Teaching
Dennis Florig
I.
Introduction
This paper takes a broad approach to
this conference’s theme of curriculum.
Today you have heard a lot about many aspects of American Studies. My approach is not so much about subject
matter and disciplines as it is about teaching and the overall subject we are
teaching. Hence my
title, “teaching
I want to begin today by asking you to
do a little mind experiment. Imagine
that you have been given a very attractive offer to go to the
What would you do? Would you keep your instruction to the strict limits of your academic discipline? Would you rely solely on one or two standard texts on Korean culture, society, or history? If so, what could they possibly be? What would you need to prepare your students for the awesome responsibilities they would face?
This mind experiment is not far from
the situation I face as an American teaching American Studies at a Korean
GSIS. As you probably know, during the
Kim Young Sam administration, 9 new Graduate Schools of International Studies
were set up to prepare future Korean leaders to operate more effectively in a
globalizing world. Regional studies were
encouraged, and
I entered the Hanyang GSIS a year after a program had been designed on paper. American Studies had been divided up into traditional academic disciplines—American Economy, American Business, American Politics, American History, American Society, etc. Several subfields of International Relations were also taught, IR Theory, International Trade, International Organizations, International Law, International Negotiations, etc. Korean lecturers had been assigned to cover some of these topics. One other American colleague and I would have to cover the rest. Over time, we faced rapid government budget cuts. Some of these cuts were anticipated as government “seed” money was reduced as planned, and others were due to the IMF crisis. Outside lecturers were pared, and my one American colleague and I had to cover more and more of the waterfront. We still have outside lecturers to handle what is beyond our ken, but my colleague and I are basically in the situation I described in the mind experiment. We largely decided what “American Studies” is at the Hanyang University GSIS.
Let me also give you a little more
background before I launch into the heart of my talk—my personal background,
which of course shapes how I approach my task.
I was trained as a political scientist in the
This diverse experience was at times quite disorienting, but it did give me a deeper perspective on what education is and made me a much better teacher. In a sense, it has forced me to go full circle, back to my original goals in becoming a teacher in the first place. Like many, I became a teacher with the idealistic goal of educating the whole person, not just stuffing narrow information into students who often can’t see the point. Like many, however, the realities of academic politics, disciplinary research, and careerist students gradually wore me down until eventually I was becoming more and more like the pedantic classroom dictators I disliked and less and less like my idealistic vision of a teacher. Having to teach totally different things in totally different environments renewed me as an educator. In each new situation I had to reevaluate just what I was supposed to be doing as a teacher. Each time I moved on, the previous experience better prepared me for the new role I was taking on.
Perhaps the most important lesson I took from these diverse experiences was to try to go back to my original goals to educate the whole person.
II.
Teaching
Goals
The title of this talk begins with the verb “teaching,” and I will devote much of this presentation to the act of teaching, not just to the content I teach. I want to discuss 4 interrelated ways of thinking I seek cultivate in my students: 1. an active approach to issues, 2. critical thinking, 3. global citizenship, and 4. life-time skills that will endure after formal education. (see Figure 1)
Figure 1
HIERARCHY
OF ACADEMIC SKILLS
|
|
Social Science
|
English
|
Intellectual
Skills |
Developing your own ideas Critical Thinking Analytical Ability |
Thinking in English |
Active
Skills |
Collecting Data Discussing Other People’s
Ideas |
Presenting Ideas Speaking Writing |
Passive
Skills |
Absorbing Information Memorizing Facts |
Listening |
Of course, all of us strive for these goals. But too often we lose sight of them in the day-to-day grind of meeting our classes, grading our exams and papers, conducting our research, attending our conferences, prevailing in university politics, etc. So after I briefly justify these goals I will talk concretely about how I seek to attain them in my classroom.
In my work I try to remediate some of the well known deficiencies of the Korean educational system by bringing some of the better techniques of American-style education to my students. We all know the weaknesses of the Korean educational system—emphasis on rote memorization, passive absorption of information, authoritarian methods in the classroom, the primacy of the teacher’s point of view, etc. In my classroom I seek to overcome these tendencies and encourage active skills and critical thinking.
I also strive to impart a sense of global citizenship. I myself become very wary when I hear educators talking about teaching citizenship. On the one hand, formal education is crucial to the development of the skills needed for democratic participation in complex modern society. True citizens are not born, they are made. But too often what advocates of education for citizenship seek is the instilling of mindless, pavlovian patriotism and blind submission to national leaders. A real citizen is an active, critical participant in public life, the complete opposite of a blind, mindless nationalist.
