Pedagogy of the Oppressed - what comes next?

As I think back to my experience as an educator and what it means to be either the oppressed or the oppressor inside the education system, I realize that Freire has made me really reflect and think about what I actually witness on a daily basis. The idea of cultural schizophrenia is real. Who am I, or who do I want to be? Better yet, who do others think I am and why? I think these questions have really begun to surface a lot as I come near the end of my MAT and TFA commitment. Am I someone who wants to stay in the classroom, do I see myself now as a teacher who can separate herself from being an oppressor of the students? Am I being responsive? Am I allowing my students to be themselves and express themselves in a way that feels comfortable, or am I oppressing them and forcing them to be and act a way that is more comfortable for me? I think at times I still struggle and juggle the line of  who I am and who I want to be as well as how others may view me and my role either as a teacher or in society as a whole. 

I have definitely felt a pressure to assimilate myself to going back and forth between this life as a teacher and the life I knew before. I do feel as though my worlds are still separate enough that I have had to really think about what it means to assimilate myself. You have this pressure to assimilate to the world around you regardless if it makes sense to you or not. I think about this a lot in my classroom. I find myself often times being the oppressor to my students, assuming and thinking that they need to be like me and do things like me in order to be successful. I like to think it is because I want nothing but the best for them, but I need to realize that allowing them to be themselves, yet providing them with multiple opportunities, is ultimately going to lead them to success.  I forget that there is more than one path to success, and I need to allow my students to be themselves in order for them to feel successful.

In my classroom we often talk about what it means to stand up for yourself and make a difference. I try to empower my students to “do something about it” rather than just accepting it as fact. Freire states on page 69, “It is essential for the oppressed to realize that when they accept the struggle for humanization they also accept, from that moment, their total responsibility for the struggle. They must realize that they are fighting not merely for freedom from hunger, but for . . . freedom to create and to construct, to wonder and to venture.” This idea that if the oppressed allow themselves to be the oppressed, if we as teachers allow ourselves to make excuses as to why we can’t help our students or why our students aren’t performing where we think they should, we are allowing ourselves and our students to be oppressed by the system.

I believe that structure and order are important, especially in the classroom, but I also think that students need a place to discover who they are, where their dreams can take them, and what learning is in a way that makes sense to them. I am not the teacher that requires you to be crisscross applesauce in your seat, but I do require you to be engaged and involved in the lesson. I have, on more than one occasion, had administrators come in my room and yell at my students because they were either standing instead of sitting, or sitting on the floor, or sitting with legs in their chairs. Whatever the description, it was clearly the opposite of “standard and normal”. This situation always makes me question myself as a teacher as well as the administration. Who is in the right? Why is one way better than another, or is it?

I realize the importance of allowing our student to think and create on their own. It is amazing to me how students after several years of being “oppressed” simply assume that the teacher will just tell them the answer and completely give up any idea of thinking for themselves. These are not the strong, empowered, future CEO students we want to help empower in our classrooms. This has really been evident to me as we continue to work on our group projects. When I told my students they had an opportunity to stand up for anything they believed in and to make a difference they were ecstatic. Then when they realized they were actually going to do something about it and actually try to make a change, they froze. They didn't know what that meant other than to respond to a writing prompt. Several of them are still struggling with the idea of what to do, it is as though they are waiting for me to tell them to call the local animal shelter and as to come volunteer - they have been "oppressed" and assume and expect that they will be told exactly what to do, the idea of being creative and thinking for themselves has proven to be extremely challenging for them in this particular circumstance. I wonder though, if our students are feeling as though they are being oppressed by the constant direction they are being given in school. How do students feel when they are constantly told to be seated, do this, read that, study this? Are we as teachers giving them the opportunity to empower themselves, or are we as teacher simply oppressing them in hopes they will assimilate to be the types of students we expect? The idea behind my class project is to help my students realize their rights and to empower them to make a difference, I am so glad that I have chosen to work with them in this way because it is clear based on my observations that they need the opportunity to have the right and freedom to do something they want, something that matters to them, and not something that matters to someone else.