Reading Response on Freire

Title: Reading Response on Freire

Name & Date: Tina Huang; August 11^th, 2013
Article: Freire, P. (1970/2000). Chapter 2. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed (pp.43-70). New York: Continuum

Summary:

        In the article, Freire(1970/2000) compares the features and effects of two teaching approaches; namely, banking education and problem-posing education. Banking education is when the teacher deposits knowledge into the learner’s mind; it is a one way process and there is no communication. The teacher takes control of what should be taught and such knowledge are foreign to the students. Students are not conscious of their thinking process, and they mechanically memorize everything. Liberation of the mind is not a concern in this approach.

        Problem-posing education is a pursuit of liberation. In this approach, the teacher and student roles are interchangeable; all participants are involved in educating and learning via authentic communication. All are conscious of their thinking and every individual is in full control of their own learning. It defines knowledge as an inquiry, a praxis; knowledge is born from humans interacting with the world, in the world and with one another. In this approach, every participant has an unfinished and a yet-to-transcend character; through constant reflection, all will learn to cope with the ever-changing reality in their own styles. This approach emphasizes harmony and the betterment of humanization.

Freire thinks that it is unhealthy to use a banking education approach; instead, he sees problem-posing as the better option for it enables learners to learn by themselves and liberates the mind by constantly challenging participants to be conscious of their thinking.

Response:

        By the detailed comparison between banking and problem-posing education, one can see more clearly of what education should not be and could be. Communication, authenticity, inquiry, praxis, constant transformation are some of the key elements in creating a more harmonious and effective education. I always knew that communication and authenticity were important, but the latter three were new to me and really adds color to the full picture. Learning is a communication, and it is in motion when one questions and searches for possible answers. Learning should be authentic, not only should the knowledge cohere with reality but also be practiced in one’s everyday life. Learning is a journey, participants come with their own uniquely unfinished character and then explores and flows with the ever-changing reality; both the individual and the world are an ongoing process.

        Another element which really caught my eye was the fact that learners take full control of their thinking as well as the meaning of the knowledge they receive. This concept echoes with one of hooks’ description of critical thinking: critical thinking is to first discover the answers of questions and then to use that knowledge to determine what the important things in life are (hooks, 2010, p.9). Thus, all participants are engaged and takes initiative to connect knowledge with their own ways of life.

        In order to communicate, inquire, transcend or take control and engage with reality, one needs to do a lot of reflecting. Freire mentioned the words of “reflect” and “reflecting”, but did not further discuss this. In Bomer’s(1999) article Writing to Think Critically: The Seeds of Social Action, writers are encouraged to have a “reflective conversation” with themselves, when they reflect upon their writing they will ask themselves questions which will in turn assess their thinking. I think this can also be applied to learning in general, learners will be empowered to be in full control of their thinking and learning when they continuously and actively reflect during the process. This can be applied to teaching. For instance, action research is a popular trend of teaching strategy, it is done by reflecting.

However, action research may be too much of an effort for me to do regularly in my teaching. I think, for me, a more practical application would be to regularly write down reflective notes when teaching and better my teaching according to the various needs of different learners. When I familiar myself to a reflective thinking mode, I would then know how to design activities and lessons to help learners exercise reflective conversations. Such reflection upon learning and thinking will support communication, authenticity, constant betterment and many other key elements that build up a healthy and good education.

References:

hooks, b. (2010). Teaching critical thinking: Practical Wisdom. New York: Routledge.

Bomer, R. (1999). Writing to think critically: The seeds of social action. Voices from the Middle 6 (4), 2-8.