Good afternoon. Thanks for sticking with it at the end of the day. The title of my presentation
today is When Critical Thinking Isn't Sufficient, an Alternative Approach for Teaching Critical
Criminological Theories. Before getting too far into this presentation, I think it's important
to make two points in particular. First, my paper and my presentation is quite different
from most of the other papers that you might have heard in this comment session or any
of the ones in the past couple of years. At least, I've not found one much like this.
In particular, this is a pedagogical piece, which is rather than talking about theories
that we might come up with and use to analyze the world, my interest in this presentation
is actually how do we teach students what is theory? And so it's a bit of a different
take on the critical criminological issue. And so bear with me. So it might be a little
bit of uncharted territory, but hopefully you can see the advantage of it. And I presume
many of the people in this classroom at one point or another may actually be teaching
a class like this and end up struggling much like I found myself trying to figure out how
to teach this stuff that we call theory. And so the second approach that I, or the second
thing that I want to talk about is the approach that I discuss here is not specifically focused
on critical criminology. It can be used to perhaps teach sociology or traditional criminology.
And so in keeping with the tenor of the comment session, I'm particularly interested in how
do we teach students about critical criminology. And so that said, my paper today, as I said,
is an alternative approach for teaching students, particularly undergraduate students, basically
how to think and learn about theory. Because for many students, theory may be a very difficult
aspect of their criminological degree. Now I presume everyone in here has actually figured
out a way to learn theory because if you hadn't, you probably wouldn't have made it this far.
And in fact, actually, some of you, I dare say, might actually enjoy theory, heaven forbid.
And so my concern is actually with the rest of the students, the students for whom theory
is a very difficult concept to get their head around. And so that's where I'm particularly
focused today. And so again, some people here might think it's a bit novice at times and
self-evident. But actually, I think they're ultimately very important ontological questions
we're going to get into. But yeah, like I said, the students I'm most concerned about
are the ones that tend to sit in the back of the classroom and look completely dazed
and confused, and then whose essays generally reflect their lack of understanding of theory.
And so today I'm going to begin with briefly delving into the ontological question, what
is theory? In doing so, I'll pay particular attention to what has been referred to by
some as theory anxiety. And so I will then discuss some of the newer ways that people
have come up with to teach theory, to try to make it a bit more contemporary, a bit
more applicable, and dare say again, a bit more interesting. And so in particular, I'm
going to focus on the use of audio and visual materials in the classroom. I will then move
on to discuss the approach that I'm advocating, and by briefly discussing some of the historical
uses of analogies and metaphors as an instructional technique. After giving a bit of context,
I'll briefly play two songs, or a selection of music. And it is important to say at this
point that the second song uses some strong language. And it's not gratuitous, or at least
I don't think so, or I hoped on. And so some people might find it a fence. And if you do,
feel free to leave the room after the second one. I won't hold it against you. Or after
the first one rather, before the second one. And so once we listen to the music, I'll try
to explain what my whole point is here. Hopefully, if it isn't clear by that point. And I'll
conclude today with ten points at which this approach that I'm advocating hopefully should
help students retain or understand and think about this thing that we do called theory.
