This week’s focus was critical pedagogy, a philosophy of education grounded in critical theory. Paulo Freire believed that “teaching should challenge learners to examine power structures and patterns of inequality within the status quo” (Currell, 2020).
This concept is quite interesting in opposition to traditional pedagogies employed in both higher education and K-12 education. From my perspective, many K-12 schools and teachers use policies that are meant to control students and set up the classroom with the teacher as the objective authoritarian. While many higher education classrooms, especially in the liberal arts and social sciences utilize a less structured approach there are still underlying power structures that exist. From my experience in engineering and STEM courses, we were not able to challenge the information presented by the professor and were conditioned to believe that they were to transfer their expertise to us. Now that I have transitioned to a graduate program in Engineering Education, I realize how structured our classrooms were in Engineering compared to my elective classes in the social sciences and humanities. We viewed our engineering professors as objective and unbiased, even though Freire explains that teaching is fundamentally a human and political act.
In modern times, as our understanding of teaching and learning has increased, I believe that critical pedagogy can be useful to consider as educators. Reflecting on my time in the classroom, I believe that it is important to understand and acknowledge power structures and patterns of inequality. In terms of communication styles, I found that I have a low power distance as an instructor which meant that I did not place as much emphasis on formality with students. This communication style impacted my interaction with the students and worked for the structure of the course. Despite having a low-power distance, I acknowledged that as an instructor there was still a power structure within the classroom and I needed to be mindful of how my actions would impact students. Critical pedagogy serves as a way to help me further unpack and understand the dynamics of the classroom.
Overall, I believe critical pedagogy provides another way to reflect on classroom dynamics and the act of teaching. This is especially useful in my field of engineering, where we often see the field and professors as objective unbiased communicators of scientific knowledge.
References
(1) https://mathsnoproblem.com/blog/teaching-practice/paulo-freire-pioneer-of-critical-pedagogy/
I agree with the concerns raised in this post. The exercise of power is not always a conscious one, but can also be stemming from the position of the subject-here teacher. This post is in line with my own preoccupations about structural power and how it determines the classroom practices. Thank you for sharing your ideas about how to tackle it.
ReplyDeleteSophia, as a student that have taken several STEM courses and a couple social sciences courses, I can relate to your views on structure and power dynamics in the classroom. I do agree with you, the use of critical pedagogy can alleviate some of the challenges found in STEM courses. However, I also have struggled with courses that are proud in not using the banking concept of teaching. Some of this courses get rid of structure and organization, and it ends up been detrimental for learning. I think we should strike a balance!
ReplyDeleteSophia,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see your take on the readings coming from an engineering background. I am in communications and can see how these readings can really effect my teachings. As I was going through the readings I wondered how much of these principles could be used in other disciplines. The practicality of these readings seem like they are more catered to less structured disciplines. But your take is one that I can relate to when it comes to the sciences. I think that by knowing these principles it can affect a person's teaching style and that not everything may work for all disciplines but the knowledge and experience to understand what may work is a leg up for future professors in all disciplines. Thank you for your post.
Hi Sophia,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment and view on STEM courses and how structured they are and how they perpetuate the idea that teachers are the authoritative figure in knowledge and learning. I think the low power distance idea can be a good first step toward breaking down that barrier between teacher and students.
Thank you for a great response blog, Sophia. My girlfriend is a 4th grade teacher, and she definitely has a much more blurred line between being in charge of the classroom and leading open-ended discussions for students that are so young, but I do know that she wants everyone's voices to be heard each class and tries to be less "all knowing" and more of a motivating inspiration for learning, that can hopefully get away from "these are the rules...." kind of teaching in elementary school. Even as a communication major, I feel that the professors are often less open to being challenged--especially about their own work--but regarding engineering, maybe you can be the role model teacher that starts this movement away from objectivity. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you for a great response blog, Sophia. My girlfriend is a 4th grade teacher, and she definitely has a much more blurred line between being in charge of the classroom and leading open-ended discussions for students that are so young, but I do know that she wants everyone's voices to be heard each class and tries to be less "all knowing" and more of a motivating inspiration for learning, that can hopefully get away from "these are the rules...." kind of teaching in elementary school. Even as a communication major, I feel that the professors are often less open to being challenged--especially about their own work--but regarding engineering, maybe you can be the role model teacher that starts this movement away from objectivity. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you for a great response blog, Sophia. My girlfriend is a 4th grade teacher, and she definitely has a much more blurred line between being in charge of the classroom and leading open-ended discussions for students that are so young, but I do know that she wants everyone's voices to be heard each class and tries to be less "all knowing" and more of a motivating inspiration for learning, that can hopefully get away from "these are the rules...." kind of teaching in elementary school. Even as a communication major, I feel that the professors are often less open to being challenged--especially about their own work--but regarding engineering, maybe you can be the role model teacher that starts this movement away from objectivity. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you for a great response blog, Sophia. My girlfriend is a 4th grade teacher, and she definitely has a much more blurred line between being in charge of the classroom and leading open-ended discussions for students that are so young, but I do know that she wants everyone's voices to be heard each class and tries to be less "all knowing" and more of a motivating inspiration for learning, that can hopefully get away from "these are the rules...." kind of teaching in elementary school. Even as a communication major, I feel that the professors are often less open to being challenged--especially about their own work--but regarding engineering, maybe you can be the role model teacher that starts this movement away from objectivity. Best of luck!
ReplyDelete