Problem Posing Pedagogy

As I was reading Freire's "Banking Concept of Education," I opened a word document, changed the format from portrait to landscape and wrote "What is your Problem?" I did this to remind myself to be a problem-posing pedagogue. As much as I purport to be one, I know that I have banking tendencies. The only way that I'm going to remember to pose problems, is by having a big sign on my wall. Otherwise, I tend to resort to making deposits when things aren't going well, or when I feel like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. It's because of the way I was taught in high school.

I think my approach to each lesson must be foreshadowed by this question, or at least some form of it: "What is the problem that I would like my students to work through in this activity?" Further, "How can I get my students to pose problems which I can participate in "solving" within the activity?" If I'm posing all the problems, then I'm still banking. I think that's the case anyway.

An example:

I am currently teaching a Humanities course in which we study cultural phenomena and how the arts impact humanity and society. One of my favorite activities is the "album study" in which each student analyzes the lyrics of one song on an album. The idea is for the students to see how the album becomes an "album" of songs and to see what problems or ideas the band in question was dealing with at the time the album was created. This year, we have studied The Rolling Stones' Beggars' Banquet (1960s), Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1970s) and Michael Jackson's Thriller (1980s). The problem I'm seeing, as a recovering banker, is that I've chosen the albums. As such, I've dictated the important albums of the decade. That said, I'm not sure that there is a "problem" to be "posed" here. Sure, I can have the students work in groups to decide how they want to study the album and what they want to do with it, but that's more of a "democratic" process than a "problem."

I guess my questions are these: What should a posed problem look like? What should it entail? How do I go about getting students to see problems that they want to pose without dictating the problems to them? I could go on and on here, but my point is that a discussion is necessary to help create problem-posing atmospheres within our classrooms. What does that atmosphere look like? How is it taken care of and fostered by those of us responsible for doing so?

I'll leave it at that... Thoughts?

Communication and learning

I communicate daily, in numerous ways. My day begins with a one-sided chat with the cat who begs for me to get up and feed him. (He communicates non-verbally by walking across my face. I return the nonverbal volley, and push him aside.) My husband and I do the early morning acknowledgement of each other’s existence and after coffee expand on our thoughts. Then it’s on to work where the communication picks up: meet and greet with colleagues, bemoan the day, chit-chat with the principal, check in on the IEP of a student. And then they come. Now communication takes on a different level – or does it? Does the hallway banter actually represent learning?

I’ve been thinking about the talk that happens in the hallways, in the faculty lounge (now there’s a word I’d like to discuss), during prep periods. If we intentionally reject the banking notion of education, then we must consider that any communication that attempts to problem-solve is a form of learning and coming to know.  As my colleagues and I whine about the end of year assessment schedule and then unknowingly morph the conversation into how to deal with students who struggle to pass assessments, are we not learning? When the principal and I discuss how to help students of poverty access books over the summer break, are we engaging in “problem-posing education where we develop the power to perceive critically the way we exist in the world…and see reality in process, in transformation.”? Freire states that "problem-posing education regards dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality." Isn't that what we do when we engage in professional conversation - knowingly and on purpose or unknowingly and accidentally? 

I think this is a jumping off point for the summer. What do you think? Where has Freire taken you?

Welcome

Welcome to the 2013 Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project's Invitational Summer Writing Institute. We are so excited to get started with such a wonderful and talented group.

We will write our blog on this page, posing questions, offering thoughts and opinions and sharing ideas in this forum. Our writings will be more sporadic than many of our participants, but we will be writing!

We hope you're looking forward to this experience as much as we are.

Sincerely,

Brenda and Rich