1. Watch this video entitled "Oppression in Education" by the Forum Theater Troupe (directed by Julian Boal, son of Augusto Boal)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecwFetYMy5Y&feature=related
Next, read the Ayers and Alexander-Tanner comic strip on reader page 961.
What closing thoughts on teaching does the comic strip leave you with? What closing thoughts on teaching does the dramatic performance piece leave you with?
2. Freire’s pedagogy of literacy education involves not only reading the word, but also reading the world. This involves the development of critical consciousness (a process known in Portuguese as conscientização). The formation of critical consciousness allows people to question the nature of their historical and social situation—to read their world—with the goal of acting as subjects in the creation of a democratic society (which was new for Brazil at that time). How (if it all) does Augusto Boal's piece enhance/contradict/complicate our thinking about Freire's original formulations on critical consciousness/critical literacy?
The comic made me a little surprised when Quinn transitioned to become a teacher since I thought the next session or strips would be of him applying his skills and exploration in another job, but instead it went full circle and he became a teacher to emphasize the importance of continuous learning. In that sense it stays true to what the first teacher had originally talked about how he had taught his students to pursue a life of continuous learning and to grow through it. This positive end differed completely from "Oppression in Education" which instead emphasized the conformity that teachers are forced to use because of outside standards. It showed the other end of what happens if students are not let to explore their creativity and explore what they like, which in the end causes them to "all fall down".
ReplyDeleteAugusto Boal's piece enhances Freires formulations on critical consciousness/critical literacy by portraying that even "reading the word" can be converted into reading the world, and therefore encompassed into literacy. The main protagonist teacher had wanted to convert the word into the world which makes it much more understandable and palatable for students. The reason she does this is because the word and world are of the same form of literacy and that by teaching one, it can convert into the other by understanding and connecting physical movements and features. Granted that acting out the motions of a heart are far from developing a critical consciousness of historical and social situation, it stimulates the mind and encourages it to receive and consume knowledge from non-traditional forms - eg plays and games -which in turn emphasizes the original extending of literacy.
The comic strip by Ayers and Alexander-Tanner, illustrates creatively how teaching is an ongoing process. I really appreciated the line where the teacher says “I’ve learned so much, but I know there’s always more to do, more to learn” (961). Personally, I have come to the understanding that being a teacher does not mean I stop learning, rather it is a new way of experiencing learning. I am not merely regurgitating what I have learned to my students, but instead I am exploring new ways of finding truths alongside my students. In the skit “Oppression in Education” by the Forum Theater Troupe, it was a creative way of depicting the struggle that many teachers face in regards to teaching methods. The act took Paulo Freire’s two methods of teaching, the banking system and problem-posing system, and revealed to me that many teachers face an upward battle when trying to change the traditional or banking system of teaching. It was disheartening to see how teachers are somewhat forced to follow traditional methods, but I also was encouraged to not give up in challenging this banking system.
ReplyDeleteThe Augusto Boal’s reading enhances and upholds Freire’s idea on critical consciousness/critical literacy. Boal uses the poetics of the oppressed, specifically theater, and opens up the door for expression and a new way of discovering oneself. Through the examples of the Peruvian people, we see how theatre frees those shackled mainly from poverty and allows them to enter into the state where they are no longer the spectators but actors. Similar to Freire’s pedagogy, those who participate in theatre are encouraged to read the world and question their surroundings. The beauty of poetics of the oppressed is found in how the character is given a voice and has the power to think and act for oneself. At the end of the article, Boal expresses that “the poetics of the oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation” (957). When those who are being persecuted are in a position where they can express themselves freely, their view of the world shifts and they have the ability to be difference makers.
The comic strip by Williams Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner does a good job on commenting on the fact that learning is a lifetime process which supports the idea that the relationship between teachers and students should not be one that is simply authoritative but instead should be a mutual relationship where both parties can learn from each other in order to maximize the learning that is acquired in the classroom – for both students and teachers. What many students, including myself, tend to forget is that our teachers were once students themselves and I believe the comic strip does a good job of bringing that fact to light in addition to reminding the reading that teaching should be a mutual learning experience.
