After this week’s discussion over our reading and understanding of Pedagogy and the Oppressed by Paul Freire, I discovered that as a teacher I am an oppressor. Initially, it was unsettling to see myself outside of the consistent role of being oppressed based on the color of my skin and my gender; but the assertion of power I reflect upon my students is indeed a form of questionable oppression.
When I started teaching this semester, I noticed that the position came naturally to me, and I really liked because I felt an overwhelming amount of confidence just in the first week. I said to myself and several other people “I really enjoy being in roles of power.” Thinking back at that statement after reading Paul Freire’s (1970/2000) text, I am disgusted with myself that I found that feeling to be enjoyable and had the never to speak aloud about the feeling using that specific terminology? I was not #Mindful whatsoever in how my statement may have come across to other individuals in my same role as an educator let alone the individuals of a different race who could have overheard the inappropriate comment.
I am #Learning that this is an ignorant manner of depicting leadership and how I stated my role as an educator is not how the role resonates with me in having power over other people. I am going to make a conscious effort to engage in appropriate #MindfulLearning when it comes to the Dialogue, I chose to reflect my feelings associated with my actions. If Dialogue requires “an intense faith in human-kind, faith in their power to make and remake, to create and re-create faith in their vocation to be more fully human” (Freire, 1970/2000, pp. 90) I should be implementing this practice with my students to establish a trusting relationship.
I have a student who I have been disappointed with for a couple of weeks now and I have recently become #Mindful that losing faith in him as a student is not practicing the foundation of love and humility that I should be instilling into him as an educator.For the past six weeks, he has shown up to his lecture over thirty minutes late. Our recitation is right after the lecture, and he will come in over thirty minutes late as well. He also has the lowest grade in my class and asks for accommodations thirty minutes before an assignment is due at midnight.
I have had several conversations with him about his tardiness and his explanation is that he does not know where the buildings are located. I told him that he could walk with me to our recitation, but he chooses not too. I told myself that if he continued to disrupt my teaching environment by walking in late that I would ask him to leave the classroom but after reading Freire’s text I will not do that because that feels like an over assertion of power, and I want to establish equal opportunity in my classroom. I do not want to engage in the practice of abusing the power given to me because of my own frustration. Taking away the opportunity to learn away from any of my students even if it is due to their own faults is oppressive.
What I am going to be #MindfullyLearning and practicing moving forward is serving as a guide to my students and talking through the different and specific ways they can succeed in their undergraduate career. Instead of telling my specific student to “please do better” I need to provide him with different options and approaches in which he can try to do so, even if it seems remedial. I want to show him that I care about him as a student and most importantly as a human being in this learning community.
I do not enjoy being in positions of power, I enjoy being in positions of guidance. #MindfulLearning
Source:
Freire, P. (1970/2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Continuum.
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