So what is theory? This is one of the fundamental ontological questions that we end up with,
that we end up all probably dealing with it one way or another. But very few of us actually discuss
it in most of the theory books I've looked at, have really brushed over the issue. Because everyone
just kind of presumes that either you get it or you don't. And this is a fundamental failure,
I believe, of the criminological endeavor, particularly the theoretical endeavor. And so
I think this is where we often lose a lot of our students. And so I think there needs to be a bit
more emphasis placed on it and a bit more thought put into it. And so oftentimes it gets overlooked
because it seems quite self-evident or perhaps even just unimportant. And so theory, justice theory,
end of story. One could easily respond to my question, what is theory, by saying, or as people
have many times before, why do you ask so many silly questions? And I ask this question for several
reasons. For one, it is something that's always bothered me from the time that I was a student in
the back of the classroom, just trying to figure out what the heck they were talking about. But
also, more recently and more importantly, as an instructor who's been teaching a theory class now
for three years, I've really noticed that my class is kind of divided in two, between those that
really get it and those that have no clue. And so I could just throw up my hands and say, well,
some people are just not going to, it's not for them. But I wasn't really satisfied with that. And
so all too often, like we find, otherwise smart students have really, I've found at least that
otherwise smart students have really struggled to grasp theory in part, because they fundamentally
misunderstand what theory is, and have developed, and more importantly, have developed bad habits
about learning and thinking about theories. In particular, they may struggle with the different,
the various levels of abstraction that we might find when we talk about theory. And what I call
the difference between theory with a capital T and theory with a lowercase t, and also basically
how these theories work together and explain various aspects of society. What I begin to think
about, or when I begin to think about these, I asked a lot of other instructors, well, how do you teach
the theory? And I got a range of answers, but most of them tend to do simply state that the problem
was about critical thinking. And so somehow, if we figure out this magic pill, critical thinking,
all the problems will go away. And so I started to think a bit more about what the heck critical
thinking is, because I was a bit lost as to what critical thinking is. I'd heard it many times,
I've in fact used it many times, and yelled at my students for not using it plenty of times,
but I really wasn't sure. But the idea was that if we somehow can instill this idea of critical
thinking, that these problems will go away. And the ones who struggle with theory at that point,
it's just because they haven't actually decided to use critical thinking. And so,
and perhaps even, dare I say, maybe not even cut out for academic work. And so I was never
really particularly satisfied with these approaches. And so, because it has this kind of, this idea
that perhaps, that the idea is that, well, of course, it's the opposite of, critical thinking
is obviously the opposite of common sense. And so it's, in a sense, an academic sense. And that's
kind of what I was left with. And I was, again, was not particularly happy with that. Because for
obvious reasons, it has a number of problems. Now, I did not have the time to get into a long
discussion about what critical thinking is or is not, or how we might even be able to teach it or
measure it. Because that's for another day. My point is, perhaps, that we need to take a step
back and give our students a new way to think about this very abstract concept theory, and so that
they can actually try to begin the process, the endeavor of learning what theory is. And so, by
doing so, it allows us, it gives instructors a way to shape how students think about and conceptualize
the theories that they, oops, got ahead of myself, that the theories that they'll later turn to in
their academic. Particularly those, if we're going to talk about, another thing that came up quite a
bit was talking about the sociological imagination. If somehow we can, we can realize C. Wright Mills'
idea of the sociological imagination that all of the problems will be solved. But again, much like
critical thinking, there was, there was a major leap there between how do we actually install that
and not, and again, that's another question for another day. But that said, I'm not the only one
to begin thinking about new ways to teach theory. There is a growing literature on different
techniques. Much of this literature talks about the use of audio or visual material media in the
classroom. Most of this work is focused particularly on using films and music to get students to think
about some of the theories and concepts that they learned about in class. So, for example, watching
a rap video to illustrate the themes of patriarchy, commodification or identity, or listening to
some of Yaren's favorite emo music to illustrate Goffman's presentation of self. These approaches
can be very good, but again, they presume that they have a fundamental problem and that they presume
that students already get what theory is. So again, it's a bit too little too late. And so, but there's
also a substantial literature on critical pedagogy. And again, much like critical thinking, I don't
have much time to get into the real complexity of the critical pedagogy and all the different
variations. But suffice it to say that the main idea of critical pedagogy is to, is that the goal
of education should be to challenge the inequalities in society, not just simply reproduce them. In
particular, the focus is upon encouraging students to have a deeper engagement with the academic work
rather than just becoming, rather than thinking of students simply as buckets or banks as, as one of
the critical criminologists, I mean one of the critical pedagogists who I've scaped in my mind
at the moment, talked about, in which we just simply fill them up with, with, with useless
knowledge or theoretical knowledge. And so again, this, this approach is very important. However,
it's still fundamentally misses those students who have already become the passive students who
have, who do not actively engage in class. The students are in the back who just don't care.
