Grad 5114 / GEDI Spring 2018
I’ve always felt passionate about teaching, reflecting on my own process, and striving to improve the content and experience of coursework. I’ve always strongly believed that education is crucial to critical inquiry, personal growth, social responsibility and societal change, but I’d never read about Paulo Freire directly (although I suspect I have read devotees of his work).
Freire’s assertion that teaching is a political act that can lead to liberation (economic, political, social, emotional and mental) is inspiring and empowering for teachers. My hope is always to create a classroom environment where students have those nearly tangible ah-ha movements, but it is hard to know if the practical, day-to-day classroom experience is fostering critical engagement. In the video interview with Freire, I think he gets to the heart of his pedagogical belief: eternal curiosity must nurtured. Curiosity — the asking of why, how and so what? — is a radical act that challenges the dominate culture. He remarks that he, too, has remained curious in old age. This calls for teacher to remain curious students, open to the process of lifelong learning as our teacherly, scholarly, personal selves continue to grew.
belle hooks adds to this conversation, suggesting that teachers who are in tune to society at large and are humane will help students question and challenge the dominant, oppressive socio-political structures in their lives. Students can help change the world, but first we have to see each of them as unique, individual, human. I began this semester giving myself a pass on learning my students’ names. I’ve ALWAYS done this in classes that were much smaller, but this time around I thought, “I’m in school too. Learning their names is less important than connecting with them. Just let it go.” But a month in, I felt a disconnect with them, and I think it might have been emanating from me. For me, putting forth the effort to know their names is one way I build a relationship. So, I started learning their names. In a class of 38, it has taken me some time, but I can do it (and I’m really bad with names). In the future, if I teach larger classes, I might have to find ways to better connect with students in a different way, but, for me, asking their name and calling on them in a personal way seems to remain crucial.
Ultimately Kinchloe states that some teachers depoliticize and water-down Freire’s work, focusing on the self-directed aspects. Others focus more on the political nature, ignoring the need for deep scholarly engagement. I can identify moments in my own teaching experience where I’ve run the gamut of this polarities, but giving them a context helps me to better navigate between them. Sign me up, I want to be a card-carrying member of Freirean Pedagogy.
Sit down and pay attention. I am going to tell you what you need to know to pass the upcoming test and then we can proceed to the next set of stuff for the next test. Does this sound familiar? If so, you more than likely attended an American public education institution. The current form of education is analogous to a cow’s processing of food. Cows eat grass, regurgitate it for some further processing, then expel it so new grass can be consumed. In education, students are fed, more likely force fed, information that is regurgitated for a test, maybe for some further processing in a test review then expelled so information for the next test can be administered. THIS IS NOT LEARNING!!!!!!!!!!!! This is memorization or a learn and dump system that could be better termed bovine educational systems. So we can safely say our current education system produces dung. Our current educational system creates a herd of sleeping cattle that thrill seeking teens could easily tip over. So how do we become “woke” from the mind numbing, use and dump form of education. Well Bell Hooks has a way to elevate learners and memorization systems to that of thinkers and question asking people. That is what allows a society to flourish. That will help any nation or community become great. Want to make America great again? Well create a system of thinking, not just learning.
Bell Hooks states that thinking is an action. Any drone worker can sit and listen for an hour but can they think for an hour? Currently, students sit in rows and columns for time blocks while the teacher disseminates information necessary for passing a test. They are not challenged to think and come to fear thinking. Early college students exhibit this characteristic very early. The look of panic mixed with dread and unadulterated fear is a discomforting sight to a college professor. This look is witnessed the first time you cold call a student and ask what they “think”. How do we get students to think and expand their practical understanding of a topic? The action of thinking is precipitated and perpetuated through systems of critical pedagogy. Get students to embrace thinking in class. Use current, practical examples in the classroom. Work with students to understand how the subject of discussion applies and all the different ways it could apply. As a professor of Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, I am provided with a wealth of practical examples for class discussion. It is not good enough to walk students through the discussion. We must walk with the students through the discussion. Don’t give the relevance, work with students to find the relevance. The “aha” moment is a very rewarding event. The rapture of an expanded mind is a powerful tool a student can utilize throughout their entire life. The bottom line is this, teachers should not teach specific details of test material, instead, they should teach how to think. To do this, one must not stand in front of the class and dictate the terms and items of learning. One must be with the class and be a part of the discussion. That is critical pedagogy that will make a difference.
