Week 3 Post 2 - Epistemology

When and where: The weekend, while reading "Real-Time Teaching" by Chapman et al for class.  On page 540, the authors state that "students engage with one another and issues of societal importance through a language of peer response that affirms students' epistemologies" while writing about social justice.

Level of familiarity: I knew this word, but I could not for the life of me define it while I was reading the article.  Once I looked it up I remembered it from past readings and classes, but knew that I would struggle to remember it's true definition.

What it means: Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines epistemology as the study of knowledge, specifically, knowledge's limits and validity.

Reflective comments: Looking up epistemology  made me think about what the students were really proposed to be getting out of social justice writing.  For a student to have his epistemology affirmed, means that what he thinks it means to know something is affirmed.  It makes me think that consciously including social justice education in our curricula allows for students to feel that their opinions of school and what education means to them are justified.  Students might feel that their opinions matter, that their understanding and education matters.