“Learning as Entwined with Ideology:
Theoretical and Methodological Possibilities and Implications”

Thomas M. Philip
Associate Professor and Faculty Director of Teacher Education
University of California, Berkeley

Monday, February 17
3pm-4:15pm
617 Library Place

In this talk, Thomas M. Philip explores how ideology and learning are intertwined in and through interaction. Drawing from empirical cases from K-12, undergraduate, and teacher education contexts, Philip shares the theoretical and methodological possibilities and implications of emphasizing the entanglement of ideology and learning. In particular, he discusses the analytical constructs of ideological micro-contestations, ideological convergence/expansion, and principled improvisation. He illustrates how these constructs can be used to trace the locally constructed and contested nature of ideologies and to design learning environments that allow for greater ideological and epistemological heterogeneity.

Thomas M. Philip is an Associate Professor and the Faculty Director of Teacher Education in the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. He studies how teachers make sense of power and hierarchy in classrooms, schools, and society. He is interested in how teachers act on their sense of agency as they navigate and ultimately transform classrooms and institutions toward more equitable, just, and democratic practices and outcomes. His most recent scholarship explores the possibilities and tensions that emerge with the use of digital learning technologies in the classroom, particularly discourses about the promises of these tools with respect to the significance or dispensability of teacher pedagogy. Philip holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a PhD in Cognition and Development, both from the University of California at Berkeley. His work as an educator began as a science teacher at a public high school in South Los Angeles.