As a second-year education doctoral student at Teachers College, I, Catherine Cheng Stahl, took my first philosophy course with Professor David Hansen. This ‘philosophy of education’ course has transformed me, my thinking with regards to my own education, and my sense of self-trust in my own writing process. Here, I share the very last essay I wrote as part of my own philosophical journey—an essay that I believe provides the foundation for my own philosophy of education to guide me into the new decade.
Read moreWhat Makes a Teacher? Teacher as Learner, Guide, and Caregiver
This Thanksgiving, I want to take a moment to give thanks to the many educators who have positively shaped my thinking, learning, and teaching at various stages of my life. I would not have had the courage or the motivation to pursue a profession in education, were it not for my own teachers. They ignited in me a love of learning and cultivated the right environment for me to experience growth. Thus, I devote this essay to my teachers and to my colleagues who are teachers.
Read moreThe Becoming Process of Graduate School: An Unsettling Time and Space
For this first day in March, I’m sharing more reflections regarding my first year at Teachers College as a doctoral student in education. I have recently been reading Deleuze and Guattari’s works, along with that of Erin Manning on the minor gesture and will share some of my sense-making process. And as always, I’m sharing original photographs taken during strolls through New York City…
Read moreThe Production of Differences in Schools and How Educators Can Disrupt Them
I’m sharing another original piece of academic writing for a course I took at Teachers College. As part of this course on gender, difference, and curriculum, we read a diverse set of books, articles on theory, as well as articles of empirical studies. My essay is an integrative one, in which I tried to draw on a wide range of theorists and practitioners to describe how differences are produced via school curricula, ideas of “normal”, and structures/traditions…
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