The Teaching Philosophies of Paulo Freire & Ira Shor

1. The Teaching Philosophies ofPaulo Freire & Ira Shor

2. Paulo Freire "Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming." (Freire, 2006)

3. Ira Shor “Empowered students make meaning and act from reflection, instead of memorizing facts and values handed to them.” (Shor, 1992).

4. Power Sharing Problem-Posing Co-developed Syllabus Teacher as Facilitator = CRITICAL PEDAGOGY/ LIBERATORY LEARNING!!! Freire and Shor on Education:

5. “THE ONLY WAY TO LEARN IT IS TO DO IT!” -(Freire and Shor, 1987)

6. In New York: * http://www.theatreoftheoppressednyc.org/ Inspiration. Collaboration. Transformation. TONYC incites transformative action by offering tools of popular theatre to individuals, communities and institutions in New York City facing situations of oppression. * http://www.judson.org/bailouttheater Free theater and other events at Judson Church * http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/18_01/ineq181.shtml Urban Students Tackle Research on Inequality AND MANY MORE WAITING TO BE FOUND, AND STARTED… BY US! Links to Theory in Action

7. In the World: * http://www.freireproject.org/ The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy * http://www.tellingmystory.org/ International: Using theater to break visible and invisible walls * http://www.neurokitchen.org/ Chicago: Artistically becoming self-actualized, growing collective intelligence

8. * http://newurbanarts.org Providence, RI: Mentoring relationships to empower youth to develop a life-long sustainable creative practice * http://www.artcorp.org International: Artists and communities work together for social change * http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ National: Nonprofit publisher of educational materials, advocate of public school reform, great resource for teachers * http://www.tonywardedu.com Critical education theory and practice- great free resource site

9. Freire, P. (2007). Daring to Dream. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. Freire, P. (1992.) Pedagogy of Hope. London, UK: Continuum Publishing. Freire, P. (2006.) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London, UK: Continuum Publishing. Freire, P. & Shor, I. (1987). A Pedagogy for Liberation. New York, NY: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc. Shor, I. (1987). Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press. Shor, I. (1992). Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press. Shor, I. (1996). When Students Have Power. London & Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Works Cited

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11. Freire on Education: • The teacher offers her/his own “reading of the world” in order for students to establish that there are other “readings of the world” • Curriculum must be chosen in a democratic fashion by both teachers and students • Teachers must establish that they are teaching “with the students” not “to the students” • Teachers must respect the students and never manipulate them. The teacher should also allow themselves to show students their dreams and how they effect their teaching. • Teachers teach students how to learn, and the importance of the “why” or reason for the content.

12. Freire's reflections on student and teacher interaction: “Sometimes it is not even necessary to show the hidden thing, but rather it is about helping the student to know that there are hidden things for him or her to discover.” (Freire, 2007) • The teacher provides the students with information he/she feels is important. • The teacher encourages the students to make their own choices. • The teacher acts as a guide when students are lost. • Both the teacher and the student have active roles in the learning process.

13. *Ordinary/Extraordinary: Dialogic and Dialectic Process - From Freire roots in liberation theology, dialogue is a "critical and criticism-stimulating activity". "Horizontal" dialogue is which is seen as liberating pedagogy is distinguished from "vertical" anti-dialogue which is viewed as oppressive pedagogy. *Counter-Structures: Doing, Undoing, Re-Doing - Here the teacher is the architect of the un-doing and re-doing. Using dialogue as a means to "systematically and problematically represent to students what they have unsystematically and uncritically been taught by the teacher." Shor on Education

14. *Conversions: The Object-Subject Switch - "Teacher accepts responsibility for a process which converts students from manipulated objects into active, critical subjects" resulting from "re-perceiving reality". *The Withering Away of the Teacher: Separation, Transformation, Re-Integration: The teacher's function is in constant motion in the class. As the class unfolds, the teacher is not always the leading factor in the class. *Listening: Ready for Anything: At every moment the teacher must be a "sensitive listener" for "ideal moments of intervention, withdrawal and re-entry" "The teacher needs to come to class with an agenda, but must be ready for anything, committed to letting go when the discussion is searching for an organic form". Shor on Education cont.