Should we, and my, my question is, should we just give up on them or should we try to come up with a
different way to, to get them to think about theory that perhaps they can actually craft with it
better. And so, so again, my approach is not to substitute these other ideas, but in fact, to
actually go along with them. And so encourages them to think about the equally concept, equally
complex concept that they may be already familiar with, which is music, musical genres, to, to
actually think about and, and understand in the frame of discussion around the social, historical,
and intellectual construction of theory. And so that said, I'm going to, oh actually, I got ahead of
myself. One more thing about, a bit about the analogical thinking before we get into the music.
The approach that I'm advocating here, it draws upon a, a longstanding pedagogical technique for
thinking and the, which is for, and for teaching, which is the use of analogies and metaphors. Well,
Diane Vaughn was, has been the most vocal advocate of recent. She is certainly not the first. I mean,
Simmel, Walter Benjamin, and Goffman, and Hughes, among others, have, have long used analogies in
their, in their writing to explain some of their concepts. And more importantly for, for Diane Vaughn,
it allows people to develop theories by going from one case study to another. And so, because the
idea being that is using, quite simply, is using the familiar to explain the unfamiliar, or using
commonly understood examples to illustrate the complex dynamics in another issue of interest.
My approach builds upon this fundamental idea, but is, but is not, however, interested in creating
theories, rather is interested in teaching about them. So in this case, I use students, so I draw
upon students' understanding of musical genres, even if they don't know much about music, to,
to frame a discussion about the production of theories, and, and also the interlinks between
them. And so I'm going to play two songs for you, and I have included the lyrics for you on the
screen, so if you're like myself and have trouble listening to lyrics. Hopefully the music's turned up loud enough.
In a land that's known as freedom, out there's something they revere. Don't you please come to Chicago for the health of freedom free.
We ain't changed the world. We don't change the world this night.
We ain't changed the world. We ain't changed the world.
We ain't changed the world.
just keep that in mind. Again, this is the one that has some lyrics there.
But I never lose hope. Success is psychological and the world is volatile.
And the speed is my education, shape and the nation.
Like the blueprints of a race in my shore, check record deals, get you ready for occasion.
So I'm focused on my economic situation. I'm like the little kids in my CVs,
it digs in the trash. I hustle regardless of the way he talks.
He laughs a lot at his drop sites. But he don't go to lab,
cause they hard to stand for. There's a righteous man.
It's funny how the little black figures they told you to catch,
it memorates the gun, trying out freedom at last.
The cold war is over, but the world is still getting colder.
I have us walking through the projects with the hood on our shoulders.
I would like to raise my children and grow them as soldiers,
but then the general will decide when they light them over.
Smart work hard, and my personality split,
like the black pandas into the bloods and the crypts.
They said I'd never be shit, but now I'm sick of reminisce, like yes, you are.
Then you'll sit flippin' in Genesis, ignorance is strenuous,
and the merge with soul is spreadin' like a virus runnin' red,
but not in control. So if I should ever pour and get caught in a hustle,
let them know that I died while I fought in a struggle,
from the hood rats, the rich kids lost in the bubbles,
prayin' on the street, sendin' to subway tunnels,
writein' down and remember that we never gave in with the mind of the child,
swearin' revolution begins,
swearin' the solution has never been to look at the sun.
How is it that you expect to find it anywhere else?
