Sean Michael Morris

Imagination as a Precision Tool for Change

The project of critical pedagogy is not simply the project of improving education, or of learning, but rather the project of becoming more fully human.

critical pedagogy

Wide-awakeness and Critical Imagination

What happens when a student who loves to learn is told they are not qualified to to so?

intersectionality

My caterpillar life

There is a game that mothers play with their babies. Peek-a-boo. It's a game I lost.

critical pedagogy

An Upsurge of Questioning and Critique: toward a Community of Critical Pedagogy

Be kind. Pay attention. Tell stories. Invite stories. Show you care. Don’t be afraid of love. Close doors when they need to be closed. Keep doors open when they need to be kept open, even if keeping them open is hard on your heart.

critical pedagogy

Adventures in Unveiling: Critical Pedagogy and Imagination

Imagination is important to the project of critical pedagogy precisely because of the responsive nature of its practice. We must be able to think on our toes if education (of all kinds) is meant to be liberative.

kindness

Coming Out; or, Why to Be Kind

Agency isn’t about power. It is a resolution of power. Agency without kindness is just bullying.

critical pedagogy

And so I am grateful too

I will always keep an eye open for new voices, voices that education and academia might not take seriously for whatever reason, I will listen carefully to what they have to say and I will offer them whatever platform I may.

critical digital pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy and Learning Online

For critical instructional design to begin, those undertaking the design of learning must themselves become more critically conscious of the work at hand.

critical instructional design

A Call for Critical Instructional Design

Critical instructional design is an early, emerging attempt to get at some concrete methodologies for creating agentive spaces in online and hybrid learning environments.

critical pedagogy

Hospitality and Agency

Critical pedagogy demands a lot of us. It demands we walk away from our assumptions about how teaching and learning happen. It demands that we question the teaching we received. It demands we listen.

critical pedagogy

On Presence, Video Lectures, and Critical Pedagogy

Difference cannot become canon. Because canon means passing muster, and we cannot ask difference to pass muster. Rather than put marginalized folk under a microscope in order to understand their struggle or develop compassion for difference, might we not instead wreck the classroom with story?

critical instructional design

Reading the LMS against the Backdrop of Critical Pedagogy, parts 1 and 2

There is an essential difference between the ‘science’ of education, positivism, evidence-based teaching, and behaviorism (which I see as coterminous within the LMS) and the ideas of education forwarded by critical pedagogy.

critical digital pedagogy

Subjectivity, Rubrics, and Critical Pedagogy

We must remain aware of the way in which traditional classroom management and instructional strategies have a nearly hegemonic hold on our imaginations.

critical instructional design

Discussing Discussions

The first order of business when talking about discussion forums in online classes is to ask, what do we want a discussion to accomplish?

critical instructional design

Reimagining the Syllabus

I like to think of a syllabus as an invitation, a here's the what, when, why, and what-you-can-bring kind of document. I would prefer my syllabus to be legible (read: interesting), so that students will not only read the whole thing, but they'll remember what it said.

critical instructional design

Saying No to Best Practices

The worst best practice is to adhere to, or go searching for, best practices. Digital tools, strategies, and best practices are a red herring in digital learning. Learning always starts with people.

domain of one's own

If bell hooks Made an LMS: a Praxis of Liberation and Domain of One’s Own

What follows is the text of a presentation I gave at the Domains17 conference in Oklahoma City, OK on June 5, 2017. I co-presented with Jesse Stommel, Executive Director of the Division of

critical digital pedagogy

Critical Digital Pedagogy and Design

I was invited to speak to and work with teachers at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado in May 2017. What follows is the transcript of my presentation to the school's

writing about teaching

Tobacco and Patchouli: Writing about Teaching

In one of the last conversations we had before he died, my father sat across from me at his small dining room table—among assorted framed pictures (of Native Americans, of Abraham Lincoln,

education justice

Deeply Aggrieved

Last week, I was told a story about a computer science student who is dyslexic. She has found that taking notes in class using an app on her tablet helps immensely with her

pedagogy

Once a fearsome murderer invaded a Zen master’s home

Once a fearsome murderer invaded a Zen master’s home. “Give me everything you own, or I’ll kill you,” he said, brandishing his sword. The Zen master said nothing. “Don’t you

2016 election

Nothing to Say

The truth is, I have nothing to say. It’s not that I don’t have words, or that my thoughts do not fly up. It’s that the angry stare with which

critical instructional design

Critical Instructional Design and Acts of Resistance

Post once, reply twice: the epitaph for online learning. Post once, reply twice: the fundamental flaw of instructional design. Critical Instructional Design is new, and as such is grounded in the work of

pedagogy

We Do Not Debate Civilly

You should really enable them. I'd bet you'd get a lot on your "RESPONSE TO RON SRIGLEY." I actually learned something from reading his well written and reasoned article. Your much

critical digital pedagogy

Courses, Composition, Hybridity

The course is an old idea. In the old days of teaching, a course was a path, a set of obstacles, or a journey through ideas toward some end. The path was marked