Post #2

Marta Guerrero

Professor Lesnick

Critical Issues In Education

February 18, 13

Learning as a Form of Teaching

“To teach cannot be reduced to a superficial or externalized contact with the object or it’s content but extends to the population of the conditions in which critical learning is possible.” (33)

As I read “Pedagogy of Freedom” I am struggling because I do not necessarily agree but I also do not disagree with the stance that Paulo Freire has taken on what it means to be an effective teacher. The reason I disagree is because I do not see exactly how this can be entirely realistic. I understand how this form of teaching can function in some schools, but not necessarily in others. That goes back to the idea that there is not one template of educational form that we can use for all schools. But perhaps this is where the creative portion fits.

In the Bell Hooks piece about “Teaching to Progress,” the author suggests that, “writing… was all about private longing and personal glory, but teaching was about service, giving back to one’s community. For black folks teaching- educating- was fundamentally political because it was rooted in antiracist struggle.” (2) This highlights the difference between experiences, where for those who teach merely as a job without realizing that they are at the face of the future, are at a disadvantage of not being able to truly learn to their full potential. Teachers, despite why they are going into these classrooms, are going to learn something new on a daily basis.

            Freire suggests and I agree that teaching is also an ongoing learning experience. And that in order to be an effective teacher one has to be willing to learn and acknowledge that there is a process to this learning and teaching of student’s. My question is: at what point do we begin to account for the difference in experience and learning styles. I think that there is always a learning opportunity in all that we do. We need to learn how to teach others, and how do those others teach us? In a sense, I wonder how would Freire respond to Dewey? My experience has been quite interesting the sense that I have had teachers who openly admit that they love learning from their students, where as some others just ignore that fact and expect to just teach their students. Learning style really plays a major in we participate in classes. If the teacher has not learned enough ways to engage most if not all of her students then it becomes difficult for them to be active participants in the classroom?

            This also ties into the Hooks reading because it explains one students experience with having to adapt to the ways of the classroom. In one location, she was allowed freedom, where as in another school she was expected to simply behave a certain way, and acting out was just unheard of. This explains how some teachers through their learning experience become more rigid with their ways of teaching.

I think it is important to teach students how they learn, and in return learn how we can teach them to learn.  I agree that the banking system does not work for all.

“To teach is not a transfer of knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge.” (30)