Ask a question that you'd like for me to bring up in conversation with the critically-oriented scholars/teachers I will meet with at AESA. Feel free to draw on the recent readings (Dewey, Schutz, Freire, West, etc). and/or to look over the AESA program for inspiration (http://www.iaie.org/toronto2014/download/AESA_IAIE_conferenceprogram.pdf).
I'd like to know who the contemporary scholars are that are writing about what a Freirean approach looks like in today's K-12 classroom. What experiments have there been at the K-12 level to use Freirean approaches/methods?
ReplyDeleteI second Tami's questions. Both hooks and Freire focus on adult education...but who is or has written about and/or studied K-12 education for freedom? Don't we need to move beyond the banking model at all levels? Don't teachers in all grade levels need to build classroom communities based on respect and trust? How would our educational system (and ultimately our society) change if we began providing even our youngest students with a truly liberatory educational experience in which all students had a voice that was heard, valued, and respected? Are any AESA folks aware of education programs with a liberatory approach to teacher training?
ReplyDeletehooks wrote Teaching to Transgress in 1994 and challenged us move beyond education as oppression in university classrooms. Do AESA folks feel like we've done this? Why or why not? If so, where and in what situations? If not, what is holding us back?
How young is too young to engage students in the critical examination of oppressive policies, practices and issues of social justice? How do teachers critically engage younger students without placing a burden on them to reconcile contradictions to the teachings and beliefs of their families?
ReplyDeleteWe talk a lot about ideals, and some about practice. We also live in a relatively (I say this loosely) progressive city. But how do we negotiate critical pedagogy in places where oppressive practices based on deeply rooted traditions is commonplace? How do we start having these conversations?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've been thinking a lot the past couple of days about "bad teaching." I'm curious what the AESA folks think about "bad teachers," is it really a thing, how would they be identified, and most importantly, how do we make it better?
Mike
I'm also on Mike's wavelength this week it seems....what is the general consensus about how teachers "should" be held accountable or even "if" they should be???
ReplyDeleteI would also be interested to know what folks think about increasing "cultural competency" training for pre-service teachers as a way to bring light to those that may not realize that their personal biases and deep seated histories are influencing their teaching, leading to more oppression instead of liberation for students. How do you guide pre-service teachers to understand the lesser recognized subtleties that exist between feeding in to the oppressive narrative vs. teaching freedom from those ideals? Finally, I would love to know other's perceptions of Bell Hooks (is she seen as an "angry black woman"????).
HAVE FUN in TORONTO!! :)
This blog keeps erasing my posts! Blah!
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, my question is along the lines of Tami's and Meg's. Are there implications for research and writing that recommends truly revolutionary educational changes that prevent academics from writing about such things? Is it even possible to write about ideas such as taking down the current educational structure (for instance, age-based grade levels) that prevents academics from touching the subject and just working within the current structures?
I would be curious to find out if anyone is writing about the childfree-by-choice movement in the context of education, as well as anything about un-schooling.
Ginger
I’m also having blog-posting problems! Always on this computer…
ReplyDeleteMy first big question is about evaluation. As policy and money collide to increase “teacher accountability”, what constitutes a “bad teacher”? If we judge teachers on their students’ scores or on the teacher’s ability to follow a script or follow a rigid curriculum, is that a fair assessment of how effective teachers really are? My question really is how can we reconcile goals for teaching that align with critical and intellectually engaging pedagogy with how we actually evaluate teachers (i.e., by how many of their students pass standardized assessments)? I’m all for making sure we have good teachers in classrooms, but how “good” is defined may very drastically depending on the teaching goals considered.
I’m also interested in when and how critical pedagogies are introduced in classrooms? When is it appropriate? When is it meaningful? When might it actually disadvantage students, rather than liberate them?
Have fun at AESA!