ReplyDeleteThe video entitled “Oppression in Education” comments on how many teachers are constrained by traditional teaching methodologies even though these outdated methods have not been successful in engaging the interest of students. Although the first year teacher is successful in using new teaching methods in order to help students learn and become engaged in academics, the principal finds her methods to be disturbing due to the fact that the new teacher’s methods are different from what the principal believes to be an “acceptable” teaching style. The video does a great job on showing the weaknesses of the traditional teaching method that focuses solely on using textbooks to teach materials to students, which ultimately leads to students just memorizing and regurgitating information rather than actual learning.
Augusto Boal’s piece supports Friere’s beliefs on the pedagogy of literacy due to the fact that both authors support the notion that there are many forms of literacies. While Friere’s formulations on critical consciousness focuses on allowing people to question the nature of their historical and social situation, Boal attempts to use theater as a mean for the oppressed Peruvians to “express themselves and so that, by using this new language, they can also discover new concepts.” Stating that “the theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it”, Boal attempts to use theater as a discourse that can ultimately be used as a means to break repression. For this reason, I believe that Boal is actually using Freire’s formulations on critical consciousness and applying it to his own idea of using theater as a means for the oppressed to express their own opinions.
The comic strip and theatrical performance each paint a different picture of the education system. There is a more hands-on approach to learning depicted in the comic strip, that allows room for unconventional methods of teaching. One of the things I found personally intriguing was how eloquently the student speaker addressed his thirst for knowledge that was instilled in him through the ideas he learned from his teachers. There is a great sense of hope that is lacking in the theater piece. The performance reminded me that there is may always be some (or a lot of) opposition to breaking traditional teaching boundaries. This is a crucial point for me, because I want to become a teacher and I know that I may not always get the approval from the administration or my colleagues for the way I decide to run my classroom. The video left me feeling sad to see how disheartening it can be for students to try to learn in a way that does not make them active agents in their own educational experience. The contrasting views of education as posed by the comic strip and video relate back to the idea that students can gain more through their learning experience when there is room for creative expansion.
ReplyDeleteThe ALFIN project was developed to teach literacy in Spanish (one of the principle languages of Peru) as well as other forms of literacy, such as theater, films, journalism, etc. The concept of this program correlates with Freire's view of true literacy. By allowing participants to become active agents in learning about other forms of literacy (besides speaking Spanish), it gives them the opportunity to express themselves in that culture through different means of expression. Engaging in these other forms of literacy, such as theater acting, stimulates the mind to develop "critical consciousness" about the world they belong to. The space for creativity gives participants an opportunity to reflect on their historical or social situation, which further coincides with Freire's notion that literacy is not only reading words, but also reading the world.
(Joyce Park)
The comic strip gave a nice and fresh finish to our readings, while also reminding us about what we read in the beginning of the class: that teaching and learning can be greatly beneficial to all if the teacher and student learned from each other through active dialogue and engagement. The comic nicely reminds us all that teachers are still “normal” people, with lives of their own. But it also highlights the important impact that teachers have on building future human capital. What I get from it is that these “regular” people are taking on a huge job that may be quite challenging, but if done right can be enormously rewarding. The theater performance by the Forum Theater Troupe touches on the challenges of teaching by cleverly showing the banking-system clashing with problem-solving education. This video reveals the sad truth of what many obstacles will be in the way of teachers who are truly trying to break away from the normal teaching mode. Even if the principal did want Ms. Teacher to continue with her style of teaching, they all have to stick to the curriculum that they have no control over, resulting in the kids to “all fall down”. This performance was a hard reminder that even though teaching in a more engaging style may bring more positive results, it won’t be easy. This performance nicely ties in with Augusto Boal’s piece “Poetics of the Oppressed” where he discusses how performative theater can become a power social tool, goes hand in hand with Freire’s pedagogy of literacy education. Critical consciousness, which Freire pushes for, is enhanced with various theater styles (for example invisible or improvisation [143]) that pushes people from being “passive spectators” to holding a “critical and comparative” attitude (149). While Paulo brings up the argument, Boal takes it to the next step and makes it into action. Such form of critical consciousness via theatrical performance is precisely what happens in the Forum Theater Troupe video.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the comic strip I think it really summarizes a lot of what I’ve learned this semester in this class. At the beginning of the strip he reflects on how teaching is a journey undertaken by both the teacher and the student, and how being a teacher is just as much about learning new things as it is being a student. It was interesting to see the student in the end become a teacher, especially since his graduating speech really did embody a lot of the things we have come to realize are important things to integrate into the classroom, among which are that people young and old are constantly changing, learning, and growing, and that learning is a team process between teachers, students, and the community.
