Clarence Joldersma


Clarence Joldersma

Education

  • MPhil, Institute for Christian Studies, 1983
  • MEd, University of Toronto, 1987
  • PhD, University of Toronto, 1994

Biography

Clarence Joldersma is the resident philosopher and interdisciplinary scholar of the Graduate Studies in Education Program at Calvin University. He has been influenced by theorists from several academic areas, including Thomas Kuhn and Michael Polanyi in philosophy of science, Jurgen Habermas and Emmanuel Levinas in continental philosophy, and Hendrik Hart and Nicholas Wolterstorff in Christian philosophy.

Over fifteen years of experience as a high school science teacher in Ontario have helped shape his thinking about education and schools. His graduate work at the Institute for Christian Studies and the University of Toronto was in philosophy, first the philosophy of science and then philosophy of mind and cognitive science.  

Those who have studied with Professor Joldersma have observed that he works "at the boundaries," at the intersection of political science/theory, sociology, natural sciences (especially biology), and education. In particular what animates him are issues of social justice and sustainability. This wide range of interests enables him to ask philosophical questions that expand conceptual horizons, both for himself and his students. He has an eye for asking penetrating questions, and has a knack of framing complex issues in ways that move thinking forward, without doing it for you.

Academic interests

  • Levinas and education
  • Philosophy of science
  • Phenomenology and philosophy of education
  • Environmental issues and philosophy of education