So many topics covered in the reading this week from Freire and hooks. Some interesting ideas and concepts. One that stood out to me was the concept of teachers as learners. This is something I’ve thought a lot about during my time teaching. We focus a lot on helping students to develop open minds and to think critically but we don’t talk as often about how to help teachers keep and open mind. We often fall into the “banking concept” discussed by Freire where teachers are simply trying to fill the minds of students like an empty receptacle rather than actually teaching them. Teachers can fall into the trap of thinking they know everything because that’s kind of how the banking concept is set up. This ends up restricting learning and discouraging critical thinking because analytical questions from students are seen as a challenge to a teacher’s authority and traditional pedagogy. Or they can be viewed as distractions from the syllabus that the teacher has worked so hard to stick to. As teachers, we need to work to overcome that mentality. As we view ourselves as facilitators of learning rather than just someone filling a bucket with facts, I think we open ourselves and our students to more meaningful learning experiences. And a more enjoyable experience as well.
I have been amazed at how many times I’ve been explaining a concept to someone, even a concept that I’m pretty familiar with, when suddenly a lightbulb goes off and I understand something totally new about the concept. Sometimes that’s triggered by a question from the person I’m teaching and sometimes it’s simply triggered by the process of explaining what I think I know to someone else and having to vocalize those thoughts. Either way, I find it incredible how much we can learn while teaching. This is why group work and group discussions are so useful. I have been impressed by professors who have been willing to learn while they teach. We’ll be having discussion in class and someone will pose a question that they may not know the answer to. Rather than taking this as a challenge to their authority, we have been able to turn these questions into interesting discussions and learn together. Seeing a professor be open to questions and discussion, I believe, encourages students to engage and think critically and to become more involved in the learning process. Perhaps we can do a better job encouraging our students to be teachers and our teachers to be learners and maybe we’ll all learn something from each other.
On the eve of Linda Brown’s (Brown VS Board of Education) passing I couldn’t be more primed to write a blog incorporating such words as “humanist education” and “engaging pedagogy”. So many emotions and thoughts brought up thinking about the legacy and lives changed by one little girl. It is ever so timely when on Sunday, the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School marched on Washington to express their dissatisfaction with continued legislative action backed by deep NRA pockets. Communities can and will unite to do what is right when faced with adversity in uncertain times. To not take action implies complicity.
Paulo Freire talks about how words become hollow and alienating when detached from reality. Teachers who instill fear and hierarchy because to not do so would allow creativity and transformative learning experiences. The “banking” concept of education is having students mechanically memorize and be gifted by the knowledge of the teacher. Really in this context it is being used to contain, control and oppress the students so that they “fit into” the structured world around them. Anything other than fitting in, such as being creative or humanistic, would be considered revolutionary. The massive dichotomy between the banking education method and problem-posing method is an abyss at worst and a chasm at best. Complete opposites in every manner. As new professors and future professoriates we need to incorporate every aspect of the positive problem-posing method. Paulo Freire used the word “human” 33 times in this one chapter. Of course, I’ll point out again that in my first month I wrote a blog regarding the very topic of human decency missing in the higher education system at VT. I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say I might be onto something. I wonder how many of the banking education methods are employed here daily, and probably by people who don’t even realize they are continuing the cycle of a detached reality.
Bell Hooks also used the word “humane” in her first few chapters, to no surprise. My favorite excerpt and also one that applies to VT, “teachers who appeared to derive their primary pleasure in the classroom by exercising their authoritarian power over my fellow students, crushing our spirits, and dehumanizing our minds and bodies…..I never once considered what it would be like to study with teachers who were racist….I had romanticized college”. She very well could have taken this out of my own diaries. I’m reminded of a book by my dear friend “I, Rigoberta Menchu” by Rigoberta Menchu who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 in which she addresses the fact that one must have enduring courage to fight against the system and do what is right, regardless of the cost. I love how Hooks paints the picture of the critical thinker as a child, when most would think it’d be professor or doctor. She breaks it down so eloquently when stating “in traditional higher education settings, students find themselves yet again in a world where independent thinking is not encouraged”. I literally wrote OMG!!!! in the margin at the beginning of Chapter 2 where she writes that she participated in the Voice of Democracy contest, because, I did as well! I even won 3rd place in my district which came with $500 and helped me buy my first car in high school. LOL!
I’m so thankful to have been asked to read these articles for my blog at a time when I needed them most. The world is smaller than we think and great minds really do think alike.
Thanks!
Cheers, Lehi
It is obvious that being around people who are different from us makes us more creative and innovative. Theoretically, there are numerous benefits of diversity. However, as Phillips mentioned that the first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. It is truly difficult in other countries; the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to more than anxiety and conflict, one can be to lose one’s job and their livelihoods, even worse, one might need to move to find a new place to live.
In the U.S., from my perspective, the dialogue of inclusion is very advanced, therefore, I’m always thinking how diversity can be worked in my country, or any other countries as increasing numbers of benefits of diversity i found in the U.S. Strategically, we should think about how we can adapt the concept of diversity into our education setting and society without all the problems discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, as Phillips listed. It is complicated, and it can be achieved when we discuss as a whole group of society, not discuss only in universities.