ReplyDeleteThe dramatic performance really exemplifies the struggle that is going on between the ‘traditional’ classroom experience/teaching and a new way of approaching education as a dual learning and exploration process. The teacher wants to approach education from a new direction, introducing new literacies as a way to help her students learn, and the students respond well and like this. However, those fixed in the conventional traditional teaching style are roadblocks to this, ultimately leading to a situation where the teacher gives up and everyone really looses. I think this can be viewed as an important lesson for those who get stuck in the idea of ‘traditional’.
Boal’s piece seems to go hand in hand nicely with what we have read of Freire and his ideas of a critical consciousness. The teacher in Boal’s piece is using theater as a new literacy for the students, where they can really make a connection between word and the world, and develop this critical consciousness that will allow them the question the world around them. The last line of the article, “Perhaps the theater is not revolutionary in itself; but have no doubts, it is a rehearsal of revolution” really stuck with me. Theater is used as a means by which students can actively participate and develop skills that will allow them to think and act for themselves and ultimately enact change.
The Ayers and Alexander-Tanner comic strip emphasizes the similarities between teachers and students. Both are in a constant state of learning and benefit from each other’s presence. I thought it was interesting that after the teachers discuss how, when they were students, they never thought of their teachers as ‘real people,’ the main character is surprised to find that his boss is a ‘real person’ and likes to ballroom dance. Thus, even as adults, teachers are susceptible to the same ideas as their students. Therefore, the comic addresses how teachers are, in a sense, like students when placed in the classroom- continuously trying to learn new facts about the people and world around them. The dramatic performance presents a harsh reality that many teachers face. Although teachers may want to try progressive, unconventional methods of teaching their students, administration and standardization confines them to conservative techniques. This limits the teacher’s ability to teach and the student’s ability to learn.
ReplyDeleteAugusto Boal’s piece compliments Friere’s original formulations of critical consciousness. Like Friere, Boal recognizes there are different forms of literacy and each should be recognized as such. Through the poetics of the oppressed, Boal has individuals enlist themselves in an unconventional world of literacy by physically performing and acting out the ‘written word.’ This allows them not only express themselves, but consciously engage in the world around them through a type of literacy that they may not be as familiar with. Through the exploration and identification of this new literacy, Boal allows participants to reassess the same world through a new lens.
The video was a good visual representation of the constraints and limits of an outdated academic curriculum. Many of our readings thus far have stressed the importance of and need for amendments to how educators and the curriculum evaluate students. The video represented well the anxiety and disappointment associated with teaching in a way that is no longer as effective as it once was. Mrs. Teacher was obviously torn but ultimately yielded to the principle because the administration ultimately has the last say in how she conducts her teaching, which could be detrimental to children's educational experience. I felt a little as Joyce did when she said in her post,"The video left me feeling sad to see how disheartening it can be for students to try to learn in a way that does not make them active agents in their own educational experience." The comic book, in a different way than the video, showed the importance of interactive learning and being, as Joyce stated, agents of their own learning. Students being agents of their own learning is important and the video carries over well this notion. The opening lines of the comic present this well:
ReplyDelete"The intellectual challenge of teaching involves becoming a students of your students, unlocking the wisdom in the room, and joining together on a journey of discovery and surprise" (960).
