Read and Discussion Week #5

 What does it mean to "interrogate texts"?

• To me interrogation means asking many questions. Not taking anything at face value. So to interrogate a text would be an active participant of the text and not just passive consumers.

 How would you respond to the question "should we just question everything then?"

• I would answer --- yes.

 What are "traditional banking systems of education.

•  The teacher delivers information and makes deposits into an empty bank account, known as the student. The student then patiently receives, memorizes, and repeats this information. This concept of education, allowed to students, extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits.

 What does it mean to reformulate the learning process as a participatory one?

• It is turning the classroom from ‘us’, the teacher against ‘them’, the student, into ‘we’ who share the roles of experts and teachers thus, participating in their education.

Who was Paulo Freire?

• Paulo Freire was a leading  advocate of critical literacy. He challenged teachers and students to think critically about their education situation.  This way of thinking allows the student to learn that through learning they can make and remake themselves. They must take responsibility for themselves as beings capable of learning. Freire also argued that teachers and students must be made aware of the "politics" that surround education. The way students are taught and what they are taught serves a political agenda.

What is critical pedagogy?

• Critical pedagogy includes relationships between teaching and the students. It’s not ‘us’ the teacher against ‘them’ the student but ‘we’ working together to engage in critical literacies in the classroom. Thus empowering the student to deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their education.

What concerns do you have about the goals of Critical Pedagogy?

•  My concerns are not with critical pedagogy but with the educational system that is in place now and has been for centuries. The school systems have always been the fight between the haves and have nots. If anyone would go to a school council meeting and mention critical pedagogy, they would be met with crickets. But then argue over the sense of buying modern technology for their students. The politicians do not want to ever give up the power over the teachers and the teachers over the student, critical pedagogy would allow the students to think and question their education. Particularly those students that believe they have been historically and continue to be disenfranchised by what they call "traditional schooling".

What questions do you have about Critical Pedagogy?

•  How to get technology and the responsibilities that go with it, into the classrooms of every student.