You won't check me in the streets, back when I hustled with sea strikes,
and you'd like to stop in cracks in the dust hole,
upstate behind steel gates, attacked in a scuffle,
raise a blade stuck on the side of heads and tacked in your muscle,
but the emptiness is roughly to the death of a country,
and as the boy is not the inmates,
you and the fucker tryin' to fight the system,
or the side eventually corrupts you,
but that's what you're gettin' in with a corporation above you,
and it's the people that love you to see the hurt to the core,
sometimes they die, you find yourself cursed and it goes,
but you make successful bodies of limited inmates,
and times have given you days,
periods full of current rates,
the core of that of the race,
and that's the truth about life and food,
when you get away with your car rooms and your ice,
and people don't survive,
you're the struggle that makes you still know it ourselves,
through the eyes of the people that hate us,
but I won't make your regards,
other trumped-up trumpets,
that you won't imagine,
you're just an emblemate cartridge,
post-traumatic, you're scarlet kids,
you're tryin' to be brave,
you'll make us backstab each other just to try and get paid,
bein' a girl, a purposeful, you're losin' to see,
as if you bow to the destiny you used to deceive,
so if I should ever go and get caught in a hustle,
let alone that I die when I fought and struggle,
or not look back for rich kids,
blow up to the bones, break feet,
get on the streets, head into subway tunnels,
write it down and remember that we'll never be there,
the mind of the child is where the resolution begins,
or if a solution has ever been to look at your son,
how is it that you respect the thought of anywhere else?
I used to wonder, I used to wonder,
I used to wonder,
I used to wonder, I used to wonder,
Alright, so, now the songs I picked were arbitrary.
I could have used any number of songs,
I happened to pick these ones because I liked them,
and they also showed it,
kind of captured one of the things
I'm trying to get at which is the variation
in the different genres.
And so, and so as a bit of tight open the floor,
what was a genre of the first one?
Anyone care to guess, venture guess?
good folk music okay anyone else hear different what's that pop rock okay the
first one 1970s pop rock yeah could be could be protest music could be country
Western music some people thought and also and so again which is an important
thing which I'll come back to what about the second one the one we just listened
to what hopefully might be a bit easier for people to kind of figure out what a
what's that what kind of what kind of genre is the second one rap music hip-hop
and again you could you could probably someone who is a bit more into into
hip-hop could probably get into the exact type of music he's East Coast
American and and so again but there's a there's an important point with this
whole labeling aspect which again hopefully I'll try to make clear and so
and so the reason I use the concept of genres is because it's much like theory
it's one of those things that once you know it you kind of it becomes very hard
to articulate well how do you know which genre it is what was the actual process
where you figured out well you listen to it and all of a sudden you know well
that's that's folk music oh that's hip-hop music and so there's a number of
things that we actually think of context clues might you say that we've listened
to to actually come up with to figure out what the genre is and again as I'll
try to make clear this is very similar to the way in which those of us that have
been doing theory for a while we just kind of naturally think about it we
don't actually think about the process by which we've come to learn or be able
to reopen up a book and then figure out exactly what theory might be associated
with because our students generally don't have that advantage and so they're
often kind of flailing around in the middle of the ocean trying to figure out
how to how to get their bearings and so and so the idea of genres is very
complex the more you think about it actually I tried to find a whole bunch
of information about genres and I from musicologist I got even more confused
because they were talking in circles much like sometimes we talk in circles
with our own theories but but basically the genres is simply a classification
scheme and so which is very similar to the way which we talk about theories
because we talk about theories as a very abstract reified construct because it
makes it much easier to fit into a textbook that way if you kind of if you
think about it as a very cohesive bound whole but those of us that have been
doing this for a while realize that theory is not so it's not doesn't fit so
well into these categories and there's also variations and these variations can
change and so and so much like we like we think about music some of the ways we
might come up with what a genre would be is a particular sound particular beats
per minute particular instruments we might use the melody the rhythm the
lyrics that were used the way in which the lyrics are spoken compared to some
music if you can actually hear the lyrics or not whether it's being
screamed at you or not the composition the way in which there's instrumental
arrangements whether whether the lyrics are really again brought to the front or
whether they're kind of get lost and they're kind of more melodic and the
length of the song the influences that you might hear in it and also kind of
the politics both of the songs I picked had a had a bit of a political message
as well and also you might be familiar with the artist so you might hear a