Augosto Boal's piece enhances, in some ways, Friere's notions of critical literacy through the idea of theater representing a significant form of literacy within which individuals engage with others, learn about their own growing and learning processes, and to construct meaningful identity. This way of learning can be meaningful in bridging the gap between the word and the world. Boal and Friere, and countless individuals in the education profession, are becoming further aware of all the literacy that goes unacknowledged by standardized testing or text-book intensive practices. I enjoyed the end of the article when it states, "The Poetics of the Oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation: the spectator no longer delegates power to the characters either to think or to act in his place"(957).
1. The comic comes to an end with a really sappy picture of a teacher and student holding hands over both not knowing why the wheel goes around. I’m assuming, although I’m not a comic reader myself, that the meaning is this: the line between student/teacher is blurred in the sense that even a teacher never stops being a student. A teacher does not know everything and shouldn’t pretend to. To me, the comic makes teachers look like students’ friends.
ReplyDeleteThe dramatic performance was interesting, but it actually left with me with an idea contradicting the piece and our class in general. The focus is on the curriculum so that students do well on exams. Consider this:
where would we be without curriculum?? High school made us SAT-ready, which made us college-bound. Compared to UCB, we’re not GRE or LSAT ready (via curriculum) and therefore we have to pay for a test prep service. Doesn’t this create a greater divide between social groups? Take time off and work a lower paying job that we don’t want to do really, or straight into grad school?
2. In many ways, Boal’s article does enhance Freire. Freire’s goal was to give a voice to the oppressed and try to alleviate the inequities in education. By literacy incorporating your historical and social condition it serves a very necessary function of literacy. Boal lived in a time when Guatemala, Chile, and most of Latin America was in turmoil. One of the popular theologies at that time was called the Theology of Liberation: to make the people literate so they could reflect on their social situation and act to change their lives. So this piece is very much a piece of his time. Boal argues that theater is a powerful weapon of self-expression and action. The key here is action. What is literacy without action? Even the comic strip we read on page 960 stated this: Given what we know, what are we going to do about it? Literacy is meant to empower; acting upon one’s destiny is self-empowering.
~Trinity Taylor
The video leaves me the impression that there is still a long way to go in order to open people’s minds about what method teachers should use on their students. The performance ends on a sour note in which everyone “falls down,” demonstrating the victory of the old traditional school of thought that learning should be static and didactic at the same time, without any focus on engaging the material and individual thinking. By contrast the comic strip left me feeling a bit more hopeful. The fact that a student is inspired by his teacher to pursue the same career and his touching speech about learning really spoke to me. It shows that with the right kind of teaching, children can be inspired to learn and grow together. The honest response “I don’t know” and “Let’s find out together” at the very end represents a future in which both the student and teacher learn at the same time rather than the pedantic teaching style exhibited in the performance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone thus far about Boal’s piece enhances our understanding of critical consciousness. The participants in the theatre program obviously benefitted from this out-of-the-classroom setting where they are given the opportunity to express their feelings. The poor and underrepresented population is given the opportunity to express their thoughts, an idea that Boal calls the “poetics of the oppressed.” Thus, it proves Feiere’s notion that engaging children in a less structured setting has multiple benefits. Theatre, therefore, is another form of literacy that helps develop the critical thinking skills needed in any part of the world.
