Paulo Freire group post

Our task was to read(after reading "The Banking Concept of  Education") "Lessons to Be Learned From Paulo Freire as Education Is Being Taken Over by the Mega Rich" by Henry A. Giroux and discuss then write a summary about how the website (article) complicates, enriches and/or confuses our understanding of the reading.  We decided to each write a short summary and submit to our blogs as a group.

 

Jane Welton

Reading the articles, I found that it enriched my understanding of the readings.  The article our small group read expounded on the article assigned for the class.  In "The Banking Concept of Education" it is written, "In this way, the problem-posing educator constantly reforms his reflections in the reflection of the students.  The students--no longer docile listeners--are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher.  The teacher presents the material to the students for their consideration and re-considers his [or her] earlier considerations as the students express their own." I compare that to a statement from "Lessons to Be Learned from Paulo Freire as Education Is Being Taken Over by the Mega Rich" which states, "...students learn how to expand their own sense of agency, while recognizing that to be voiceless is to be powerless.  Central to such a pedagogy is shifting the emphasis from teachers to students, and making visible the relationships among knowledge, authority and power.  Giving the students the opportunity to be problem posers and engage in a culture of questioning in the classroom..."  The first article gives a great deal of information and the second digs deeper, giving more details and examples to the first.  It created more understanding of what Freire had to say about the state of the world of education.

 

Patty Riley

Paulo Freires writing was/is difficult at times to comprehend.  In rereading it a few more times as well as reading and rereading the website article I was able to more fully understand what Freire was writing about.   From "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" Freire writes "The educated man is the adapted man, because he is better "fit" for the world.  Translated into practice, this concept is well suited to the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well  men fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it."  Giroux backs this up with " Central to critical pedagogy is the recognition that the way we educate out youth is related to the future that we hope for and that such a future should offer students a life that leads to the deepening of freedom and social justice. "  The web article gave me a new understanding of what Freire was detailing but although not in much simpler terms at least in more understandable detail so yes, I would say that the web article definitely enriched Freires writing.  It neither complicated nor confused this reader any further.....