I’ll just support what’s already been said about how integral research is to teaching and learning — and the disruption of the banking model. I really enjoyed reading about your own epiphanies here, Ping.

I’m so glad Freire’s ideas resonated so strongly with you, and I love the examples you cite from your own experience. The statistics teacher who was himself curious and learned with the class as you explored different methods of solving the same problem together sound just fabulous. Wow.

I think it’s useful to think about the right medium / tool for the job. Traditional lecturing is strongly implicated in the “banking” model of education, but I don’t think that means we need to jettison one to replace the other (and I do think that disrupting the banking model wherever possible is a good idea.) We’ve read about “what lectures are good for,” and there was an op-ed over the weekend that brought out some advantages to lecturing (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/opinion/sunday/lecture-me-really.html?src=me&_r=0). But back to the right tool for the job: The way we produce and access knowledge has changed profoundly in the last 20 years. Yes, there is still (will always be) a certain amount of rote internalization of information and knowledge about what stuff is and how it works, but increasingly our human “advantage” depends less on how much we “know” than on how well we can access what we need to know to solve a problem or make something new. This is very Freirean. (He was ahead of his time for sure.) I do think lecturing makes good sense in some contexts — but using it to pass on information, or make deposits in the students’ knowledge base should move to the dustbin of history.

Thank you for reminding us, Sihui, that context matters. Freire focused on literacy not for its own sake, but as a vehicle for raising consciousness. I would like to think that there is (or should be) room for his approach in nearly all educational systems, but I recognize that it will be easier to implement these ideals in some contexts more than others. I wonder if in the Chinese context just thinking about the teacher as a learner — someone who cannot be one without the other, and regarding one’s students as co-learners might help create some productive space?

I appreciate the connection you make between the NPR Podcast and Freire’s conception of the learner-teacher. I also completely understand being worried about maintaining authority in the classroom. What I most appreciate is that you are so open to the idea of embracing a bit of discomfort for the sake of supporting a better learning environment. These are tough realizations and I salute your insight.

Oh I can’t even count all of the ways I love this. You’ve given me so much to think about. I’m especially intrigued by your riff on Freire’s debt to Hegel, which makes me wonder how much tolerance and synthesis have in common? And the shades of grey……Do they magically emerge from the “whitest white” and “blackest black”? Or are they not grey at all – are they a swirl of the full color spectrum? r-evolutionary indeed.

Thanks so much for sharing this! You’ve got terrific comments from others here, so I’ll just add that I’m glad you found such a good mentor at WUSTL. It seems that relationship might have had some things in common with the relationship Claude Steele developed with his advisor.

I’m so glad you watched Chiminanda Adiche’s TED Talk. It’s on my all-time favorite list. One of the things I most treasure about it is the way the narrative builds – it doesn’t really follow the conventional structure of a TED talk, but rather draws the listener in with a series of autobiographical insights that congeal at the end into a major and surprising revelation.

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I’m so glad you watched Chiminanda Adiche’s TED Talk. It’s on my all-time favorite list. One of the things I most treasure about it is the way the narrative builds – it doesn’t really follow the conventional structure of a TED talk, but rather draws the listener in with a series of autobiographical insights that congeal at the end into a major and surprising revelation.

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Absolutely. Of course we all have biases! We’re human. And it is terrifying to think that in addition to the biases we own there are also many we don’t even realize we have. I’m also really bothered by the awareness that I can make students (and people in general) uncomfortable without wanting to or without realizing what I’m doing. On the one hand, real learning is often messy and uncomfortable, and I’m ok with that. But I’m always on the lookout for ways to be more informed, observant, and award of how my behavior affects others.