Publications

Recent Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
  • Perhamus, Lisa M. and Clarence W. Joldersma, “What might sustain the activism of this moment? Dismantling white supremacy, one monument at a time,” Journal of Philosophy of Education 54:5 (2020) 1314-1332.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “The Moment of Study in Learning that Resists Neoliberalism: Body Gesture, Time, and Play,” Philosophical Inquiry in Education 27:1 (2020) 14-30.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. and Lisa M. Perhamus. “Stealing an education: On the precariousness of justice,” Teachers College Record 122:2 (2020).
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Earth comes after Postmodernism,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 50:14 (2018) 1338-1339.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Critical Review Essay: Lambert Zuidervaart’s essays on reformational philosophy,” Christian Scholars Review XLVIII:1 (2018) 69-75.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Earth juts into World: an earth ethics for ecologizing philosophy of education,” Educational Theory 36:3 (2017) 399-415.
  • Perhamus, Lisa M., and Clarence W. Joldersma. “Interpellating Dispossession: Distributions of Vulnerability and the Politics of Grieving in the Precarious Mattering of Lives.” Philosophical Studies in Education 47 (2016): 56–67.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Doing Justice Today: A Welcoming Embrace of LGBT Students in Christian Schools,” International Journal of Christianity and Education 20:1 (2016) 32-48.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Author Response: Radical Schooling, Messianic Hope, Listening, and Social Justice,” Studies in Philosophy and Education 32:1 (2016) 123-128.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “The Temporal Transcendence of the Teacher as Other,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 48:4 (2016) 393-404.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Critical Book Review of Jane Roland Martin’s Education Reconfigured,” Educational Theory 65:5 (2015) 601-608.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Overcoming lingering dualism in cognition and learning via emotion: freedom, phenomenology, and affective neuroscience,” in Michele Moses (Editor), Philosophy of Education Society Yearbook 2014. Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society-University of Illinois (2015).
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Benjamin’s Angel of History and the Work of Mourning in Ethical Remembrance: Understanding the Effect of W.G. Sebald’s Novels in the Classroom,” Studies in Philosophy and Education 33:2 (2014) 135-147.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Neuroscience, Education, and a Radical Embodiment Model of Mind and Cognition,” in Cris Mayo (Editor), Philosophy of Education Society Yearbook 2013. Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society-University of Illinois, 2013.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “An ethical Sinnegebung respectful of the non-human: A Levinasian environmental ethic,” Symposium: The Canadian Journal of Continental Thought 17:2 (2013) 224-245.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Resistance to consumerism from below: Putting work and labor back in school” Policy Futures in Education 11:3 (2013) 320-325.
Recent Book Sections
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Earth’s Lament: a friendly supplement to Zuidervaart’s societal principles in an era of climate change,” in Peter Enneson, Michael DeMoor, and Matt Klaassen (Editors), Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings: Works on Art, Truth, and Society in Honour of Lambert Zuidervaart. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2020.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “The Responsibility of Earthlings for Earth: Graciousness, Lament, and the Call of Justice,” in Dave Warners and Matt Heun (Editors), Beyond Stewardship. Grand Rapids, MI: Calvin Press, 2019.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “The Temporal Transcendence of the Teacher as Other,” in Guoping Zhao (Editor), Levinas and the Philosophy of Education. New York: Routledge, 2018.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “An Earth Ethics in Education,” in George Noblit (Editor), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Overcoming lingering dualism in cognition and learning via emotion: freedom, phenomenology, and affective neuroscience,” in Michele Moses (Editor), Philosophy of Education Society Yearbook 2014. Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society-University of Illinois, 2017.
  • Philosophical Questions and Opportunities at the Intersection of Neuroscience, Education, and Research. In: Smeyers P. (eds) International Handbook of Philosophy of Education, pp 1261-1278. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Promise and Peril of Neuroscience for Alternative Education,” in Helen Lees and Nel Noddings (Editors), The Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Neoliberalism and the Neuronal Self: A Critical Approach to Neuroscience’s Application to Education,” in Clarence W. Joldersma (Editor), Neuroscience and Education: A Philosophical Appraisal. London: Routledge, 2016.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Beyond a Representational Model of Mind in Educational Neuroscience: Bodily Subjectivity and Enacted Cognition,” in Clarence W. Joldersma (Editor), Neuroscience and Education: A Philosophical Appraisal. London: Routledge, 2016.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Radical Constructivism, Education and Truth as life-giving disclosure,” in Lambert Zuidervaart (Editor), Truth Matters: Knowledge, Politics, Ethics, Religion. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. “Education: Understanding, Ethics, and the call to Justice,” in Biesta, G.J.J. (ed.) Making sense of education: Fifteen contemporary educational theorists in their own words. Dordrecht & Boston: Springer Science + Business Media, 2012.
  • Joldersma, Clarence W. and Deakin Crick, Ruth. “Citizenship, Discourse Ethics and an Emancipatory Model of Lifelong Learning,” in Mark Murphy & Ted Fleming (Editors), Habermas, Critical Theory and Education. London: Routledge, 2010.
Recent Academic Presentations
  • “(Trans)forming Christian teacher candidate identities around structural oppression: narrative identity, critical race theory, and shalom,” at the Kuyers Conference, Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) October 2019.
  • “Pedagogies of Hauntology: The Politics of Grievability in the Precarious Mattering of Lives,” with Lisa Perhamus (GVSU), part of the Paper Session titled “Black Life and its (Curriculum) Matters,” for the Curriculum Studies/Division B, at the annual conference of the American Education Research Association (Toronto, ON) April 2019.
  • “When Rancière and Critical Race Theory Meet: An Ethics of Using Difficult Images in the Classroom,” with Lisa Perhamus (GVSU), part of the Roundtable Session titled “Conceptions of Learning” for the SIG Philosophical Studies in Education, at the annual conference of the American Education Research Association (Toronto, ON) April 2019.
  • “The Moment of Study in Learning: A phenomenological resistance to neoliberalism’s learning discourse,” part of the Roundtable Session titled “Conceptions of Learning,” for the SIG Philosophical Studies in Education, at the annual conference of the American Education Research Association (Toronto, ON) April 2019.
  • “Dance of the African women that resists neocolonialism: Levinas disturbing Levinas,” presentation for the panel “Levinas and pedagogy in complicated times of colonialism,” at the annual conference of the Philosophy of Education Society, (Richmond VA) March 2019.
  • “Ruining the certainty of representations: Levinas, enigma, and curriculum,” presentation for the panel “Pedagogies of Ambivalence and Ambiguity” at the annual conference of the Philosophy of Education Society, (Richmond VA) March 2019.
  • “The intolerability of intolerable images: Redistributions of raced systems of human sensibilities” co-presented with Lisa Perhamus (GVSU) at the annual Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Conference (Nashville, IN) October 2018.
  • “Stealing an education: precarity and justice in the differential distribution of schooling,” at the annual Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Conference (Chicago, IL) October 2017.
  • “An Earth Ethics for Education as Robust Resistance to Neoliberalism in a Time of Climate Crisis,” at the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society conference (Dayton, OH) September 2016.
  • “Earth juts into world: an earth ethics for ecologizing Philosophy of Education,” at the Education Theory Summer Institute conference, University of Illinois (Champaign, IL), August 2016.
  • “Pope Francis, Education, and Ecology: A Discussion of Laudato Si,” panel member, at the Philosophy of Education Society annual conference (Toronto, ON), March 2016.
  • “Book panel: Neuroscience and Education: A Philosophical Appraisal (Clarence Joldersma, editor),” organizer and discussant, at the Philosophy of Education Society annual conference (Toronto, ON), March 2016.
  • “The Virtue of Doing Justice: A case for a welcoming embrace of LGBT students in Christian Schools,” at the Kuyers Conference, Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) October 2015.
  • “Interpellating dispossession: Distributions of vulnerability and the precarious mattering of lives,” co-presented with Lisa M. Perhamus (GVSU), at the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society conference (Dayton, OH) September 2015.
  • “The Temporal Transcendence of the Teacher as Other,” at the North American Levinas Society conference, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), July 2015.
  • “Book Symposium – Author Meets Critics: Clarence W. Joldersma’s A Levinasian Ethics for Education’s Commonplaces: Between Calling and Inspiration (Palgrave, 2014),” at the Philosophy of Education Society annual conference (Memphis, TN), March 2015.
  • “Neoliberalism and the Neuronal Self: A critical approach to neuroscience’s application to education,” at the annual conference of the American Educational Studies Association (Toronto, ON), October 2014.

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