15. *Creation and Re-creation: Shaping the Re-shaping: Building upon the foundations of dialogue, a class can create it own texts and forms of communication or expression to "magnify their own voiced against the sensory saturation of mass culture and could serve "as an object of reflection as well as process of development" *Diving into the Wreck - "One purpose for a liberatory form for class interaction is the restoration of community...The Liberatory class can address this problem through collective work styles, self and mutual instruction and peer/group evaluations." This also helps the "object-Subject switch" to succeed by getting students to appreciate each other " as competent, effective and worthy human beings" *Counter-Disciplines: Changes and the Changed: "Interdisciplinary approach , in a liberatory framework, is the most potent means to free consciousness from the limits of the particular" Shor on Education cont.

16. *Using Daily Life: Hamburgers and the Ordinaiversity - View that daily life provides *vast resources* of subject matter for every class and discipline. Helps make "intellectual work of tangible relevance to students". *A Little Laughter: The Resources of Comedy: A liberatory classroom is accompanied by unavoidable tensions as it reconstructs social and self realizations. A comedic atmosphere relaxes the fears that come with desocialization. Also through sharing humor, the teacher "comes down from the pedestal, in the process of withering away...A humorous class flowing through the comic folkways of the students will become a serious place to enjoy change and an enjoyable place to change seriously....Comedy can be an unexpected landmark in a liberatory frontier" Shor on Education cont.

17. *The Convertible Classroom: A Space for All Reasons: "As a companion to the mobile complex of roles and functions for the teacher, the liberatory classroom also assumes a variety of convertible modes. The classroom changes its forms so as to adapt to the profile of student needs. Each mode fulfills a concrete developmental service: workshop, studio, skill and counseling center, consciousness-raising group, kiosk-news service and library". There is no standard operating procedure for when to convert from one spatial mode to another. Since students don't expect school "to shape itself around their needs, it will be a surprising to them that a class can be "reconstructed in their interests." Shor on Education cont.

18. “Education works best when students set goals for themselves, clarify their purposes, deliberate with others on the rules, evaluate themselves, their peers, the process, and the teacher, and not wait to be told what to do and what things mean. When you have intentions, power, responsibilities, and purposes, you are more connected to what you do and focus more intelligence on your experience.” (Shor, 1987) Critical Questions for Students in a Classroom: · Where do the students sit? · Why should students come to school? · Is there need for an After-Class Group? · How should the syllabus be designed and the course be evaluated? Ira Shor's Theory onPower-sharing between Teachers and Students

19. Paulo Freire: I am asked often about how to motivate students. Why don’t you say more about that in your situation? Ira Shor: …A big crisis now in the U.S. is student resistance to the official curriculum… which various official bodies have mis-defined as student ‘mediocrity.’ I call it a ‘performance strike’ by students who refuse to study under current social conditions… What matters most to me in the beginning is how much and how fast I can learn about the students… It is the base information for reinventing knowledge in the classroom. Shor: How can I motivate students unless they act with me? …Openness is required to overcome the student alienation which is the biggest learning problem in school. How can a teacher learn to do this kind of teaching? By doing it. Freire: Reading is rewriting what we are reading... to discover the connections between the text and the context of the text… and with the context of the reader. What is indispensable is to be critical. Shor: …No curriculum is truly neutral. To have a policy of "no politics in the class" or "no religion in the class" is to say that being politically opinionated is wrong, or to be religious is wrong. Shor: What mattered, I think, was my refusal to install the language of the professor as the only valuable [language] in the classroom. My language counted, but so did theirs. My language changed, and so did theirs… I wish I could repeat to you their surprise at my interest in their words… Very rarely had a professor taken them so seriously, but the truth is that they had never taken themselves so seriously either (Freire and Shor, 1987). Freire & Shor Conversations