The education system is extremely difficult to change because it was built on inequality to begin with. While I do support school-centric reforms, focusing too intently on those reforms alone can actually mask the real need and call for systemic reforms. If you take a look at the infographic created by the Schott Foundation and the National Education Policy Center, two particular obstacles that schools in poorer areas face are ongoing history of discrimination and current policies that fail to educate or enrich. I believe educators can help bridge school-centric reforms with systemic reforms. At the school level, teachers can impact student learning through their instructional approach; however, I think it’s equally important for teachers to expose the inequalities that make up our system. Unless we raise leaders to identify the issues and tackle the system, the system is only going to perpetuate itself. So why would students even consider taking on this challenge? Freire (1993) put it best:
Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to the challenge. Because they apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other problems with a total context, not as a theoretical question, the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly critical and thus constantly less alienated. Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed.
Teacher Challenge: How are you going to utilize your pedagogy and curriculum to foster education as a practice of freedom as opposed to a practice of domination?
Freire, P. (1993 [1970]). Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed (52-67). New York: Continuum.
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