Engaged pedagogy grants students authority over their own meaning-making

Evidence

The teacher’s thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students’ thinking. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them. Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 221 (#expands, via linked claim)

The struggle begins with men’s recognition that they have been destroyed. Propaganda, management, manipulation—all arms of domination—cannot be the instruments of their rehumanization. The only effective instrument is a humanizing pedagogy in which the revolutionary leadership establishes a permanent relationship of dialogue with the oppressed. In a humanizing pedagogy the method ceases to be an instrument by which the teachers (in this instance, the revolutionary leadership) can manipulate the students (in this instance, the oppressed), because it expresses the consciousness of the students themselves. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 175 (#expands, via linked claim)

In much feminist scholarship criticizing critical pedagogy, there is an attack on the notion of the classroom as a space where students are empowered. Yet the classroom should be a space where we’re all in power in different ways. That means we professors should be empowered by our interactions with students. In my books I try to show how much my work is influenced by what students say in the classroom, what they do, what they express to me. Along with them I grow intellectually, developing sharper understandings of how to share knowledge and what to do in my participatory role with students. This is one of the primary differences between education as a practice of freedom and the conservative banking system which encourages professors to believe deep down in the core of their being that they have nothing to learn from their students. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 296 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Shared teacher authority keeps power but redirects it toward democratic student partnership — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 744; Students’ lived knowledge can exceed textbook content and unsettle teacher authority — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 720; Adaptive pedagogy rooted in students’ actual needs characterizes Freirean practice — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1316 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Dialogue-based pedagogy must express the students’ own consciousness #expands (0.85) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 175
• Teacher thinking is only validated through students’ authentic thinking #expands (0.85) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 221
• Professors are themselves empowered and taught by students #expands (0.80) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 296
• Teaching is itself a form of intellectual production #expands (0.70) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 272
• Educators as public intellectuals must model engaged democratic citizenship #expands (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2698