Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Intro-Chap. 2)

I want to start by saying that I am so glad that through our Critical Pedagogy class, we have had the opportunity to read Freire another time because my second reading has truly transformed the way that I think about pedagogy.  We have had many opportunities to discuss Freire's work in our class and these discussions have pushed us to deeply internalize and analyze Freire's ideas.

I loved Donald Macedo's introduction to the 30th anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed because it adds a lot to what is already a fascinating book.  Macedo's concept of "cultural schizophrenia" resonated with me and my experience that I have had at my particular school.  I love the way that Macedo (2000) describes it as a balancing act, and as finding oneself caught between “two worlds, two cultures, and two languages” (p. 11).  This helped me reflect on the cultural schizophrenia that many (if not all) of my students must feel.  Unfortunately there is a big gap between their home and school culture, and in more general terms, there exists a gap between the Hispanic/African-American culture and the dominant, Caucasian culture.  When Macedo (2000) mentions the "borrowed and colonized cultural existence" that oppressed groups experience, I thought immediately about my students' existence at our school (p. 11).  I hate to think of my school as a colonizing power, but if I am honestly reflecting on my school's presence, we are partly an institution that silences and colonizes our students.  We impose an "English-only" education model that rejects many of my students' native languages/dialects, therefore rejecting a major part of their identity.  I am constantly reflecting on how I can make my practice a practice of freedom, and how I can give my students opportunities to express themselves as they are and not as I want them to be.  

I can say with confidence that Freire has inspired all of us to reflect deeply on the difference between the banking concept of education and problem-posing education.  As I think about who I want to be as an educator as my time with TFA and GSU comes to an end, I know that one of my main goals is to be a problem-posing educator.  My passion is to teach social justice and to somehow incorporate the Common Core standards in there (and not the other way around).  As you all know, I have grappled a lot with the question "what actually matters?" throughout the last 2 years.  I have struggled to welcome myself into my own classroom, and to be true to who I am while also making sure that I am doing my job.  This year I have finally been able to bring more and more of myself in my classroom, whether that is through my relationships with students or my actual lessons.  In Freire’s model of problem-posing education, “the teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach” (Freire, 1970, p. 80).  This is what inspires me as an educator, and this is my goal for my classroom.  I have centered my classroom this year on dialogue so that my students have multiple opportunities per day to make their voice be heard. 

Freire centers Pedagogy of the Oppressed around this model of problem-posing education and dialogical action, and these two concepts inform my action research/TICC project.  My students have selected a problem in their community and are problematizing it by planning a service-learning project to help solve this problem.  My students are creatively thinking about ways to make their world a better place and they're getting more and more excited about the agency that they are finding themselves to have.  When I think about my future as an educator, I know that whatever I do, I want to be working in a place that allows students to actively practice social justice.  I am starting to feel more and more passionate about service-learning, and I would love one day to work at a school that is centered around service-learning.  Teaching Common Core standards is not where my passion lies; rather, my passion lies in using dialogue to help my kids develop critical perspectives towards their own and the reality of others.  In order for students to truly exhibit agency, they must be able to critically break down the constructs and systems that they are a part of.  This will help them be leaders of sustainable change in their communities.