No Room for Fear in Teaching
- H. Kuneyl
- Apr 14, 2021
- 2 min read
This week I read about Paulo Freire’s work on Oppressive Pedagogy (Ferire, 2000). This was the first time that I have been introduced to Freire’s work, but I am familiar with some of the concepts as he is well known in my chosen field of higher education. Reading the chapter on the banking model of education reminded me of an experience I had in my own classroom.
Late in the fall of 2019 I was teaching an undergraduate course which is designed to help students develop their study skills and connect them with on campus resources. One day I was talking about how to communicate with faculty, so I invited the class to share any interaction that they had had in the classroom. One student spoke up and shared how an instructor had humiliated him for not knowing a concept and how the experiences left him unwilling to participate in classes ever since. Now notice my dear reader that by telling me this, he was showing a willingness to participate in my class and by extension that he trusted me. Seeing this, I thanked him for sharing and being so open. Then, I followed up by stating that the instructor has made a critical mistake by humiliating. The class agreed that the instructor should not have been so rude and that by doing so he made the classroom environment unwelcoming. I agreed with their summation and added that by correcting the student in such a manner the instructor instilled a fear of being wrong. It was at that point that I saw the “light bulb” moment happen for the student who has shared his story. I cannot teach there there is only the fear of being wrong. I cannot correct misconceptions that I do not know exist. Freire said that teaching is an act of love and I add that it starts with trust (Darder, 2017)
References
Darder, Antonia. (2017). Reinventing Paulo Freire: A pedagogy of love, second edition.
10.4324/9781315560779.
Freire, P., 2000. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Humiliation in the classroom is a serious issue and it brings down the creativity in a student. While learning includes the knowledge of what is right, it also carries with it the knowledge of what is wrong. For instance, teaching that fruit is usually the edible reproductive body of a seed plant. But knowing that tomatoes are an exception (still controversial) is also part of the definition. And a student thinking about such counterexamples needs to be encouraged rather than shot down.
I greatly appreciate your thought of trust being the beginning of love, as is evident in every interaction. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I agree with your point about needing trust in order to teach. Sharing ideas in the classroom can be really scary, at least for some people, and humiliating a student is a great way to prevent the entire class from wanting to engage. I think this relates to the fact that some teachers pretend that they cannot learn from their students and that they are superior when in the classroom. All teachers must recognize that students are more than their intellect and that everyone can learn something from everyone.
Thank you for your blog post. I really liked what Freire said; teaching is an act of love. Back in my middle and high school, many students hesitated to answer the teacher's open question in the class because of a fear of being wrong. If a student says the wrong answer, he/she would feel embarrassed and his/her friends could laugh at him/her. It could be trauma and a bad memory for him/her. One of the teacher's roles is to make a class that any students can share and show their idea during the class.