I’ve been reading Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed off and on now for almost a full year. I can’t seem to read it all in one sitting because, quite frankly, there is a lot of jargon to get through. I’m also unable to devour it all at once because of how relevant it is to today’s current state of public education.
I wonder what implementation of Friere’s critical pedagogical approach would look like at Any Urban High School USA where the school culture is characterized by unruliness, disrespect, and nihilism. I’ve worked in a school like that for a number of years and the thing that most stands out is that the students want to learn…and the teachers want to teach…but the larger social and political structures that exist prevent both from taking place in a consistent and efficient manner. The students, lacking any systematic way of dealing with their mistreatment, lash out in ways that only teenagers can. Teachers are frustrated because they truly want to teach…but the students, knowing that they are not truly getting what they should, will not allow learning to take place.
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