pedagogy of freedom

PEDAGOGY OF FREEDOM: ETHICS, DEMOCRACY, AND CIVIC COURAGE

BY PAULO FREIRE

Team 4: Jesse Downs, Jamie Jacobs, Xin Wang,

Patricia Carmona-Nieves, & Terrie Paul

"Pedagogy of Freedom is a stirring culmination of

Paulo Freire's life work. It is in no way a conclusion

or a summation: it is a text that urges its

readers to become, to reach towards still

untapped possibility.”

Maxine Green, Professor Emeritus,

Columbia University

(back cover of Pedagogy of Freedom)

Review

ABOUT PAULO FREIRE(1921—1997) A Brazilian educationalist and critical

pedagogy theorist, Freire has left a significant mark on thinking about progressive practice.

His Pedagogy of the Oppressed is currently one of the

most quoted educational texts (especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia).

Perhaps the most influential thinker about education in the late twentieth century, Paulo Freire has been particularly popular with informal educators with his emphasis on authentic dialogue and his concern for the oppressed.

(Smith, 1997, 2002)

FREIRE ON PEDAGOGY OF FREEDOM

“[L]et me say what this book asks and hopes of you:

That you give yourself to it critically and with ever-

expanding curiosity” (p. 27).

WHY CRITICAL PEDAGOGY?A VIDEO FROM THE FREIRE PROJECT

(SMITH & CUCINELLI, 2008)RUNNING TIME: 14:42

THEMES IN PEDAGOGY OF FREEDOM

THEME 1:

DEDICATED, CRITICAL CURIOSITY DRIVES LEARNING (AND TEACHING)

DEDICATED, CRITICAL CURIOSITY

The human condition is one of “unfinishedness”: People must become conscious of “the

unfinishedness of our human condition. It is in this consciousness that the very possibility of learning, of being educated, resides. It is our immersion in this consciousness that gives rise to a permanent movement of searching, of curious interrogation that leads us not only to an awareness of the world but also to a thorough, scientific knowledge of it” (p. 66).

Curiosity comes from our search for completion and coherence:


Teaching Requires Curiosity

“As a teacher…I can neither teach nor learn unless driven, disturbed, and forced to search by the energy that curiosity brings to my being” (p. 80).

“[T]he educator who is dominated by authoritarian or paternalistic attitudes that suffocate the curiosity of the learner finishes by suffocating his or her own curiosity” (p. 79).


“There is, in fact, no teaching without learning” (p. 31).

“Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning.”

“[S]imply ‘to teach’ is not possible in the context of human historical unfinishedness.”

“[T]eaching that does not emerge from the experience of learning cannot be learned by anyone.”

“The process of learning makes teaching possible”

DEDICATED, CRITICAL CURIOSITY DRIVES LEARNING (AND TEACHING)—

AND LEARNING DRIVES FURTHER CURIOSITY

Developing students as curious learners and teachers

“Critical reflection on practice is a requirement”

Teachers who are engaged in critical learning will exemplify to their students the context of true learning, “continuous transformation”

“The exercise of curiosity makes it more critically curious, more methodically rigorous in regard to its object. The more spontaneous curiosity intensifies and becomes rigorous, the more epistemological it becomes” (p. 82).

CRITICAL CURIOSITY LEADS TO AN ETHICAL OPPORTUNITY

Ethical responsibility of teachers

“Preparation should go beyond the technical preparation of teachers and be rooted in the ethical formation both of selves and of history”

Not “ethics of the market” but rather a “universal human ethic”

All quotations from Pedagogy of Freedom by Paulo Freire

CRITICAL CURIOSITY LEADS TO AN ETHICAL OPPORTUNITY

Ethics should be inseparable from educative practice

Must live this ethic in our: educative practice relations with our students dealings with the contents we teach Presentation of quotes from authors

“The education of the teacher should be so ethically grounded that any gap between professional and ethical formation is to be deplored”

All quotations from Pedagogy of Freedom by Paulo Freire

DEDICATED, CRITICAL CURIOSITY AND…

JULIE LANDSMAN

From A White Teacher Talks About Race: Student centered learning – importance of “making

students voices the center of the classroom” Landsman witnesses that students “tune out” if

educators do not continuously invite students curiosities into the classroom

Honesty- willingness to make mistakes and learn from students “My students point out my mistakes and forgive

them come back ready to write, to read with me.” “After all these years I still make classic mistakes in

unsubtle ways and subtle ways…” Landsman illustrates the importance of teaching and

learning and empowering her students to do the same

All quotations from A White Teacher Talks About Race by Julie Landsman

THEME 2:

CRITICAL SELF- AND CONTEXTUAL AWARENESS CREATES ETHICAL LEARNING (AND TEACHING) OPPORTUNITIES

AWARENESS OF SELF, SURROUNDINGS, AND ETHICAL OPPORTUNITY

Awareness of self:o Freire states the need to have an

“awareness of our unfinishedness”

o We, as humans, are ever changing and learning.o We need to be open and critical about the self, and our

internal battles. Critically reflecting and analyzing one’s perspective can enhance self awareness.

o Having greater access to multiple sources and being able to synthesize these different points of view, and then forming their own perception, which is the essence of multicultural education.