particular artist that you're quite familiar with and you know what most of
their work is and so these are the things that you start to do without even
thinking about when you come with music and these are also some of the things we
do when we're when we're reading new new articles new books or have you and so
these are the things we actually need to get our students to think about as well
and so but again also we need to the advantage of this this way of
presenting genres and getting people getting the students to think about
genres is because music tends to be something they were often more familiar
with again they may not be they might not be well versed in lots of types of
music but they probably have a cursory understanding which is usually all this
necessary and so we can start to actually use the idea of the
illustration of the kind of the fuzzy boundaries the way in which depending
on your geographical context or the way which you think about it or or the time
period or all kinds of other issues that the way boundaries might change the way
we might a person who really likes that theory might see a lot of different
variation within it a person who dislikes it might just lump it all
together and so which again is a very important concept for most students
don't grasp or many students don't grasp at least initially and so and so
this by talking about musical genres is something that can actually illustrate
that and also the other as the final aspect of the musical genre thing is it
also allows it gives you a context in which to have a discussion about the way
in which theories are produced because this is something we very rarely talked
about or talk about in our in our classrooms because we have a very finite
amount of time we have very little contact time with our students and so we
focus on trying to get them to know as much about the theory as possible we
don't spend as much time about trying to perhaps talk about the the interactions
between oh actually this theory was a response to another theory now hopefully
if you've been good at teaching theory you would have would have come up with
that but it's not always a guarantee and so they also give us an opportunity to
talk about some of these other aspects which I'll talk about here in the ten
points and so to get into these I have ten points that I think that there's are
ten benefits if you will of using the general analogy hopefully I'm not running
out of too much time so I'll try to get through them quickly and so first and
foremost is discouraging normative thinking about theories I'm to no end
upset when the student at the end of a theory course comes up to me and says
okay which one of the theories was right and but but yet every so often
someone will actually do that or they'll they'll frame their their discussion in
classroom about about suggesting that well which one is right or why well
obviously that's an old theory we don't talk about anymore so that's wrong and
so again it kind of discourages people to think from thinking in these normative
terms because once you actually think once they start thinking about music you
can say well oh well you can you can start explaining how like how musical
taste change and how all these other economic and political aspects change
and so so that's the first advantage the second advantage is avoiding the
tendency to think of theories and these neat little nicely bound groups that we
tend to think of and this is particularly important with the with a
prevalence of PowerPoint and also the prevalence of of theory textbooks
because theory textbooks in PowerPoint by by default tend to suggest you you
have a one page and you have a whole list of them and they say okay well
conflict theory is this boom boom boom boom boom and so it gives students this
idea that all conflict theory has equally shares in these in these ten
points or what five points whatever they might be and it also gives them bad or
they weren't bad habits in the way and about thinking of theories as long as I
know these five points and can regurgitate them on the exam then
somehow I'm I'm a now I'm a theorist and so again that's fundamentally I
think that's where a lot of our problem lies and so we can start to show how how
theory kind of moves in and kind of changes over time by by using the genre
analogy also to avoid avoids the tendency to think of history in terms of
coherent linear progression this is particularly important as we as we get
into why why they're when we talk of the 1700s or so why is it we only talk
about classicism now was classicism the only theory that came out of there was
Cesare Bekeria the only criminologist or or although you never of course use
that term was he the only person that was thinking about law and order at that
period of time of course not but why is it that we we selected him as
representative of that whole time period or Bentham or any of these people and
throughout history why is it that we select that we have historically
selected particular theorists to talk about or particular theories why we
ignored all the rest and so and so again it allows us a opportunity to kind of
get students to think about that it also encourages thinking about why some some
theories become associated with particular period why is it that when we
think of the 1970s in criminology despite all the other theories that are
out there I know for example control theory was quite big at the time but why
is it that when the 1960s 1970s why is it that we think about Marxism what did
mark what did Marxism how did that resonate with a social and cultural