1. The “Oppression in Education” piece was really moving. It left me with the feeling that individual teachers are trying to move away from traditional teaching methods by making learning more interactive, exciting, and enjoyable for their students. However, this video also displays the structural issues with such attempts. Administrators and other teachers are often uncomfortable with untraditional methods of instruction and are too concerned with teaching for standards which hinder the teacher’s ability to use varying practices, which results in the same dry traditional teaching methods that have been in practice for ages. The comic strip leaves the reader with a constant reminder that teaching is an ever changing and constantly evolving process in which you must both continue to learn and evolve the way you enable others to learn. It built further upon the notion that teachers are not all-knowledgeable actors dispensing information into the empty receptacles, the students brain, it is a two-way process and this comic conveys this.
ReplyDelete2. Boals piece enhances Freires formulations on consciousness/critical literacy by expressing the reading and understanding the word can be included within literacy. Turning the word into the experiences of the world increases the comprehension of students and their ability to comprehend and enjoy the written word. Boal explains how theater can create avenues for expression and comprehension of the world and oneself. Freires model condones, multiple forms of literacy and pushes for active agents in learning . The Peruvian peoples use of theatre allows them to become active agents by using a new language further allowing them, like Paul stated, discover new concepts. Therefore Boals piece enhances and uses Freires ideas of critical consciousness.
-Joyce Halabi
I believe Ayers and Alexander-Tanner’s comic strip is a great representation as a counter example of Freire’s banking system. Instead of an authoritative environment in a classroom, teachers and students must create a relationship with one another that will help understand and comprehend one another’s educational experience. I believe that the comic strip is trying to tell the readers to continue to value the relationships between a student and a teacher so that it would become an ongoing cycle once we take on teaching positions in the future. I believe that the short video “Oppression in the Educational System” supports the same idea the comic strip tried to portray. The video is showing how the traditional teaching methods are becoming outdated and that it isn’t matching the needs of the students today. It’s trying to show the importance of a student and teacher relationship in order to discover what the student really wants to learn.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that Boal’s piece enhances our thinking of Freire’s formulation on critical consciousness and critical literacy. By using many forms of literacy such as theatre and films, it gives us the chance to become active participants and agents in our society. Boal believes that these forms of literacy can help develop skills that will help their individuality in other words to be able to read the world. By having the availability of these different types of literacy, Boal and Friere believe that developing a critical consciousness can help them to not only read the word and world simultaneously.
Both Ayers and Alexandar-Tanner comic strip and the “Oppression in Education” video seemed to have similar themes. It makes me think about how teachers want to inspire their students. They want to inspire their students yet it seems very difficult. It doesn’t seem like their students are very interested in what they have to say. Teachers want to be creative yet there are restrictions that are in the system. They have the desire to try something new in their classroom but not everyone is supportive of them. They do not always other teachers or administrators that support them. They need to have people in their life that are open to new ideas and new thoughts. These are often things at students want. They do not respond to just textbook and boring learning. It will not stick with them until the end. Even if they graduate and they make it through the system, they still will not be inspired about learning. Schools are more concerned with getting students through school or even getting kids to come to class, but they forget the importance of inspiring students about learning.
ReplyDeleteAugusto Boal’s piece does not enhance/contradict/complicate our thing about Frerire’s original formulations on critical consciousness/critical literacy. I believe that it makes Freries’s ideas more real. It shows that me need forms of active learning and ways to further involve students.