“When we live our lives with the authenticity demanded by the practice of teaching that is also learning and learning that is also teaching, we are participating

in a total experience that is simultaneously directive, political, ideological, gnostic,

pedagogical, aesthetic, and ethical. In this experience, the beautiful, the decent, and

the serious from a circle with hands joined” (Freire, 2001, p. 32).

AWARENESS OF SELF, SURROUNDINGS, AND ETHICAL OPPORTUNITY

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Two weeks before this event, could this man have imagined

that this is who he would become?

AWARENESS OF SELF, SURROUNDINGS,

AND ETHICAL OPPORTUNITY

Freire states: Recognition of ones conditioning—understanding that the conditions, i.e. political, social, cultural and educational, influence one’s socialization, and can create internal and external ideological obstacles.

Recognizing one’s surroundings:



She had an internal and external battle (between her and her family/community) of whether to continue her own dream of going back to school, or to give it up to support the male dominated tradition in her community.

Recognizing one’s surroundings:

In Young and Restless in China, Wei Zhanyan, grew up in a poor, uneducated, male dominated culture. She forgoes her education to work in the city to financially support her brother’s education.



As Freire explained about the awareness of surroundings, educators should understand their own surroundings, as well as their students’, which will lead to greater opportunities for ethical learning and teaching.

“Recognizing that precisely because we are constantly in the process of becoming and, therefore, are capable of observing, comparing, evaluating, choosing, deciding, intervening, breaking with, and making options, we are ethical beings, capable of transgressing our ethical grounding.”

AWARENESS OF SELF, SURROUNDINGS, AND ETHICAL

OPPORTUNITY

Ethical Opportunity:

Self awareness and awareness of situational surroundings, will lead to ethical opportunities.

Example: Growing Up Online recognizes the ethical opportunities for educators to be critical of their role in students ever increasing online lives. Teachers need to be critical of themselves and understand their

student’s primary socialization tool, online communities. Once teachers have this awareness, they can then educate

themselves and work to provide a new platform for learning in their classroom.

This model of learning and teaching simultaneously can be used in the context of global and international education, in that we are all continuous learners, and must understand ourselves and the other in order to deliver pedagogical freedom .

AWARENESS OF SELF, SURROUNDINGS, AND ETHICAL OPPORTUNITY AND… GREG MORTENSON

Does Greg Mortenson practice the sort of ethical coherence that Freire discusses?

Does he, as Obidah says, “walk the talk”?

How about others?

THEME 3:

AN IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENT TO HUMANITY

AN IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENT TO HUMANITY Freire provides us with a framework of

principles that inform the professional practice of teachers engaged in teaching and learning anywhere.

Freire finds every human worthy of respect, dignity, and trust. can be achieved through the education of individuals who are

poor or who are oppressed in and out of school. the process of education is only a human endeavor Those who oppress others dominating or by manipulative

behaviors is self-destructive for themselves.


Teaching demands the principles of humility, tolerance, and advocacy for the rights of learners.

“Teaching practice, which doesn’t exist unless learning simultaneously, is a holistic practice…The beauty of practice of teaching is made up of a passion for integrity that unites teacher and student.”

Humility is a desired trait in a teacher.


“To know that I must respect the autonomy, the dignity, and the identity of the student and, in practice, must try to develop coherent attitudes and virtues in regard to such practice is an essential requirement of my profession, unless I am to become an empty mouther of words. It serves no purpose, except to irritate and demoralize the student, for me to talk of democracy and freedom and at the same time act with the arrogance of a know-all” (p. 61).


“…education is a form of ‘ideology’…” (p. 11). From Stanley Aronowitz’s Introduction to

Pedagogy of Freedom

Educational practice itself as an experience in humanization, must be impregnated with this ideal. “One of the characteristics of our human existential

experience compared to other form of life in our planet is our ability to comprehend the world upon which and in which we act” (p. 104).

AN IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENT TO HUMANITY Transformation of the self, schools, and society to

achieve social justice, critical thinking and equal opportunity for everyone

A world without exploitation, inequality and cultural enslavement

Aspiration for radical changes in society in such areas as economics, human relations, property, the right to employment, to education, and to health.

OTHER THOUGHTS?

Feel free! – TerrieAre we including a reference page?

Humanity Symbol at www.sunlost.com

Diverse Classroom www.123rf.com/photo_4605748.html

http://www.sunlost.com/

http://www.123rf.com/photo_4605748.html

REFERENCESDunbar, C. (2001). Alternative schooling for African American youth:

Does anyone know we’re here? New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Friere, P. (2001). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Howard, G. R. (1993). Whites in multicultural education. Multicultural Education, 75(1), 36-41. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from Academic OneFile database.

Landsman, J. (2009). A white teacher talks about race (Classroom edition). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

McIntyre, A. (1997). Constructing an image of a white teacher. Teachers College Record, 98(4), 653-681.

Obidah, J. E. (2000). Mediating boundaries of race, class, and professorial authority as a critical multiculturalist. Teachers College Record, 102(6), 1035-1060.

Smith, D. & Cucinelli, G. (Producers). (2008). Why critical pedagogy? [Online video]. Retrieved from The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy, at http://freireproject.org/content/critical-pedagogy-tv

Smith, M. K. (1997, 2002). Paulo Freire and informal education. The encyclopaedia of informal education. Retrieved from http:// www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir

REFERENCES (CONT’D)

pedagogy of freedom

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