Bell hooks, who was among the first generation of black students who entered a predominantly white college, wrote about her own experiences and challenges she faced during her college education. Challenges of being taught by professors who believed they were racially superior! Challenges of facing racism and sexism in classes. Challenges of fearing most of the teachers and staying away from them or their classes!
She motivates all black students who went through the same experiences to share their stories. In her books, she addressed issues of race, sex, and class, and all different challenging issues teachers are facing in the classrooms:
“One professor, for example, asked how black female professors can maintain positive authority in a classroom without being seen through the lens of negative racist, sexist stereotypes. One teacher asked how to handle tears in the classroom, while another wanted to know how to use humor as a tool for learning.”
These kinds of autobiographical writings of black students who entered predominantly white schools, colleges and universities (especially the first generation of them) is really helpful in giving us an insight about the challenges they were facing during their education.
(hooks)
Engaged pedagogy begins with the assumption that interactive relationship between teacher and students and mutual participation would substantially improve the learning process. Teachers need to discover what the students know, and what they need to know, and this is possible only through interactions. Hence, although it takes time to get to know all students (specially in large classes) and to have an interactive relationship with them, but it is totally worth it.
Both teaching and learning are collaborative processes between the teacher and the students. Every student has a valuable contribution to make to the learning process, and it is the teacher’s responsibility to create an atmosphere in class that everyone feels comfortable to participate.
(hooks, engaged pedagogy)
While reading a piece about Shankar Vedantam’s new book “the Hidden Brain” I was thinking “NO! This is wrong! I was not at all racist when I was 3… cause there was no other race in Iran…” To be more precise, we (Iranian students) usually have a hard time understanding what race is when filling out application forms for US universities (I sometimes categorized myself as Asian and sometimes as white)! But after a while pondering about racism, I thought well, we do not have racism in its classic meaning of othering the other ‘races’, BUT we do have many discriminatory behaviors (and policies unfortunately) toward a large number of minority groups in our country namely Afghan Refugees”.
The point is, even if we have not formed the associations between certain groups of people and the concepts about them (simply because we have not had the chance of it), it does not necessarily means we are not bigots, as a Persian proverb says “He doesn’t see any water; otherwise, he is a skilled swimmer.”
I totally agree with Shankar when he emphasizes on taking back the control of our brain by unlearning our mental associations consciously and conscientiously. This would be a difficult process for everyone of us, since as we grow up we lean more and more towards our autopilot brain functions and as Shankar puts it “… the hidden brain is much more in charge of what we do than our conscious mind’s intentions”. This, in my view, is everyone of us responsibility at individual level.
What I find lacking in this article, is how society as a whole should move towards eradicating racism. The structural inequalities must be addressed in order to give back minorities and the oppressed their voice and power. When world powers, their policies, media and social structures at national and international level are constantly shaping an unequal, prejudice and hateful global culture (e.g. toward Muslims/Jews/Arabs/etc.), do individual efforts suffice? I say NO!
A quick look at the racial composition of students and teachers in the U.S. reveals why a racial gap exists between the two. White teachers constitute 85% of all public school teachers in the U.S. and this share is expected to increase. About half of current public school students are non-Whites and the share of non-White students will increase in the coming years. According to Carlisle, Jackson, & George (2006), academic achievement is racially correlated and drop-out and attempted suicide are high among LGBT students. These trends indicate why teachers should be well-prepared to teach in diverse contexts: social justice and student achievement are inseparable (Carlisle, et al. 2006). Nevertheless, research (Cross, 2003) shows that such preparation is not yet achieved, e.g., to respect student’s language, to use diverse literature in the syllabus, to acknowledge diversity, and to recognize personal knowledge and experience. These concerns become even more meaningful when inequity in the U.S. education is seen from a structural perspective. For example, since public education funding is tied to local property taxes, students in wealthier communities, which are predominantly White, have access to superior educational opportunities (Dover, 2009). Thus, researchers like Cross (2003) suggest that it is not enough to take a neutral approach and just realize that there are differences, e.g., in the language spoken by students. Rather, they advocate active behaviors or strategies for teaching in a multi-cultural context. Carlisle, et al. (2006) addressed such strategies through five key principles. These principles, according to Dover (2009), try to reduce educational inequity through a comprehensive and systemic reform, which is increasingly framed as social justice in education. For example, working in reciprocal collaboration with students’ parents and communities, and teaching about activism, power, and inequity in schools and society are among such principles. Overall, I think such ideas are highly valuable if realized. It seems that with an increase in the number of students of color, existing racial gaps will gradually diminish. However, as long as the society is structured to provide a better education for the high-income populations, more work is needed to achieve social justice in education. Also, other issues, e.g., religious minorities, immigrants, LGBTs, etc. will shape the next steps in reaching social justice.
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