Acknowledgments
Although many hours of reading, writing and analysis have gone into the production of this work, I feel that much of it is not mine, or, more accurately, not mine alone. Along the way, I have spoken with, argued, explained, interrogated, and otherwise engaged multiple dozens of Cheeseworld citizens – farmers, cheesemakers, affineurs (professionals responsible for the aging and bringing to maturity of cheeses), cheesemongers, consumers of cheese, and many others in related fields. Significant contributions to the ideas in the following pages also have been made by my friends, colleagues, and mentors at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, particularly those within the Learning Sciences strand of the Urban Education program. Attendees and presenters at our monthly Urban Science Education Research Seminars (USER-S), our research squad, which meets weekly during the academic year, and other students, faculty, associates and visitors in both formal and informal settings have listened to my wonderings, questioned me, challenged my assertions, guided me to resources, presented new and intriguing ideas and points of view, and confused and confounded me with healthy doses of cognitive dissonance as I explored, and continue to explore Ashley’s move toward central participation in the communities of practice that make up Cheeseworld – the universe of professional cheese production, distribution, sale and consumption.
I would like to acknowledge a few particular people, knowing that this undertaking will necessarily omit, overlook, and understate the importance of others’ influence on my scholarship and on the work represented in the following pages. For that, I apologize and hope that you know who you are and how your support, engagement, critique, and mere presence have shaped both my work and me, overtly, but also, often, in ways of which you and even I am not consciously aware.
Amon Diggs, whom I first met when I was a new teacher at William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City (Queens), New York. Amon was a social scientist who managed to engage me as science teacher, “trained” and firmly embedded in the positivist hegemony of modern Western Science. This relationship helped me to understand that Science was somehow not enough to understand the human world, nor even to completely understand the natural world which is its domain.
Hubert Dyasi (both as an individual and as the embodiment and representative of the community he acquired, built, and nurtured at the City College Workshop Center (City University of New York – CUNY) in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s) has been and continues to be a mentor and friend since my days at the City College of New York (CCNY). His welcoming of me, at the very beginning of my time as an educator, into a professional community of practice and a world of intellectual engagement around a broad range of issues that informed, gave context to, and transformed my visions of how the world works and the many ways, both complementary and contradictory, that people make sense of it.
Kenneth Tobin has been the soul and vital force of the Learning Sciences (née Science, Math and Technology) component of the CUNY Graduate Center’s Urban Education Ph.D. program. As my advisor, committee chair, coach, cheerleader, auxiliary conscience, opener of doors, and patient guide, Ken enabled me to find direction, and, more important, to change direction when necessary, and finally, to realize that the time had come to narrow my focus and finish my research – the work that became this book.
Ken’s eclectic, broad-ranging, and extraordinarily expansive efforts to make sense of the world always are way out in front of my more-focused intellectual forays. Often, he takes an eccentric new tack and begins study of some obscure, arcane, way of making sense, leaving me shaking my head and thinking, “Now he’s gone somewhere I will never follow,” only to have my epiphany months or even years later when our discussions, discussions with one of his colleagues or students, or the reading of an article or chapter from his bountiful body of work all fall into place for me. The other side of that coin is when I produce a brilliant piece of writing and, in an effort to dig a little deeper, find something Ken had published years before that explored the same ideas, often with deeper insight. In the present, Ken’s ability to listen to or read my nascent, often only partly formed ideas and very quickly identify the essence of what I am struggling with is almost magical. Ken’s belief in me (and the rest of our community) is apparent from his pushing me when I was not ready to present at conferences or write for public consumption, and always constructing a (reasonably) safe environment to test drive ideas and present them publicly. His guidance, patience, and encouragement made this work possible and made it better and more meaningful than it could have been without him on my team.
I managed to stay at the Graduate Center until Ken was ready to retire. Thanks to his perseverance, he made sure that I did not outlast him. As we both officially depart the Graduate Center at about the same time, I wish to thank him and all of the rest of the community that had a hand (invisible or otherwise) in my research and in the present work.
