Commonsense
Respond to the following writing prompt: How does Kumashiro define 'commonsense?' Why is it so important to pay attention to the 'common sense'?
Kumashiro defines commonsense as a belief driven normalcy dependent on sociocultural norms. This means that a group of people become used to a certain method and are not receptive to different methods. The example he gives is: while working in Nepal, he brought over some American teaching techniques. The staff and students were not ready to see the change he brought and resisted. This showed that the Nepal norm was obviously different than the American norm.
It is so important to pay attention to the common sense because it often translates into oppressive and repetitively mundane learning. In order to keep children continuously learning and paying attention to your lessons, you have to mix things up and keep class interesting. Kumashiro was bringing the same concepts into the classroom but taught them in a different way that the Nepalese were accustomed to which caused them to panic, thinking they were being under taught and would not pass the end of year test.