period in which it was was founded in or was was became popular in and so because
if if students were left to their own devices they would just say oh well
everyone in the 1960s 1970s was a was a Marxist which I'm sure I mean I wasn't
there in the 1960s and 1970s as an academic but I'm sure that everyone in
the room otherwise that would would say well actually in fact they were fighting
many battles of a lot of people who weren't Marxist at that period and so we
need to get students to think about that is why why is it that all of a sudden
what about that period or any other period you come up with so that and so
also encourages students to think about why some theories simply fail to take
hold was it because they're publishing a really obscure journal was it because
they were poorly articulated was it because that they they simply failed to
have enough students or contemporaries take their message forward whatever it
might be or simply they were overshadowed by another popular theory
of the period and so because it's just as important for students to remember
that all the theories that the 15 theories we have the time to talk about
in a particular term it's not all the theories has ever been about
criminology and so it also gets them to realize that if they've mastered these
15 that they've they're not done with with theory that's just the beginning
they've maybe got the roadmap and now they actually need to go see all the
rest of all the other theories that that never made it to the big leagues and so
moving on also encourages thinking about why some theories might be relabeled by
proponents or critics and so for example the work of Hans Isaac or or
Hurston and Murray in particular why why has that been labeled neopositivism
what what is the what's particularly associated with that that theory with
those people consider themselves neopositivist I dare say not because
that positivism and particularly in light of the experience of the eugenics
movement in the u.s. in the UK in light of Enrico Ferri's fascistic tendencies
in Italy and and other people like that Heidegger that that had who've been kind
of reconsidered because of their politics why is it that some theories
have been labeled as such so why is it that people who find neopositivism so
repulsive why have they come up with this this term to kind of dismiss it and
so again without some sort of way to to describe it I think some students might
struggle to make these connections and also encourages thinking about how some
theories might get reinterpreted with the hindsight of of history again
positivism was a probably a primary example of this and probably the easy
one to stick with and so why is that been reinterpreted due to the the events
of the past the past century and also it encourages thinking about how we discern
a theoretical lineage of the work that we're listening to in particular when we
listen to music how is it that we were able to hear for example there's a new
or newer style of music called dancehall that comes out of the Caribbean how is
it that it's a type of hip-hop but when you listen to it or some people that do
listen to it they can hear there's there's obviously reggae influences but
how is it that you learn to discern those and so for a student how is it
when they start reading an article or reading a book that they can start to
discern these influences because that's very important and will actually pay
dividends I think later if we can kind of give them a way to think about that
and so particular if we use jock young for example so when they're reading his
his work on the vertigo of late modernity hopefully they should be able
to pick out the kind of Marxism slash or marks marks reread through the the eyes
of of Merton and so we want to be able to kind of encourage this idea which
again is a very difficult concept for some students and also very simply it
also encourages students to be patient and persistent because very rarely when
when you listen to one one type like one song very rarely can you understand a
whole like whole genre much very similarly they students are forever
trying to read one book and try to understand Marxism or trying to read one
book and under or one article and try to understand everything that another
theorist might have been saying or a whole theoretical tradition and so it
encourages them to to understand and stick with it long enough to get to the
complexity and finally it does the final goal is to discourage kind of mindless
rote memorization because again this is what this is for critical critical
thinking but also critical criminology rote memorization which is just simply
memorizing the words on the page and then and then regurgitating them on an
essay or an exam is the is the kind of the antithesis of what we're trying to
do and it's also the antithesis of understanding theoretical work because
it's not just simply something you memorize what are these these ten points
on a bullet point then you have then you regurgitate them but actually to to think
through the theories and that's hopefully what the genre analogy can
help us do and so ultimately my final point is just that this is this is not
again this is not the the be-all and end-all it's not a way to teach every
theory but it's an important place to perhaps start when you're
teaching theory is to use again use a familiar concept such as musical
genres to explain the much more difficult and probably unfamiliar
concept of theory so that way students can learn to engage with it and and then
hopefully perhaps enjoy it and then progress in their in their studies I'll
leave it at that because I know I'm running short on time thank you