our team of teachers to be part of our web guide.We are honored by this inclusion, and hope that students everywhere will join our discussions and share in helping us to achieve those skills we need to make decisions that include all."Schoolsnet, which serves more than 200,000 visitors every month, offers a wide range of learning and teaching resources for all people interested in secondary education.
"The thousands of sites in our web guide are selected and reviewed by education experts, who only choose the best, most useful sites."
Discussion Questions
- Discuss a theoretical framework for dealing with community learning.
jeanne's lecture notes on one plausible answer: Gordon Fellman's theory of the need for a paradigm shift from adversarialism to mutuality offers one framework. Henry and Milovanovic's constitutive theory offers another, one in which the interdependence of the structural context and the agency of individuals and specific institutions interact to produce community behavior and expectations. Post-colonial theory addresses the lack of agency when dominant discourse enforces colonial exploitation. See also on new books out on post-colonial theory.
Habermas speaks of legitimacy as a good faith hearing of the validity claims of all citizens. Although Habermas tends to emphasize consensus building in his description of public discourse, many new theoretical approaches, like Fellman's, Henry and Milovanovic's recognize that consensus is not a necessary requirement. We can agree to disagree, and reach legitimacy by simply allowing the disagreement to be expressed, without forcing acceptance of any one position upon those who disagree with it.
Theories which focus on accepting the ambiguity of conflicting answers cannot readily be practiced in a community that has been limited to restricted learning and the practice of the dominant discourse. Dominant discourse comes from the normative expectations of the community, which are generally shared within the long history of the community. The immigration of "Others" into all our communities produces undeniable differences and disagreements within the context of a community that was once largely insular. That means that legitimacy must increasingly include such issues of interdependence as we find in modern (or postmodern, depending on your categorical preference) social theory.