Matthew Hawkins’ Panel
Matthew Hawkins’ book extract entitled “A Visit to Lascaux” discusses the philosophical part of a prehistoric subject: prehistoric humanity in relation to animals. In this extract he describes himself as an ‘unusual philosopher’, distancing himself from the technical language and approaching a more relaxed attitude towards the explanation of his lecture. An important point he makes is his disagreement with Sartre’s notion of existential phenomenology, its’ purpose being to understand human existence rather than the world (Onof, n.d). Hawkins, on the other hand, prefers to detach himself from existentialism and focus strictly on the relationship between Homo Sapiens and prehistoric animals, in order to understand why prehistoric people considered them as equals. He suggests an explanation for this was found when figurative art,a form of art derived from real object sources (p. 57) was created. Hawkins’ proposes that prehistoric art is important in nowadays culture, as it helps us better understand the lives of the men in the ancient history.
In support to his article, Matthew Hawkins produced a video in order to transpose the passage from animal to men, of how humanity has evolved. It was created as a pastiche, and therefore it had an amusing allure to it,but it also contained explicit scenes that might seem a bit inappropriate. As Hawkins himself quotes ‘we (people) are minds’ and animals are either ‘nothing’ or ‘only a thing’(p. 49), we could argue that choosing cats in order to explain the connection between humans and animals would not be the best option. Although, as he suggests, there are definitely many things that we have in common with animals, the connection might have been lost due to the content of the video. Perhaps, an animal in its natural environment would have been a better representation.
Matthew Hawkins also tried to give his video a touch of philosophical allure by speaking in a French accent, about ideas influenced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who was a French philosopher and whose main interest of study was the human experience. This was an interesting addition, which contributed to the entire context of book extract.
John Keenan’s Panel
Keenan and Karima Kadi-Hanifi (2014) take an in-depth look into the thoughts and feelings of higher education teachers in an FE context and the conflict between organisational issues for economic stability. Keenan suggests that “FE is a place that gives people a second chance”(p. 2), suggesting that in order to be successful they need to change their lifestyle so that it is not repetitive. Through using Ivor Goodson’s method of life histories, Keenan and Kadi-Hanifi examine the emotions and feelings one undergoes during this change (primarily from a teachers point of view).
During John Keenan panel he spoke about how he and his co-worker conducted the interview, with one interviewing the participant while the other typed up the notes on a laptop. Keenan admitted that note-typing was not the most efficient method of gathering the data during the interview, although his notes were individually reviewed afterwards by the participants. While typing the information he could very well type things down wrong and misinterpret what the participant has said, so a more efficient method for future interviews would be to record the interview rather than typing down notes as this will eliminate the problems highlighted and strengthen the research as information gathered in the interview will be more accurate and not construed.
The critical analysis of the section “the use of life history” reflects extensive conversation of researchers and participants in a known environment. Life history methods help in examining techniques used by HE teachers’ working in FE environment. The analysis of the life history revels that teachers are given ideas and solutions that motivates them. To enhance personal understanding in context to teaching, it is vital to know about personal life of a teacher. For such reason teachers are encouraged to narrate story of their life. Furthermore, after conducting critical analysis of this section, it is evident that some teachers may be unwilling to share their life incidences with others. Overall, they both suggested that the process of research has revealed that life histories help teachers in enhancing their current skill level in an effective manner.
References:
Bataille, G. The Cradle of Humanity: Prehistoric Art and Culture. New York: Zone Books
Keenan, J. and Kadi-Hanifi, K. “Singing Better Songs? A Life History Study of how Higher EducationTeacher Educators Working in the Further Education Sector Negotiate the Neoliberal Education Framework”.
Onof, C.J., n/a. Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/sartre-ex/ [Accessed November 15, 2014].
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