Great post! I really liked how you were able to relate the readings to what is going on in your life right now but then also took time to talk about what this looks like in the class room. I am engineer as well and I agree that for the most part professors hate to bring up anything even slightly political even if it is relevant to our class. I did appreciate my one professor last semester who spent about 5 at the beginning of class the day after the election talking about how upset he was and what this could mean for us as environmental engineers. He started off by saying how he doesn’t typically like talking about politics in class (that he felt it was somewhat inappropriate) then he said “but wow…this is sort of a different thing I would say” and talked about how it has a major impact in our field (Environmental Engineering) and the environment in general. He was visually distraught and before he actually started to lecture he said something a long the lines of “and I hardly feel like lecturing today…but I’m going to…” and that was it. There wasn’t any discussion, we just went right back into the course work. While it was refreshing to see a professor show some emotion in an engineering class (something I don’t think I had ever seen before) it still wasn’t much. I think the whole class could have benefited from a discussion but as engineers I guess we are expected to stay on course to make sure we learn all the material laid out in our syllabus so we don’t have time to talk about real world events…and I think this is something that really needs to change in our field.

Thank you for sharing! I’ve also had some of those weeks where it seems like the universe is trying to send me a message. I like your point about the importance of community engagement and sharing of knowledge, it also reminded me of the a saying I’ve heard go around in academia where “if it isn’t published, it didn’t happen”.

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“Our students have been imbedded in a model, for the most part, that tells them over and over again that they are not capable of original thought, that they don’t have anything to offer, and that they are not worthy of our attention or deference. This is a sort of cruelty in its own way, and hospitality is a way of combating it.”

“In combating it, the facilitator gives deference to those whom they, for lack of a better term, serve. They ask “what do you need from me” and “how can we work together to make sure your needs are met.”

Serve is absolutely the right word. I’m printing those questions out and putting them on my screen. Thank you!

Hi Jyotsana, I know you didn’t ask me since I draw some connections I figured I’d chime in :) I think Iris focused on another one of the reading assignments the one by Kinchloe as mentioned in the post. But from Freire’s work, I drew a connection with this topic from Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed:
“It follows logically from the banking notion of consciousness that the educator’s role is to regulate the way the world “enters into” the students. The teacher’s task is to organize a process which already occurs spontaneously, to “fill” the students by making deposits of information which he of she considers to constitute true knowledge. (2) And since people “receive” the world as passive entities, education should make them more passive still, and adapt them to the world. The educated individual is the adapted person, because she or he is better ‘fit” for the world. Translated into practice, this concept is well suited for the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well people fit the world the oppressors have created and how little they question it.”
“The more completely the majority adapt to the purposes which the dominant majority prescribe for them (thereby depriving them of the right to their own purposes), the more easily the minority can continue to prescribe. The theory and practice of banking education serve this end quite efficiently. Verbalistic lessons, reading requirements, (3) the methods for evaluating “knowledge,” the distance between the teacher and the taught, the criteria for promotion: everything in this ready-to-wear approach serves to obviate thinking.”

I have to agree with you that I have been the bank too much as well, in both my undergraduate and graduate degree. I feel that some courses have to be a bank model because of numerous amount of topics that have to be covered in such a short time. This is particularly true in most engineering courses because of the accreditation process. The professors are required to teach certain topics in order to be accredited. Therefore, it is more about depositing as much material on to the student as possible. With the current society, we constantly have to remain competitive.

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Thanks for sharing these inspiring quotes. They are good reminders to keep you in check while teaching. Especially the quote about tolerance– this is so important in every classroom. Not saying that teachers are ever intolerant, but there’s something to be said for making this a focal point of every classroom. It will create a healthier, more welcoming learning environment overall.

I really like how you said that teaching depends on both the teacher’s input and the student’s acceptance of knowledge. I do find that both roles greatly contribute to a successful learning environment. However, with that being said I feel that it is the student’s responsibility to learn the material. If the student does not think the teacher’s teaching style is effective. Then it is up to the student to seek help. The teacher has to find a style that accommodate the masses.

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Thank you for sharing! I can definitely relate to your experience. I have the same feelings of inadequacy (because of my accent) that sometimes hinder my communication by making me too self-conscious. I also thought that maybe I had changed over the years but then I realized it is more prevalent in situations where I am the minority and that I can still express myself how I used to in my native language or with different audiences.

I really enjoy this succinct post, and I share your concern about losing the “democratic identity of higher education for the uni-dimensional mentality of the market.” But what I wonder, is if this already, by and large, a foregone battle as the status of the humanities continues to diminish at every level, and educational institutions kowtow to corporate interests.

Very good point about the value of education! I wonder how our system would look if education was truly championed as something of value rather than something people are “forced” to do whether they see the value in it or not.

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