That is why I think the global dimension is essential in contemporary citizenship. In the 21st century, true citizenship requires not only voting in a national election or passively following pubic issues, also but being able to see the perspective of others—not just Korean, but also American, not just Christian but also Islamic, not just South Korean but also North Korean, etc. Global citizenship in the information age requires a critical and active use of the media, since almost all we learn about the world beyond our borders is “mediated” by the people who control our TVs, newspapers, Internet, etc.
Education for citizenship begins in the classroom. You cannot simultaneously teach students to stand up for principles yet sit down and shut up when the teacher comes in the room. When pressed I often tell my students a classroom is not a democracy, but it need not be an absolute dictatorship either. Critical thinking and active participation begins in school, with criticism of the points of view of class materials and the teacher.
I also seek to impart life-time skills that will serve my students long after they leave formal education. The reading, writing, and reasoning skills we develop in our students will endure long after they have forgotten the things they needed to know to pass the test. In my case, I suspect the English acquired through struggling with the GSIS coursework is the most enduring legacy for most of my students. Beneath the surface I am engaged in a massive exercise in content based language learning. The new wrinkles I try to bring to education for life-time skills are knowledge of internet design and internet research and more generally, media savvy.
The Socratic Method
Idealistic goals are fine, but they mean little unless there are concrete means to attain them. Today I will present 3 ways I to try to achieve my goals: 1. Socratic dialogue in class, 2. involving my students in developing an Electronic Textbook posted on the internet, and 3. using educational, news, and entertainment video as course materials.
According to tradition, the great teacher Socrates did not directly lecture to his classes. Rather, he began by asking his students questions, and then through follow-up questions drove his students to examine their fundamental assumptions. Through dialogue he brought his students to deeper understanding of the issues. I rarely lecture to my class. Instead, with each reading assignment I give students prepared questions and ask them come to class prepared to answer these questions (See Figures 2 and 3).
Figure 2
Excerpt from my first year, first semester required
course syllabus
THE SEMINAR METHOD
This course will follow a seminar format, using
the Socratic method. Like in any
university course, you will be given a reading list. You will also be given a series of
comprehension and discussion questions to go with each week's reading. Then each week we will discuss the
comprehension and discussion questions in class. I will not often lecture. Instead, I will ask questions, and you will
be expected to demonstrate your understanding of the reading material.
The format I have selected for this class is
based on my experience from ten years of teaching Korean students. You all know the strengths and weaknesses of Korean
higher education. This class is designed
to begin to overcome the weaknesses of the Korean educational system. There is rarely any interactive exchange of
ideas in a Korean classroom--Korean students are rarely expected to present
material or to do independent research.
However, you are graduate students in an international studies program,
and I am a stubborn foreign professor. I
will insist that you take an active part in your own intellectual development
and communicate your knowledge.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR A SEMINAR CLASS
This seminar format is a challenging method of
learning. It can be interesting and even
exciting, but it will also be difficult.
To do well in this class you must both do the homework and perform in
class. You will do well if you follow
three simple rules:
1.
DO THE READING EVERY WEEK!
2.
COME TO CLASS PREPARED TO DISCUSS THE
3. DON’T
PANIC!
Figure 3
Example
of Comprehension and Discussion Questions for Media Class
Comprehension
Questions
1. What do the authors mean by
“critical citizenship?”
2. What do the authors think the
purpose of education is? What do they
think about learning “facts?”
3. Do the authors think there is
one and only one correct reading of the meaning of a text? How do they think texts should be
interpreted?
4. Why is the study of popular
culture controversial in the
5. What do the authors think about
conflict over school curricula and cultural values?
6. What do the authors mean by a
"language of resistance" or a "language of empowerment?"
7. What do the authors mean when
they write, “Education needs to be recognized as producing not only knowledge
and discourse but also political subjects.”?
8. What do the authors think about
the media coverage of the Gulf War?
Discussion
Questions
1. What do you think of the authors
of Media Knowledge’s basic philosophy of education? What do you think
the purpose of education is?
2. Do you think encouraging
“critical citizenship” is an important educational goal? Is it a valid purpose of education to create
“political subjects?” Does the concept
of “critical citizenship” imply a “language of resistance” or a “language of
empowerment?”
3. Does the study of popular
culture have an important role to play in the educational process? Why or why not?
I begin with comprehension questions that require them to show they have
understood the main ideas and specific points of the readings. Then, after I am satisfied they have absorbed
the basic themes, I move on to discussion questions that probe more deeply the
subtext of the material, the relationship between this reading and basic course
themes, and the fundamental reasons we are tackling this material. The comprehension questions help the students
develop their English skills and their basic analytical ability. The discussion questions require critical
analysis and the ability to integrate ideas.
