This is just a quick remark on the last sentence of Dr Michael Woods' reply:
>We need to teach students that organisational
>web-sites, whether for the BNP or Greenpeace or the DETR or whatever, are
>not the equivalent of journal papers and textbooks, but should be treated as
>more akin to advertisments, publicity brochures, annual reports, film and
>television, all of which students are becoming increasingly familiar with
>deconstructing as a result of cultural geography and qualitative techniques
>courses.
While I broadly agree with what the collegue said, I feel that in several
cases, Journal papers and texbooks are quite often more akin to
advertisements and publicity brochures, i.e. close to propaganda.
Perhaps we should also train the students on how to read and deconstruct
Journal articles as texts, examining the textual and visual representations
of the publication in the context of the aims and political activities of
the author/sponsor concerned.
Open debate welcomed.
Best regards
Michael Davie
>Duncan Fuller's enquiry and the subsequent discussion raise two important
>but distinct issues.
>
>1) The treatment of offensive material in student work. I would have thought
>that most universities operate policies that all work should be written in
>non-sexist, non-racist, non-discriminatory etc. language. Any student simply
>reproducing material which is sexist, racist, discriminatory etc in an
>uncritical manner clearly would breach these guidelines and can be penalised
>accordingly. This is not censorship, it is rather the policing of
>consensually accepted axioms of what is acceptable intellectual discourse.
>Furthermore, any student reproducing material from a clearly subjective
>source without critically reflecting on that material, acknowledging and
>rehearsing alternative points of view, and evaluating the strength of
>assertions on the balance of evidence available, should also be failing to
>meet assessment criteria for students critical abilities. Neither of these
>strategies necessarily infringe freedom of speech or censor particular
>political opinions. Indeed, whilst the BNP's propaganda is obnoxious and I
>would not wish to direct students to their web-site, it is significant that
>they have moved out of their old inner-city stomping-grounds to take on
>rural issues, in part reflecting an unsavoury extreme nationalist strand in
>some of the 'countryside' movement, and I would expect a good student coming
>across such material to critically interrogate the BNP's involvement
>accordingly.
>
>2) Sourcing from the web. It strikes me that so far, most discussion in
>universities about use of the web has concentrated on its potential either
>as a teaching aid, or as a source of learning resources - ie from particular
>'teaching web-sites'. Indeed, it is the fact that many of the latter are not
>peer reviewed and the factual accuracy of the information they provide is
>untested that causes greatest concern for many physical geographers.
>However, the greatest potential of the web for human geographers is surely
>that it provides unprecedented easy immediate access to a wealth of
>empirical data - whether that be quantitative data such as the US census;
>newspaper archives; or web-sites of organisations with on-line versions of
>literature, reports, press releases etc. And, quite simply, are students are
>not yet trained to engage with this material. What we need is to incorporate
>into geographical methods courses training for students on how to read and
>deconstruct web-sites as texts, examining the textual and visual
>representations of the site in the context of the aims and activities of the
>organisation concerned. We need to teach students that organisational
>web-sites, whether for the BNP or Greenpeace or the DETR or whatever, are
>not the equivalent of journal papers and textbooks, but should be treated as
>more akin to advertisments, publicity brochures, annual reports, film and
>television, all of which students are becoming increasingly familiar with
>deconstructing as a result of cultural geography and qualitative techniques
>courses.
>
>
>**********************************
>Dr Michael Woods
>Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences
>University of Wales, Aberystwyth
>Aberystwyth
>SY23 3DB.
>
>Tel: 01970 622589
>Fax: 01970 622659
>E-mail: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
>**********************************
*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*
Michael F. DAVIE [log in to unmask]
Professeur, Directeur de la formation doctorale
"Espaces, Societes et Villes dans le Monde Arabe"
UMR 6592 URBAMA (Urbanisation dans le Monde Arabe)
Universite Francois-Rabelais
23 rue de la Loire, B.P. 7521, 37075 Tours Cedex 2 (France)
Tel : (+33) 02 47 36 84 67 Fax : (+33) 02 47 36 84 71
*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*
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