unSchooling Oppression Conference – Day1
Monday, November 5, 2007
All conference activities are FREE!
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6:30pm (doors at 6:00pm)
Keynote: David Noble, author of Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education
Location: Ottawa Public Library Auditorium, 120 Metcalfe St (at Laurier St)
Topic: Breaking the Rules
Rules are created by and for those who rule. Those who rule rarely follow the rules which are designed for others. These rules are taught in school. There are two paths to education. One is by learning and observing the rules (constructive theory of knowledge). The other is by breaking the rules (deconstructive theory of knowledge). The challenging of the rules reveals the rulers.
In an autobiographical account Noble will trace his own lifelong experience along the second path, what he has learned about what lays behind the rules, and how to challenge them effectively, and how to move from whining to winning.
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A professor at York University, David Noble is a long-time critic of the commercialization of universities. He is best known for his opposition to the corporate takeover of post-secondary campuses and administrations. Particularly notable are his Palestinian solidarity work and his criticism of technology as an educational tool. Noble co-founded the National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest in 1983 and the York Public Access (an alternative to York University’s media relations) in 2005. Over the past few decades, his fight against the continual corruption of post-secondary administrators has been met with an all-out war, eventually leading to a settlement with Simon Fraser University over their denial of his candidacy for the J.S. Woodsworth Chair in 2001.
Notable written works:
· America By Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism (1977)
· Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation (1990)
· Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education (2001)
· Beyond the Promised Land: The Movement and the Myth (2005)
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Love to learn, but hate school?
Think there must be something better than this?
Want to arm yourself against the weapons of mass instruction?
unSchooling Oppression at the University of Ottawa
Conference, November 5-10, 2007
Registration Cost: FREE, but donations are encouraged to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs
See the full schedule and speaker bios at: http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/
This is not your average conference! unSchooling Oppression is an original, student-led initiative designed not only for academic professionals, but for students, teachers, professors, activists, and community members alike. It is both a critical examination of the various forms of oppression within traditional schooling models and a hopeful exploration of liberating educational alternatives.
Five evening keynote presentations will feature speakers on a broad range of topics, each concluding with a period for questions and discussion. Various aspects of their talks will touch on the historical roots and purposes of traditional schooling; power, authority and oppression; institutional violence; curricular racism, sexism and homophobia; freedom and deschooling; alternative models for learning; and much more. Confirmed speakers include: David Noble, John Taylor Gatto, Cindy Milstein, Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, and Matt Hern. These presentations will allow attendees from the university and the broader community to critically examine current teaching practices and envision alternative education models that are student-centered and promote independent thinking, self-motivation, equity, and solidarity, both inside and outside the school. The speakers will be traveling to Ottawa from around Canada and the USA. See our website for full schedule and speaker bios.
The conference will also include a series of daytime workshops organized by members of the community as well as guests from the United States on issues that they consider relevant to the themes of education as oppression, and education as liberation. Themes will include the deschooling movement, self-motivated learning, militarization and education, and more.
The most exciting part of the conference will be the concluding caucus, wherein conference attendees will have the opportunity to brainstorm together a way forward in applying some of the ideas presented during the conference. Our goal, as conference organizers, is for this event to catalyze a new movement of projects and campaigns here in Ottawa to directly address the issues presented.
We hope you can be a part of this movement!