I would like to breeze over the comprehension questions and spend most
class time on the discussion questions.
But in truth, most of my students need work on their basic
comprehension, so these questions usually take more than half of class time.
Using the Socratic method is
difficult, but the benefits far outweigh the costs. Most of my students are well prepared each week. They do not blow off their reading
assignments until the night before exams, nor do they just skim over the
reading. They grapple hard with the main
ideas. Some actually come to class with
written notes sketching an answer to each of the discussion questions. Most of my students are alert and active in
class. I sometimes see eyes wandering
around the room and the vacant stares, but not nearly as often as I used to in
the
Certainly my students get plenty of work on their “live” English skills. They not only work on their presentation ability, they have to be able to interact with me as I further question and probe their initial answers. If I suspect a student is presenting a “canned” memorized answer or repeating phrases she may not really comprehend, I press her to explain more deeply. Often student responses are germane, but only partially answer the question, so I press the class to go deeper. Unlike in many English classes, all students are listening carefully when another is speaking. They know they could be called on to supplement or correct the current speaker’s answer.
At the center of the Socratic method is the attempt to get down to first principles, to reach the basic issues. Dialogue about the content of a reading often leads to questions about why we are reading this particular piece, what the deeper point is, what the subtext reveals. Both students and I often discover things we would never have thought of if I simply lectured at them.
The reciprocal effect of Socratic
questions to students is that they begin to actively interrogate me. In large part this is a defense
mechanism. The students quickly learn
that when I am answering their questions, they do not have to answer my
questions. But that is fine with
me. It keeps me more engaged. It sharpens not only their conversational
skills but also their analytic ability.
But most important, by fielding student questions I learn how they view
the issues. It is probably the single
most effective way I have of bridging the cultural divide and seeing how my
students correctly and incorrectly perceive the
Using the Potential of the Internet
I also use the internet to try to impart lifetime skills. I think we are all learning how to guide students in using the internet for their own research and study, although in many cases they are already much more adept than us old fogeys. I hope more and more of us are using the internet to find course content, both by searching through traditional journals and books more effectively, and by finding new internet content that supplements our traditional course materials.
I hope many of you are also experimenting with your own teaching websites. Let me just show you what I have been doing in what I call my Electronic Textbook. (see Figure 4) Let me assure you that this is just supplemental material—I still use traditional texts and articles for most of my course content. But over time, I am putting more and more of my class content onto the web.
Figure 4
http://dflorig.com/electrotext.htm
The Electronic Textbook on American Politics and American Studies
I began the Electronic Textbook as a
collection of schematics, tables, handouts, graphics, and short writings I use
in my teaching. With the transition from the
Click
here to go to the Table of Contents of the Student Pages of the Electronic
Textbook
Bush Watch: a review of selected Bush administration's policies and decisions, with
links.
Links to Key Bush Speeches and Critical Commentary
My Academic Papers on Bush Policies
My
Academic Papers on Bush Policies translated into Korean
Myths and Realities about the "New"
Terrorism
The War of Terrorisms: What is the Axis of Evil?
Photoessay of the World Trade Center and Pentagon Bombings
The Nuclear Impasse on the Korean Peninsula: The More
Things Change, The More They Stay the Same
The 2002 American Midterm: The Bush Victory in
Historical Perspective
The Bush Missile Defense Plan
The Bush Team
Satires
of Dubya
The
Clinton Administration in Historical Perspective
Cartoons
of "Slick Willie" Clinton
American Geography
Basic
Data on American Population and Ethnic Groups
Population maps from the
Census Bureau. This page is slow to load because of the large graphics
files.
A Short Lesson in American Political Geography
American Parties and Elections
Indecision 2000, links to media coverage of the 2000 election and the post-election battle.
The Electoral College and the 2000 Election
Data
and Analysis of the American Party System
Articles on the American Presidency
Where do Presidents Come From?
The Success Rate of Vice Presidents Running for President
The Clinton Scandal and the American Political Character
Running, Reigning, and Ruling: The Presidential
Campaign of 1992
(a dated, but still interesting
commentary on the 1992 election)
Outlines and Data on American History and Global Hegemony
Ideologies of American History
Manifest Destiny vs. Liberal Internationalism
Five
Dimensions of the Concept of Hegemony
Click here to go to the Table of Contents of the Student Pages of the Electronic Textbook
BACK TO Professor Florig's HOMEPAGE
But the most important part of my Electronic Textbook are the student pages (see Figures 5 and 6). I began the student pages simply by having many of my classes upload their term papers to the web, embellished with graphic images. This had several advantages over a traditional class paper. Students had to learn basic web skills such as how to upload files, how to insert graphics, how to format a web page, etc. When students later went looking for a job, they could impress a prospective employer by showing the real internet content they had produced. The entire class got involved in a group project, something like a traditional student newspaper. The website itself now serves as a good advertisement for the program. Prospective students who visit the Hanyang GSIS website can see not only passport photos of professors, vaguely high-minded mission statements, and course outlines, but they can get directly engaged in what our students’ are actually doing.