- Cassi Hoyt
Closing thoughts that the comic strip left me with revolved around the importance of acknowledging that learning is a continuous process, and we are all learners and teachers. It also made me think about how students perceive teachers, in contrast to how teachers perceive themselves. It was funny to read the part of the strip where one teacher talks about how he saw a student of his at a music festival and she ran away, because I too once saw a teacher of mine at the concert, and thought it was the weirdest thing. It left me thinking how teachers are human beings too. When I was younger this was a hard concept for me to grasp, and now, it it weird for me to realize that the students I am working with may see me the same way. I really enjoyed the last part of the comic strip where the boy asks why a wheel goes around and the teacher says, “Let’s figure it out together.” The video made me think the constraints that teachers have to deal with. It was frustrating to see a teacher trying to be innovative and really want her students to learn in different ways, but not being able to because of pressure from people all around her. The end of the video, when both the teacher and students fall was sad, because I felt it represented the sense of defeat and dis-empowerment the teacher must have been feeling, and the injustice the students have to deal with by not have their minds cultivated with new learning experiences.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Augusto Boal’s piece enhances our thinking about Freire’s original formulations on critical consciousness and critical literacy. Like Freire, who believed that literacy education involves not only reading the word, but also reading the world, Boal demonstrates the same thought, in this case being theater. Boal believes that through theater, students will be able to learn about the world around them while also being able able to express themselves. Boal states that man, “frees himself from his condition of spectator and takes on that of actor, in which he ceases to be an object and becomes a subject, is changed from witness to protagonist.” I feel as though this is very similar to Freire’s approach, in that Boal uses theater as another form of literacy in which students are able to question and challenge the world around them.
The comic strip reminded me that even teachers constantly learn from the influence of students and the changing world around them. Teachers are people too, who live individual lives, make mistakes, and grow through experiences. The part where the students were surprised to see teachers outside of school struck home with me because my residents actually do the same thing to me. Whenever one of my residents sees me on campus, he/she exclaims, “You’re allowed to leave the dorms?!” and “RAs actually have lives and friends outside of Hall Staff?!” I agree with the comic, as I believe learning is a collective experience which has its ups and downs but is ultimately a rewarding job that makes a difference in the lives of others. The dramatic performance reminds me that teachers should strive to think outside the box, or else no one learns or enjoys school. It seemed like it had a dark theme, but the message was clear regarding the debate between traditional and innovative teaching methods. When teachers fall into a monotonous pattern where they adhere strictly to the textbook and lesson plans, no one benefits. Even though it can be a daunting task for new teachers, they shouldn’t give up in their struggle to engage students in more “unorthodox” ways.
ReplyDeleteBoal’s piece reinforces Freire’s pedagogy of literacy. In Boal’s article, he discusses how actors perform in certain social situations and how they influence those around them. In this case, theater is employed as a mechanism through which these actors engage others and teach them, in a way, how to react in the world around them. The “plays” that were put on (for example when the customer couldn’t pay for his expensive meal with anything other than physical labor) demonstrated societal pressures and pitfalls, such as how people who work so hard in those countries make far less money than they deserve. This enhances Freire’s notions that students should be active learners in their environments through unconventional modems in order to develop problem solving skills, literacy, and critical consciousness.
The video entitled "Oppression in Education," and Ayers and Alexander-Tanner comic strip shows great idea of learning and teaching methods. I read many articles of teacher’s power effect on learning student, and individual students are learning different ways. In addition, teacher can be learning from a student, too. In result, the best education is to recognize individuals and provide different form to teach. The Tanner comic strip is nice to end of class reading because it was refreshing an idea of literacy. New method of teaching is a new way to learning, but a school systems force not to change technique to teach. The end of Oppression in Education video show, that students and teacher are all fall down. This part is emphasizing that children need to show their expressions, active and understand individual students’ idea to learn. The most important is students should have excitement of gain knowledge. If those elements are not in the classroom with students, that literacy will be fallen down from young children. Then, future society will be fallen down, also because children are prospect human capitals.
ReplyDeleteThe Augusto Boal’s ideas and Freire’s pedagogy of literacy education emphasize that they are different ways of learning literacy. Specially, Boal’s idea is students should have an opportunity to express physically and write on any type of form. Particularly, according to Boal, "The Poetics of the Oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation: the spectator no longer delegates power to the characters either to think or to act in his place"(957) He uses a theater to express and a new way of discover education to children, because literacy is not only read to gain knowledge of education. According to Boal, the theater experience will be discovering world and express children-self.
