Education Commons^™

A Critical Enquiry Into The Relationship Of Literature In American Public Education And Michel Foucault's Governmentality, Lucille Ann Van Alstine

Dissertations

The purpose of this Critical Enquiry was to describe how literature taught in American public school can be viewed as an instrument of governmentality. The late popular Twentieth century philosopher/historian Michel Foucault viewed governmentality as a perspective of rule within a society, or more accurately, the pervasive thought attached to power of the given ruling structure of a particular historical time period. Foucault’s governmentality provided a framework in which to examine the relationship between citizens' voice as a collective "We, the People" or as "I, the individual." These balancing voices appear in literature taught in American education and parallel the …

Righteous Commitment: Renewing, Repairing, And Restoring The World—Wangari Maathai And The Green Belt Movement, Jennifer Lara Simka Kushner

Dissertations

This Africentric historical inquiry introduces Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and internationally renowned Kenyan activist, as a visionary adult educator and leader of the liberatory environmental movement -The Green Belt Movement. The Movement addresses decades of mis-education through culturally grounded adult education activities that help communities understand the linkages between environmental degradation and poor governance, and educate people to participate in democracy.

The study describes Maathai’s philosophy and how it informed her leadership of environmental, political, and social change. The African philosophical framework of Maat, and the principle of serudj-ta (repairing, renewing and restoring the world) provide a …