Submission Date

4-26-2021

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Education

Adviser

Seamus Mulryan

Committee Member

John Spencer

Committee Member

Stephanie Mackler

Committee Member

Céline Brossillon

Department Chair

John Spencer

Project Description

In this project, I analyze the cultural separation which students experience between the private culture of the home and the public culture of the school. Using authors like Richard Rodriguez, Paulo Freire, and Lisa Delpit, I investigate how this divide between the home and the school influences students’ development of their own conceptions of themselves in the public realm. I identify why it is so important that schools help students develop this public self, and why it is detrimental for students to go through school never having developed this sense of who they are in the public; there are both political and personal repercussions. Additionally, I establish my opinion on that which educators’ role ought to be in terms of bridging the separation between students’ private and public lives. Mainly drawing from Hannah Arendt, I establish that the school ought to be a transitional space between private and public, where students bring their private selves to the school in order to develop their public selves. I also argue that students are much more likely to be able to successfully develop their public identities if they are encouraged by teachers to bring parts of their private identities into the classroom.

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