The comic strip has a hopeful outlook to it and a powerful sense of idealism and aspiration. It presents a positive image of teaching and learning as a symbiotic process where the one reinforces the other and teaching, though sometimes complicated and confusing, pushes ever forwards to create positive changes in lives of students and teachers. Meanwhile the video depicts teaching and education as a crushing process for the creativity of students and the idealism and aspirations of teachers. The first offers an example of teaching and education can and perhaps should be while the latter offers a biting commentary on what it perceives as the degenerate and depressing state of education as it stands. I think that while the cartoon inspires me and really elevates the possibilities of teaching the video makes me feel that it will be an uphill struggle to fulfill that potential littered with bureaucratic and socio-cultural landmines.
ReplyDeleteThe Boal piece illustrates some of Freire’s concepts. In the Boal piece education and theater education are geared to directly facilitate an agentive understanding and command of the ones own world. The theater is geared to inspire debate and thought and to give individuals a jumping off point and tools to directly examine and change their world (or as Boal puts it have “a rehearsal of revolution”) (155). Boal’s examples lend a concreteness previously lacking to Freire’s ideas and propositions and shows how his ideas can be acted upon.
-Luke Edwards
I was very inspired by the comic strip because it was a good reminder that we should regard people, teachers and students, as "3-Dimensional creatures" who have questions, are imperfect, and are constantly learning. When I think about this idea, I feel so motivated to teach kids because I want to aid them in the process of growing and learning, prodding them in a direction of hope and change for the future. I really liked how the comic strip really emphasized how teachers are also dynamic characters, shaped by their students and constantly learning at the same time. I thought it was really funny how when encountered with a difficult problem (the bird falling off the tree), the first-year teacher forgot that he was an adult and supposedly in charge of the situation; it just portrayed how often, teachers feel just like students as well--and it is best if teacher and student go on the "journey" of learning together. The forum theatre video depressed me, however. I really desire to teach one day, but I don't know how I could possibly teach in an environment in which administration does not value the kids' growths and learning, rather caring about test scores and quieting boisterous children. This kind of opression answers the question, though, of why the educational system never changes. I hope the depiction is exaggerated, but it leaves me really questioning what I will do when put into such an oppressive educational system.
ReplyDeleteAugusto Boal's piece definitely supports and enhances Friere's belief that literacy should not just be learning to read and write; rather, literacy should allow people to understand and comprehend the world around them. First of all, Boal encourages the use of "artistic" literacies, like theatre, photography, and journalism, in order to enhance people's understandings of the world, acknowledging that there are so many multiple ways that people can use these literacies to interpret the world. Boal highlights theatre and how it can be used to enhance literacy and learning. He emphasizes how theatre can "free" a man "from his condition of spectator and takes on that of an actor, in which he... is changed from witness into protagonist." Thus, incorporating a variety of literacy forms empowers people so that, after gaining a better understanding of the world around them, can use the understanding to take action and change the world.
The video entitled "Oppression in Education" does a great job to show how traditional teaching methodologies constrain students from learning by contrasting with the teaching style led by the teacher at the beginning of the clip. This video clip is very powerful because the conversation between the teacher and the principal leads a scene that students feel passive to learn the material while the conversation between the teacher and one of the students leads to another scene of students' active learning. Therefore, it concludes that students are likely to accept and learn things in multiple ways instead of just memorizing stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe comic strip by by Ayers and Alexander-Tanner reminds me the ways the teachers teach in China. I have to point out that many high school chinese students are forced to learn what they can digest in the three years of high school. What make this phenominent is because the competence between students to get into a better college. Therefore, it makes students to memorize instead of learning. What I felt after I graduated from high school was I did learn very few thing because most of the stuff I learned was forgotten. Therefore, I agree with Paul Hwang that schools should form a mutual relationship between teachers and students because learning is not just a simply learning process, but a process that requires both parties, the teachers and students, to achieve together.
I agree with Joyce Park that "The space for creativity gives participants an opportunity to reflect on their historical or social situation, which further coincides with Freire's notion that literacy is not only reading words, but also reading the world."