Assignment #1 = My Humanist Mission
¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Kamal Salem
¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 ENGL 985
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Dr. Alexis Lothian
¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Assignment #1
¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Fall 2013
¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 Sept, 10th.
My Humanist Mission
¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 1 I have always been interested in humanism for the respect and dignity it grants to individuals. The humanist focus on individuality, freedom of thought, free-will and liberty best suits a world where opposing ideologies (religious, political…etc.) combat for supremacy. Implementing the premises of humanism in my personal life, I thought I should play a role in fostering and promulgating thee premises. I believe my academic life (learning and teaching) would play a vital role in this regard. My ultimate goal is to create a liberal environment in my academic life so that the humanist principles of democracy and liberty are implemented and thus instilled in my students.
¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 Within this context, I strongly believe that the pedagogical philosophy of Paulo Freire, the Brazilian renowned pedagogue, suits my aims. Freire set the foundation for what is known as critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy adheres to concepts of democracy, free thinking and emancipation in the context of learning and puts aside all forms of oppression and hegemony. It came as an antithesis to the banking system of education, which is characterized by hegemony, oppression and lack of freedom of expression.
¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 As such, critical pedagogy serves the humanist goals. In fact, Freire himself explains that his approach does not merely provide a pedagogical methodology; rather, it introduces a strategy of living within the educational system. He regarded schools as political institutions where power relations play a significant role in the teaching process, and thus he aimed at creating a shift in these relations toward creating a more liberal atmosphere (Freire, 58). He also viewed the teaching system as a mechanism by which students would foster democracy and contribute to the establishment of a society, which makes education a tool for social change and make schools political institutions (Kellner, 7).
¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 The theory of Paulo Freire resonates with the some of the principles advocated by the renowned Italian cultural critic, Antonio Gramsci in his essay “Intellectuals and Education.” In the essay, Gramsci elaborates about two groups of intellectuals. The first group is the traditional intelligentsia, which views itself as a separate and full-fledged social class. The second group is the thinking group, which is produced from within the social classes themselves. He calls such group the organic group and it serves to speak the concerns of the masses. Gramsci stresses the necessity for the creation of working-class culture, which will create a working-class intellectuals. The major task of this group of intellectuals would be to question the status quo of both intellectuals and the masses.
¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 1 This focus on questioning of the status quo goes in line with Freire’s call for what he called the problem-posing model of teaching. This model of teaching, embedded within critical pedagogy as opposed to the banking system of education, stresses the idea of encouraging students to question all established facts within a democratic setting. Within the problem-posing model, students function as active members in all phases of the learning process. For Freire, “whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality” (Freire, 68).
¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 1 As such, Freire’s problem-posing model and the stress on the questioning of the status quo by Gramsci concord with what Eve Sedgwick calls “hermeneutics of suspicion.” In “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading,” Sedgwick argues that this model stresses the point that what is not whether a piece of knowledge is true or not; rather what is important is to know how knowledge is performative and “ how best ( we can move among its causes and effects?” (124). this stresses the idea that critical pedagogical idea that the role of the teacher is not to establish facts, but rather to make students questions facts and to empower students to reach knowledge.
¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 Equipped with these theoretical tools, I aim at approaching my teaching career with view at establishing a humanitarian, democratic and liberal environment through implementing the premises of critical pedagogy. Teaching literature in particular paves the way for establishing this setting. Literature is not a science that relies on a defined set of formula that students have to memorize or take into granted in order to approach literary text. Rather, literature is a rich arena for expressing points of view and sharing them as well as engaging in dialogue with peers and teachers about them. That is why I believe that critical pedagogy will help me advance my future career by teaching literature through applying its principles and assumptions.
¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 This becomes highly important in the first step of the teaching journey, which is creating the curriculum. In this aspect, almost the only literary theory that has been extensively dealt with in English departments in Libya is the postcolonial theory. This is not strange as my home (Libya) is part of the third-world countries that suffered from the atrocities of colonialism for long time. So this might be thought of as a good choice as it related to students cultural history and life. However, the emphasis on this theory made English departments in my home replete with faculty members who are specialized in postcolonial theory.
¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0 Students’ personal experience should be integrated in the curriculum. Thus the curriculum will include items of their liking or that address their personal interests and problems. So the curriculum will not be the total design of the teacher alone; rather it will include entries that the students agree upon either by majority or by consensus. This would make students understand that they are an active part of their learning process and not merely passive recipients of the design of the omniscient instructor. This would also prepare students to be engaged in one of the most important principles of critical pedagogy; namely dialogue.
¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 As for dialogue, literature is a rich arena for creating the dialogic atmosphere especially when dealing with literary texts. The indeterminacy of meaning located within the post-structural theory gives students wide opportunity to engage in dialogue in which they negotiate their own view of meaning, message and theme of the text. The reader-response theory along with the idea of the “Death of the Author” establishes ample atmosphere for students to consider themselves as “author” of the text so that they manipulate it and read it in their own subjective way.
¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0 In addition, teaching literature provides a great opportunity for implementing the problem-posing model. Interpreting and appreciating literary texts should be done in light of the arguments and views made by critics regarding these texts. Thus, students will be encouraged to engage into dialogue with these critics, agreeing and disagreeing with them. Students’ contribution in this aspect will be applauded and encouraged. This would contribute to creating the “mutuality” atmosphere that comes through discussing meaning in the classroom. The stress should be on discussing rather than imposing meaning, which has been a distinctive feature of teaching literature in my country Libya especially in assessing student’s work.
¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 This brings into consideration another important issue which is students’ assessment. It is evident that in the capitalist world, students are very much concerned with their grades to the point of obsession. This obsession should be treated deliberately if a liberal teaching atmosphere to be created. Both the philosophy and mechanism of assessment should be changed to go in line with the goals of critical pedagogy. However, we should not go into the romanticized idea that assessment and grades are not important. Rather, the aim should be represented in alleviating the stress students have from this assessment and not making it affect their performance.
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Students should be empowered to participate in their own assessment. This may come through making them generate assessment criteria and tasks and even through constructing questions in the exam that they consider worth addressing. Again, the stress should be on the fact that there is no right or wrong in literature as far as it focuses on subjective interpretation. Hence, students should understand that their answers to questions will not be judged on the basis of their being right or wrong. Rather, they will be assessed according to the validity of the argument proposed by the student. In addition to reducing the horror caused by the exam, this would encourage students to provide their own argument and make their voice
heard.
¶ 21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 In a nutshell, I am not claiming that my proposed methodology of teaching literature sticks to the principle and goals of critical pedagogy. In fact, this would contradict the mission of critical pedagogy. The point is that I view literature as providing a rich environment for critical pedagogy. Hence, I would recommend that the argument provided be addressed in light of the particularities of their own contexts. The aim would be to generate a democratic approach that promotes critical reflection and action.
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Works Cited
¶ 24 Leave a comment on paragraph 24 0 Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum Publishing Corporation.
¶ 25 Leave a comment on paragraph 25 0 Gramsci, Antonio. “Intellectuals and Education.” From An Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935. Ed. David Forgacs. New York: Schocken Books, 1988. 300-322.
¶ 26 Leave a comment on paragraph 26 0 Kellner, Douglas Multiple Literacies and Critical Pedagogies: New Paradigms. E.d Trifonas Peter (Ed.), Revolutionary Pedagogies: Cultural Politics, Instituting Education, and the Discourse of Theory. New York: Routledge, 2000. 196-202.
¶ 27 Leave a comment on paragraph 27 0 Sedgwick, Eve. “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading, or, You’re So Paranoid, You Probably Think This Essay is About You.” Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. 123-151.
Many of the readings we are doing this semester treat “humanism” as a suspect category because humanist thought has been so implicated in histories of racism and empire, but your response shows how it can be a crucial concept for developing thought and pedagogy in a postcolonial context.
This reads like a hybrid of a teaching philosophy and the questions I asked you, though it definitely works as an effective answer to those! The integration of Gramsci and Freire is very good. I like your comments about assessment, too, and your insight that we can’t just tell students those things don’t matter and expect them to believe us. Like Megha, I am curious about the concrete and practical ways your ideas might play out in the classroom — have you had the opportunity to try them out yet?