Now after a couple of years of uploading student papers, I am seeing new ways to use the website. More and more, when a new student comes to me with a perennial research topic, I am assigning the new student to study previous students’ papers. A kind of cumulative learning is going on, with the new students benefiting directly from the research the older students did. I have also begun to assign new students to summarize and draw together the papers of several previous students. I am giving my better students assignments much like that of an editor of a collection of articles—write an introduction that summarizes and integrates the themes of a set of interrelated papers. These students are learning higher order analytical, critical, and synthetic skills. And I am getting a product that is beginning to resemble more a real textbook, an integrated work that covers many dimensions of key issues. We are still far from that lofty goal, but this is one case where the journey is more important than the final destination.
Figure 5
http://gsaps.hanyang.ac.kr/usa/paper/index.htm
Figure 6
http://gsaps.hanyang.ac.kr/usa/paper/history.htm
Using Video
There is an old Chinese saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” So how much are moving pictures accompanied by words worth? Compared to the sexy new technology of the internet, taped video seems almost stodgy. But videotapes of news programs can bring an immediacy to analysis of issues that is difficult to match in a traditional textbook. I know of no better way to illustrate the smugness of American foreign policy than to show 60 Minutes news magazine reporter Mike Wallace haughtily waving his finger at former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin while lecturing him on human rights.
Prepared documentary video series can
link the power of moving images with the depth and analysis of a traditional
textbook. There are many excellent videotape classes available through a collaboration between the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting and the Annenberg Foundation (a catalog can be found at http://www.learner.org/). These are programs
that originally air on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and then are sold
as videotapes. In my history class I
use, A Biography of America, 26 half hour programs that go from
The history series does a good job of
chronicling the untold stories of African-Americans, non-Anglo immigrant
groups, women, workers, etc. But
tellingly, even this multiculturally sensitive series
sells 20th century American hegemonism in
a most politically incorrect way, a limitation that speaks volumes as I
repeatedly stress to my students. “The
Pacific Century” is also seemingly progressive in that it illuminates the
diversity of cultures and perspectives in
The Hanyang GSIS is a social science based program with no offerings in traditional humanities like English literature. But I often use entertainment videos in my teaching. Entertainment videos are particularly useful in showing alternative perspectives to the dominant culture or the official metanarratives of American history and politics. Those of you who teach humanities know that stories and other forms of art can evoke the depth and complexity of social life in a way that often eludes the pseudo-scientific jargon of the social sciences.
III.
Courses and Themes
Media Studies
When I began at the Hanyang GSIS, there were outside lecturers to fill most of the courses listed in the original curriculum, so I had the freedom to design a couple of courses not on the original class list. The first subject I chose was Media Studies. The first page of the syllabus I still hand out to students tells why. (see Figure 7)
Multiculturalism
My
colleague teaches our course on American Culture from a classic work from the
1960s that presents the then predominant view of a common, accepted, unitary
American culture. Soon I may be picking
up that course, and I would do it much differently. I would build the course on a foundation of
multiculturalism. There are at least 3 reasons why one
should teach
Figure 7
American Media Syllabus (First Page)
There are many subjects I might
have taught this semester. Why did I
choose to teach on the media?
1. No one can deny the
pervasiveness of the electronic media in American and global society. The very world you experience is increasingly
“mediated” for you through electronic devices—TV, radio, electronic music, the
Internet, etc. Your images of the world, even your images of yourself as a man
or woman, Korean or American, or student or company man, are increasingly
shaped not primarily by what you learn from your families, your communities, or
your schools, but mostly by what you see and hear in the media (or what your
family members, neighbors, and teachers see and hear in the media). This is the reality of the information age
here in
2. Some of you will become
professional scholars when you finish this program and will study the written
word as your life’s work. But most of
you will soon leave formal schooling.
Education does not stop when you stop attending school. You will continue learning and growing as a
person. And your most important teacher
once you leave school will be the media.
