Grading

Grading for this course will take the form of self and group evaluations. While I will respond to and offer feedback on your work. The grade that you receive for the course will be based on a combination of your own self-reflections of your participation in the course and your group's reflections on the same. This too is in the spirit of freedom, autonomy, and community. You will be given a guide on ways to think through evaluating yourself and your group members.

Statement About Self-Assessment

“Freedom as the ability to govern oneself rather than 'being left alone' by the government, was the dream of those revolutionary movements which ushered the Western world into its modern history. The French Revolution of 1789 aimed at transforming that 'nothing' which was the 'Third Estate' (i.e. the great majority of the nation, denied effective influence over the running of national affairs) into 'everything' – into a force freely deciding all questions of public interest. The Founding Fathers of the American Revolution sought in their Declaration of Independence to 'guarantee a space where freedom can appear' – freedom again understood as fully-fledged and universal participation in public affairs. Commenting on the early experience of revolutionary America, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of 'freedom for its own sake', justified by the sheer pleasure of being able to speak, to act, to breathe. The craving after a freedom which is not to be bothered by public affairs but on the contrary an unconstrained and enthusiastically exercised right to manage them, is not therefore new. Yet it always remained a dream – a 'utopian horizon' at best.”¹

- Zygmunt Bauman –

Why Self Assessment?

The grading for this course uses self and group assessment². I have chosen to use this grading methodology for a number of reasons. First, I believe in the benefits of intellectual curiosity and want to foster that in this course. I hope by giving you freedom and autonomy, you will find creative and new ways to explore the world around you, both personally and intellectually. Second, sometimes the best ways to understand and research our social world emerge from violating our taken for granted assumptions. By offering you a situation which shifts the traditional structure of authority, I will give us all an opportunity to examine the social logic of our education system in a first hand phenomenological way. Third, I hold a radical view of freedom, and thus believe it ethically imperative to offer you as much freedom as possible within our institutional confines. Finally, as you work with your groups, you should seek a sense of collective responsibility as part of your participation. You will have the opportunity to examine your group dynamics as participant observers, while relying on one another to accomplish projects throughout the semester. Through this process, you will have the opportunity to discuss with each other how your group functioned, divisions of labor within the group, and how your relations translated into finished projects. Due to this, you as a learning community will have an excellent perspective with which to assess yourselves.

Limits of Autonomy

While I encourage, expect and wish to foster your intellectual freedom through self-assessment. This process assumes that you choose to accept your freedom ethically and honestly. And this process requires an active engagement with the class, the assignments, and your group. I do expect you to attend class, participate in class discussions, complete assignments in a timely manner, work closely with your group, and keep up with reading assignments. Should you chose not to do these things, you must be willing to take responsibility for such gaps in intellectual rigor. Not taking responsibility equals the limits of autonomy, and I will intervene in the process of self-evaluation.