JOE LYONS KINCHELOE (December 14, 1950 - December 19, 2008)
Joe stated in Knowledge and Critical
Pedagogy: An Introduction, "I am profoundly excited by this trek into an evolving consciousness, the pluriverse,
a world where dominant power is challenged, an education more exciting than any theme park ride, and a critical complex epistemology"
(Kincheloe, 2008, p. 209).
“How
do we get the attention of teachers and students anesthetized by consumerism and hyperreality’s saturation of information
and marketing iconography. I want to write for this audience in the style of a detective writer (epistemology noir?), a boy’s
adventure writer, an author of girls’ romance novels, a beat poet, Lame Deer’s memoirs, or Stephen King penning
a horror story all rolled into one.” ❤ Joe Kincheloe, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, p. 30
Critical Constructivism (His Unified World View/Philosophy)
Critical Science of Complexity
"If the critical complex epistemology is taken seriously, everything is open
to change, as the comfortable Western assumptions about knowledge, being, and socio-political and economic arrangements no
longer hold" (Kincheloe, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, 2008,
p. 192).
It should be noted that the above research endeavors are updates
based on what he had outlined in his most recent books: Critical Constructivism (2005), Critical Pedagogy Primer
(2008), and Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction (2008)(K & CP). I will update this with more details,
but for those of you who are interested in the meantime, please refer to the books as specified.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Joe passed away in 2008. Please critically analyze any works published after
that date that lists him as an author--I recommend strongly that you go back to his seminal works--primary versus secondary
research. Strangely, as I have learned, critical pedagogy in many ways has become a ruse. Don't be fooled! Joe,
of course, took his critical pedagogy VERY SERIOUSLY.
KINCHELOE'S SEMINAL WORKS FOR HIS MULTIDIMENSIONAL
CRITICAL COMPLEX BRICOLAGE
The
following two articles are Joe's seminal works conceptualizing bricolage. The second article is particularly important
because this was written after his and Berry's (2004) book, Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research: Conceptualizing the Bricolage, and after he had received reviews
of his first article from Peter McLaren, Yvonna Lincoln, and William Pinar (I have included a link to those reviews
as well). It is the second article in which Kincheloe (2005) has more clearly emphasized
his “dimensions” of research from which I draw and will be expanding upon for purposes of application.
KINCHELOE'S
FIRST BRICOLAGE ARTICLE:
The bricolage advocated here recognizes
the dialectical nature of the disciplinary and interdisciplinary relationship and promotes a synergistic interaction between
the two concepts. In this context, the bricolage is concerned not only with divergent methods of inquiry but with diverse
theoretical and philosophical understandings of the various elements encountered in the act of research (Abstract).
Sadly, the links to the
articles below have been broken. It seems these articles are hard to find FREE on the Internet now. COMING SOON: A critique
of these critiques! Check back soon.
Lincoln, Y. S. (2001). An emerging new Bricoleur: Promises
and possibilities—A reaction to Joe Kincheloe’s “Describing the Bricoleur.” Qualitative Inquiry,7,
6, 693–696.
McLaren,
P. (2001). Bricklayers and bricoleurs: A Marxist agenda. Qualitative Inquiry, 7, 6, 700–705.
Pinar,
W. F. (2001). The researcher as bricoleur: The teacher as a public intellectual. Qualitative Inquiry,7, 6, 696–700.
RIGOUR AND COMPLEXITY IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: CONCEPTUALIZING THE BRICOLAGE
(KINCHELOE & BERRY, 2004)
Next in line as a critical theoretical work for
Kincheloe's bricolage is the book he and Kathleen Berry wrote, Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research: Conceptualizing
the Bricolage. He wrote the theoretical chapters and she followed them up with a discussion and demonstrations of application
of the theory. Thus, this is an important book for understanding his conceptualization of bricolage. After this book, he
went on to further delineate it with his next article.
KINCHELOE'S SECOND BRICOLAGE ARTICLE:
The bricolage offers insight into new forms of rigor and complexity
in social research. This article explores new forms
of complex, multimethodological, multilogical forms
of inquiry into the social, cultural, political, psychological, and educational domains. Picking up where his previous Qualitative Inquiryarticle
on the bricolage left off, this article examines not only the epistemological but also
the ontological dimensions of multimethodological/multitheoretical research (Abstract).
Knowledge
and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction (2008). Springer
Critical Pedagogy. (2008). New York: Peter Lang Publishing
Critical Constructivism (2005). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Critical Pedagogy. (2004).
New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
The Sign of the Burger: McDonald’s and
the Culture of Control. (2002).
Philadelphia, PA. Temple University Press. (Korean Edition, 2004).
Teachers as Researchers:
Qualitative Paths to Empowerment, 2nd Edition.
(2002).New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Getting Beyond
the Facts: Teaching Social Studies/Social Sciences in the Twenty-First Century. (2001). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Hacia una revision critica del pensamiento docente.(2001). Barcelona: Ocaedro.