Luminaries in the intellectually diverse and eclectic community who provided particular support and assistance in the realization of the work that forms the core of this volume are Gene Fellner (College of Staten Island; CUNY Graduate Center), Federica Raia (CUNY Graduate Center; UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies) and Mark Zuss (Professor Emeritus, CUNY Graduate Center). Each so distinct from the others that my -thinking and -writing were tested in the crossfire and, I believe, were distressed|burnished by the process. Each of them contributed more than they can know and each endured long periods of silence from me during which I hope they now realize, the expertise, guidance, critique, and friendship they showed me were helping to shape and improve my work. Gene’s ability to challenge even the most basic assumptions that most of us take for granted constantly made me question everything I considered, claimed, and wrote. Mark brought his swirling, expansive universe of ideas into collision with mine creating the shrapnel that tore open my thinking and revealed new, deeper truths in my work than I could have done on my own. Federica and I were colleagues at the City College of New York where we worked together for several years educating science teachers. Federica, direct, and not reticent about lively disagreement, demanded at all times that I live up to my own ideas, challenging me to justify everything I said and wrote in terms of my own ideas. Her own work on dynamic, complex systems and on relational medicine influenced the way I think about the world and, ultimately, the way I made sense of the phenomena explored in the following pages.
My extended family (both biological and collected) who for a decade became entrained into my journey, who endured more than a few bouts of “I don’t think that I’m going to finish this” and “I’ve figured out enough; it doesn’t matter if I actually make it to publication,” and who stood by, encouraged, cajoled, shamed and, by every means necessary, saw me through a process that was long, arduous, daunting, but most of all enriching and transformative. Chief among this group is Alexis Morton – my partner of four plus decades and cohabitant – who, by virtue of proximity alone, was present for virtually every day of this journey. Her unquestioning and unstinting support (including living among stacks of papers and books that rivaled the Collyer Brothers collections; many, many weekends of “I can’t do anything this weekend, I’ve got to write,” and “Just read this one more time, I made a few more minor changes; ” and sleeping in the glow of the computer monitor when the muse took control at any and every hour of the night) gave me the strength and determination to keep at it when work, life, and indolence all conspired to stop me.
A number of people are members of both my extended family and my professional family; they live in and bridge both my professional and personal lives. Among, but not entirely comprising this group are Rebecca Dyasi, and Suzanne Carothers. I have worked closely with both of them and each, in her own way, has shaped not only how I do my professional work, but my fundamental conceptions relating to engaging others in the business of making sense of the world. Both are insatiable learners and center the morality of choices made in their (and all of our) educational work. They are among my chief axiological guides.
Rebecca Dyasi (Becky) is a brilliant and principled educator. She accepts and embraces all learners and, no matter the challenges and conditions, enthusiastically goes about the good work in ways that would be a joy to consider as a mere observer if she didn’t unfailingly draw one into the work alongside her. Becky’s understandings of the natural world and the needs and capabilities of each learner are remarkable. For many years I have worked side-by-side with her in our efforts associated with the City College Workshop Center. She has been coworker, mentor, conscience, guide, co-conspirator, and friend. I hope that, along the way, she has learned from me as well.
Suzanne Carothers, another magnificent educator whom my efforts to describe leave me grasping for superlatives that, when found, always seem to fall a little short of the task. Her questioning, arising out of both genuine interest and deft instructional skill challenge every assumption about natural phenomena and scientific processes on the one hand, and pedagogical practices on the other hand. These inquiries almost always begin with some variation of, “Well, you know I don’t know anything about science, but…” and somewhere include, “So, what are you going to do about it?” Suzanne leaves no space for lack of commitment or unexamined professional practices. Her work and her life have touched and transformed students (and their families), colleagues, neighbors, friends and, not least among them, me.
Ashley Morton is my co-researcher and increasingly a source of inspiration. She shared her journey into and through Cheeseworld and continues to do so. She has shared her triumphs, but, more important, she has opened up and shown her wounds and scars and allowed us both to poke and probe them publicly. Her bravery, vulnerability, competence, and self-doubt are addressed in this work. Each of these should resonate with all of us and, I hope, help us make sense of our own experiences. Her story is, in many ways, just beginning and I hope to be able to continue to explore her, my and our stories as I tag along as observer, mentor, co-researcher and would-be Boswell.
Finally, I thank the many people who read all or part of this text – often multiple times – as it evolved. Their questions, suggestions, and guidance shaped the text and made it immeasurably better. However, responsibility for any errors, typos, or lack of clarity lies entirely with me. I hope that readers benefit from the fruits of their labors and forgive any shortcomings of mine.