Common Beliefs and Common Sense in Educational Policy and Practice

Abstract

F. Tony Carusi’s thoughtful commentary about the conceptions of “common sense” in contemporary educational theorizing is a welcome and important contribution to the conversation about the current tides in educational reform and society generally. Carusi helpfully points out that Frederick Hess and Kevin Kumashiro, two educational thinkers who agree about very little in terms of educational reform, each hold relatively simplistic notions of “common sense.” Carusi finds that Michael Apple offers a more nuanced conception of common sense as something culturally and historically situated, but he argues that Giambattista Vico fills out the picture and provides educators with model for both disrupting common sense and producing alternative worldviews in it. In my response essay, I will revisit Hess’s and Kumashiro’s conceptions of common sense to offer a friendly critique of the Carusi–Vichian model of the commonsense educator.