Teaching Intersections, not Assessments: Celebrating the Surprise of Gift Giving and Gift Getting in the Cultural Commons

Authors

Anne Dalke, Bryn Mawr CollegeFollow
Alice Lesnick, Bryn Mawr CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Version

Author's Final Manuscript

Publication Title

Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy

Volume

8

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

Unlike current assessment protocols, which emphasize prediction and control—often at the expense of engagement with the unknown, emergent, and new—we explore here our experiences as professors opening to surprise, in pedagogical interactions that have unpredictable outcomes. We imagine and advocate for institutional structures that, rather than predetermining goals and measuring how well we have achieved them, necessitate surprise and strengthen us to respond creatively and liberally to it. Without room for surprise, we argue, education is denied, and distorted by the loss of, one of its central energies: the circulation of the gifts of chance and serendipity.

Publisher's Statement

This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogyon July 7, 2011, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15505170.2011.571176.

Citation

Dalke, Anne and Alice Lesnick, "Teaching Intersections, not Assessments: Celebrating the Surprise of Gift Giving and Gift Getting in the Cultural Commons." Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy 8.1 (2011): 75-96.

DOI

10.1080/15505170.2011.571176