Most of you will read only a few books or academic journals once you
leave school. But all of you will watch
TV, read newspapers and magazines, listen to the radio, go to the movies, and
surf the Net. After you leave school,
most of what you learn about the
3. Most Koreans, like most
Americans, value democracy. In the
information age, being an effective citizen largely means being an effective
and active user of the media. Being a
good citizen requires more than keeping informed by passively consuming the
media. It even requires more than being
critical of media manipulation. You must
actively seek out alternative media that will give you a more truthful
perspective on your world and your life.
You must learn how to search through all the “data smog” of useless
information that only deadens your mind to find the rare precious connection
that can enlighten you about yourself and your world.
First,
Second, multiculturalism is even more
important in understanding the
Third, multiculturalism is
particularly important in helping Koreans understand the
As I said, I don’t teach our American culture course. But I bring the issue of multiculturalism into all my courses. Media studies are especially important in this regard because multicultural theory is so deeply embedded in this discipline. And on a concrete level, media gives a great opportunity to dramatize perspectives different than the dominant cultural code. In my media class we study not only the movies of the black director Spike Lee, but also the works of other minorities, women, and working class people. Similarly in my history class we investigate not only the dominant narrative of American triumphalism but also the often untold stories of Native Americans, Africa-Americans, immigrants, trade unionists, colonized peoples, and the peace movement.
Manifest Destiny
There are crucial continuities in how
Anglo-Americans treated the non-Anglos on the North American content in the 19th
century and how contemporary Americans treat non-westerners in their role as
global hegemon in the 20th and 21st
centuries. When I was first asked to
teach the American history course in our program, I pondered how to make pre-20th
century American history relevant to Korean students. I also thought deeply about how I could go
beyond existing history texts, even multiculturally
sensitive ones, to show the development of the uniquely American way of
thinking about the world. I realized
that I wanted to teach my students the continuity between the expansion of the
I realized one of the best ways to
achieve all these goals was to introduce my students to the concept of Manifest
Destiny and show how it evolved into the American desire to “save” the
world. The first time I taught the course
I adopted as a supplemental text Anders Stephanson’s
excellent and relatively short book. But
the language was just too difficult for my students. So I developed schematics (see Figure
8). In my
Figure 8
Parallels between American Ideologies of
Manifest Destiny and Liberal Internationalism
|
Manifest Destiny (19th Century) |
Liberal Internationalism (20th-21st Century) |
|
Christianity is a universal value system |
Capitalism and Democracy are universal value systems |
|
The
|
The
|
|
The
|
The
|
Manifest
Destiny: Its Religious, Racial, and Liberal Origins
|
|
The Jews |
The Americans |
The Americans (Racial version of Manifest Destiny) |
The Americans (Liberal version of |
|
A Special People |
|
|
The white race is biologically superior (especially Anglo-Saxons) |
The American People
|
|
A Special Hardship |
Slavery in |
Settling and
Developing |
Settling and
Developing |
Developing the first democracy and truly free market |
|
A |
The Promised Land
of |
The Promised Land
of the |
|
The first real democracy and truly free market |
|
A Special Contract |
Covenant with God |
Covenant with God |
To separate the races + put the white man on top |
The social contract of democracy + the economic contract of the free market |
|
A Special |
To Remain God's People |
To Christianize |
To advance the white race + to develop the ideal racial hierarchy |
To bring the benefits of democracy and free markets to the world |
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the religious
and racial versions of Manifest Destiny are most important, although the
liberal version is present. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the liberal version
becomes most important, although the
religious and racial versions are present.
Hegemony
When we talk about locating the
In trying to characterize the strategy
of the hard-liners in the Bush administration I point out they are largely
abandoning the historical
I hope soon to further develop my basic characterization of American hegemony. The web edition of my book on the American presidency, available at http://www.geocities.com/florigkr/, treats some advanced issues, but I hope to expand the simple handout into a better introduction to the concept.
Figure 9
Hegemony,
Counter-hegemony, and Stability
Five Dimensions of the Concept of
Hegemony
There are at least five basic
dimensions to the concept of global hegemony, ranging from gross and obvious to
more subtle. Hegemony is much more than simple domination because of its more
subtle dimensions found later on this list.
1. Military
The hegemon
has the strongest military in the world, significantly stronger than any of its
rivals. Its military alliance system is significantly stronger than any rival
military blocs.
2. Economic
The hegemon
has the largest and most technologically advanced economy in the world. It is a
major trading partner of most of the nations of the world, including most of
the major powers.
3. Political
The hegemon
has a wide range of political allies, and friendly relations with most nations
and major powers.
4. Institutional
The hegemon,
working with its allies, makes most of the rules that govern global political
and economic relations. The hegemon, along with its
allies, usually controls most of the international institutions. Thus, most of
the policies of the international institutions favor the hegemon
and its allies.
5. Ideological
The hegemon largely