Skip to main content
Log in

Moments With Jacques Rancière: Sketches From a Lived Pedagogical Experiment in an Elementary Science Classroom

  • Article
  • Published:
Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The work of Jacques Rancière has become rather popular of late, with a series of high-profile advocates. In this article, we reflect on an elementary classroom and an experiment with pedagogy inspired by Rancière’s (1991) text, The Ignorant Schoolmaster. The authors discuss the text, outline a 20-lesson response that emerged from the study (focusing on reading-as-inquiry), and highlighting some of the possibilities, tensions, and ambiguities involved. The article concludes with discussion of how we sought to make sense of, and redistribute, our roles as science teacher-researchers by embracing teaching, will, and instability. We suggest becoming ignorant schoolmasters, wandering beyond the domain of the sensible, as we struggle to come to different terms with our political work.

Résumé

Les écrits de Jacques Rancière ont récemment connu une certaine popularité, soutenue par de nombreux partisans très en vue. Dans cet article, nous nous penchons sur une expérience réalisée dans une classe de primaire, dont les aspects pédagogiques s’inspirent du Mâıtre ignorant de Rancière. Les auteurs examinent le texte et produisent un ensemble de 20 leçons (centrées sur la lecture-enquête) dont ils soulignent les possibilités, les tensions et les ambiguités. L’article se termine par une analyse des façons dont nous avons cherché à comprendre et à redéfinir notre rôle d’enseignants et de chercheurs scientifiques, en tenant compte de «l’enseignement», de «la volonté» et de «l’instabilité». Nous proposons de devenir des mâıtres ignorants, qui vont au-delà du domaine du sensible pour finalement repenser notre travail politique.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bazzul, J. (2013). Emancipating subjects in science education: Taking a lesson from Patti Lather and Jacques Rancière. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 8, 245–251. doi:10.1007/s11422-013-9481-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bazzul, J. (2015). Towards a politicized notion of citizenship for science education: Engaging the social through dissensus. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 15(3), 221–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biesta, G. (2010). A new logic of emancipation: the methodology of Jacques Rancière. Education Theory, 60(1), 39–59. doi:10.1111/j.1741-5446.2009.00345.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biesta, G. (2013). The beautiful risk of education. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biesta, G., & Bingham, C. (2012). Response to Caroline Pelletier’s review of Jacques Rancière: Education, truth, emancipation. Studies of Philosphy of Education, 31, 621–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1993). Inside outside, teacher research and knowledge. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Education Review, 59(3), 297–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fang, Z., & Wei, Y. (2010). Improving middle school students’ science literacy through reading infusion. The Journal of Educational Research, 103(4), 262–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galloway, S. (2012). Reconsidering emancipatory education: Staging a conversation between Paulo Freire and Jacques Rancière. Educational Theory, 62(2), 163–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, W. L., & Goodwin, L. D. (1996). Understanding quantitative and qualitative research in early childhood education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie, J. T., Van Meter, P., Hancock, G., Alao, S., Anderson, E., & McCann, A. (1998). Does concept-oriented reading instruction increase strategy use and conceptual learning from text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(2), 261–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodson, D. (2011). Looking to the future: Building a curriculum for social activism. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lather, P. (2012). Rancière as post-Foucauldian. In M. Whittaker (Chair). Taking Rancière to school: An impossible curriculum. Symposium conducted at 2012 American Educational Research Association,Vancouver, BC, Canada. Extended abstract retrieved from AERA’s online repositoryhttps://doi.org/www.aera.net/

    Google Scholar 

  • May, T. (2008). The political thought of Jacques Rancière: Creating equality. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Means, A. (2011). Jacques Rancière, education, and the art of citizenship. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 33, 28–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norris, S., & Phillips, L. (2002). How literacy in its fundamental sense is central to scientific literacy. Science Education, 87(2), 224–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ødegaard, M., Haug, B., Mork, S. M., & Sørvik, G. O. (2014). Challenges and support when teaching science through an integrated inquiry and literacy approach. International Journal of Science Education, 36(18), 2997–3020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ontario Ministry of Education. (2007). The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1–8 — Science and Technology. Toronto, Canada: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelletier, C. (2012). No time or place for universal teaching: The ignorant schoolmaster and contemporary work on pedagogy. In J. P. Deranty & A. Ross (Eds.). Jacque Raciere and the contemporary scence (pp. 99–116). London, England: Continuum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, L.M., & Norris, S.P. (2009). Bridging the gap between the language of science and the language of school science through the use of adapted primary literature. Research in Science Education, 39, 313–319. doi:10.1007/s11165-008-9111-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Power, N. (2010). Axiomatic equality: Rancière and the politics of contemporary education. Retrieved from https://doi.org/www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-07-01-power-en.html/articles/2010-07-01-power-en.html. First published in Polygraph 21 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rancière, J. (1991). The ignorant schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation (K. Ross, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

  • Rancière, J. (2009). A few remarks on the method of Jacques Rancière. Parallax, 15(3), 114–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romance, N. R., & Vitale, M. R. (1992). A curriculum strategy that expands time for in-depth elementary science instruction by using science-based reading strategies: Effects of a year-long study in grade four. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 29(6), 545–554.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roth, W. M., & Barton, A. C. (2004). Rethinking scientific literacy. New York, NY: Routledge Falmer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ruitenberg, C. (2008). What if democracy really matters. Journal of Educational Controversy, 3(1). Article 11. Retrieved from https://doi.org/cedar.wwu.edu/jec/vol3/iss1/11/jec/vol3/iss1/11

    Google Scholar 

  • Safstrom, C.-A. (2014). The passion of teaching at the border of order. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 42(4), 337–346. doi:10.1080/1359866X.2014.956045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stake, R. (2000). Case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.). Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 435–454). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suoranta, J. (2014). Jacques Rancière on radical equality and adult education. In M. Peters, P. Ghiradeli, B. Zarnic, & A. Gibbons (Eds.). Encyclopedia of philosophy of education. Retrieved from https://doi.org/www.ffst.hr/Encyclopedia/Encyclopedia

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Wynsberghe, R., & Khan, K. (2007). Redefining case study. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 6(2), 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lorraine Otoide.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Otoide, L., Alsop, S. Moments With Jacques Rancière: Sketches From a Lived Pedagogical Experiment in an Elementary Science Classroom. Can J Sci Math Techn 15, 234–247 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2015.1062939

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2015.1062939

Navigation