Focused Discussions
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Development of Pedagogical Agency in Initial Teacher Formation to Contribute to Social Justice View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Priscilla Echeverria
My research is about the role that initial teacher formation should play to prepare teachers able to contribute to social justice from a critical perspective, understood as a matter of recognition (Honneth, 1995) and lack of institutionalized oppression (Young, 2011). The central aspect of the problem from a critical position is that the culture experienced in the classrooms are part of a hidden curriculum which is a micropolitics issue that every teacher should be conscious about and be able to deal with, to pay attention to those power issues and influences related to lack of recognition or oppression of their pedagogical work. Even though it is an important issue at human level, it is not present as part of initial teacher formation programs. For this reason, I wonder what is the capacity of novice teachers to deal with micropolitical issues at school when start their pedagogical work, and how they explain their preparation in initial teacher formation programs in this dimension.
The Metaverse: A Gateway to Heterodoxy View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Aaron Bazin
As we approach the metaverse, individual and group heterodoxy may very well find a place to run free. As the virtual and physical become more interconnected, interdependent, and indistinguishable, people could choose to live more and more of their lives in a gray zone between physical and virtual worlds. Because of the inherent qualities of the metaverse – namely, pseudonymity, ill-defined norms, and hyper agency – the environment could become characterized by unprecedented change to social structures. If the metaverse develops on its present course and humans increasingly live, work, and interact with one another in this environment, then people will have unforeseen freedom and empowerment to challenge orthodoxy. Using a social philosophical approach, this essay explores this hypothesis, offers objections and counterarguments, and then evaluates and synthesizes these positions.
