When Kumashiro went to Nepal, he saw the huge cultural differences between the U.S. and Nepal. People in Nepal had different ideas or beliefs of ways of living, the relationship between teachers and students, the purpose of teaching in school, and etc. Because the Kumashiro and the Peace Corps are from the United States, and they thought they had a better way of teaching, they went to Nepal. Besides his goal, (which was to introduce schools to different and presumably more effective ways to teach, to help the teachers to question their perspectives and practices, and etc), they were importing American ways of teaching which it could simultaneously privilege certain ways of thinking about education.
When I was thinking what common sense was, I said that common sense is knowledge or unwritten rules that we all should be following. Same as people in Nepal, the Peace Corps had their own common sense. I’m not saying that one is better than the other but, they follow their common sense because it makes the most sense and feels at ease with the things that get repeated traditionally in their everyday lives. Common sense is an insistence that how we want to view certain things. Moreover, the common sense doesn’t get challenged because it works, and people got used to it, so nobody challenges it. Alternative perspectives, including perspectives that challenge common sense, are already dismissed as irrelevant, inconsequential, or inappropriate. Common sense limits the purposes of schooling. Common sense is not what should shape educational reform or curriculum design; it is what needs to be examined and challenged. The ways we traditionally think about teaching and learning are not the only possible ways. I think learning different methods is essential to improving as a teacher.
Not So Distant Future 