How Do We Tell the Workers?The Socio-Economic Foundations of Work and Vocational Education. (1999). Boulder, CO:
Westview Press.
A Formacao Do Professor Como Compromisso Politico: Mapeando o Pos-Moderno.
(1997).Porto
Alegre, Brazil: Artes Medicas.
Toil
and Trouble: Good Work, Smart Workers, and the Integration of Academic and Vocational Education. (1995). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Toward a Critical
Politics of Teacher Thinking: Mapping the Postmodern.
(1993). South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey. (Portuguese Edition, 1995; Spanish Edition, 1999).
Teachers As Researchers: Qualitative Paths to Empowerment. (1991). New York: Falmer Press.
Getting Beyond
the Facts: Teaching Social Studies in the Late Twentieth Century. (1989). New York: Peter Lang.
Understanding the New Right and Its Impact
on Education. (1983). Bloomington, Indiana: Phi Delta
Kappa.
Co-Authored Books:
Reading, Writing and Thinking: The Postformal Basics (2006). Rotterdam:
Sense Publishers. (with P.L. Thomas).
Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research:
Conceptualizing the Bricolage. (2004). London: Open University
Press. (with Kathleen Berry)
Art, Culture, & Education: Artful Teaching in a Fractured Landscape. (2003). New York:Peter Lang
Publishing. (with Karel Rose)
Contextualizing Teaching: Introduction to the Foundations of Education. (2000). New York: Allan & Bacon. Longman.
(with Shirley Steinberg and Patrick Slattery) T
The Sigma of Genius: Einstein, Consciousness and Education
(1999). New York: Peter Lang (with Deborah Tippins and Shirley Steinberg)
Changing Multiculturalism: New Times, New Curriculum. (1997). London: Open University Press. (with Shirley Steinberg)
Joe's
Mission
Joe was truly on a new mission and he was
excited about it. "Yes, I admit it -- I want to see not only a social and pedagogical revolution but an epistemological
and ontological revolution as well" (K & CP, p. 252). And as he stated, "Western society's focus on normal consciousness
as the only state of mind worth addressing and even then in the most narrow of ways is a major impediment to the development
of a critical complex epistemology and its understanding of multiple realities (Goswami, 1993; Bridges, 1997; Lustz, et al.,
Varela, 1999; McLeod, 2000; Scharmer & Varela, 2000)" (K & CP, p. 232). Further, he wrote, in the last chapter
of Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction:
There is so much more to deal with relating to these issues, especially in the way
that contructing new epistemologies may be central to human survival. While this is no short book, it is merely an introduction
to these knowledge-related issues and their impact on numerous dimensions of human life including the production of selfhood,
power relations, the dynamics of colonialism, and ecological sustainability and its implications for the planet's future.
These are grandiose claims, admittedly, but I don't believe that such ostentation discredits their reality and importance.
As I realize how much more I have to write on the topic, I am already planning new books and articles that pick up where I
leave off here (K & CP, p.227).
Joe stated, "I know that if I am too successful in raising these issues about the power dimensions of epistemology and the
politics of knowledge the metaphorical sword is ready to do its bloody work. Indeed, if critical scholars provide too much
interference in the corporatist, imperial university's effort to provide universal definitions that support their benefactors,
they know they are nothing more than expendable commodities in higher education's twenty-first century logic of capital
(Roue, 1987; Saul, 1995; Ward, 1995; Harding, 1998; Fenwick, 2000; Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2006)" (K & CP, p.
222).
It appears society has made little if any progress and history repeats itself over and
over: "...mainstream Westerners have been thoroughly acculturated to ridicule anything that falls too far from the epistemological mothership" (Kincheloe, K&CP, p. 187).
I
find this very sad, actually. But I am also hopeful that there are many people out there who are just as fed up as I am with
being treated like mindless puppets just so we can earn our table scraps, people ready to get involved and take action to
turn things around. ~ Vanessa
About Joe's "ANGEL"
photograph: I met Joe in July of 2008 in Vancouver, Canada. Recently, I was looking back through the photos I had
snapped and found this one. It is just so appropriate in so many ways. Joe truly did possess qualities that most of us can
only wish for. He believed the world can be transformed through love and his theory is based on that belief. Relevant to this,
I actually had referred to him as an "angel" on occasion....and then I found this amazing photo. The light
above his head was quite by accident. I was just focused on getting a good photo of him. I love it. My calling Joe
an "angel" was more a term of endearment, I guess one could say, just because he was so very kind. I am clarifying
because I realize that some of those around him may be offended by a religious connotation. After reading so much of
Joe's work, I do not believe he would have been offended whatsoever and one thing is certain: Joe,
through his work, holds the light for us all! You can read about the transformative day I met Joe here. ~ Vanessa
“As a child I wanted so
desperately for magic to be real. I would work for hours collecting what I hoped were just the right combination of ingredients
to make some type of magic potion that would provide me with special powers….I found such magic in words viewed in
a postformal matrix and I observe and practice that magic everyday.” (Kincheloe, 2006, Reading, Writing, Thinking,
p. 13)
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