The Teaching Philosophies
of
Paulo Freire & Ira Shor
Paulo Freire
"Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings
in the process of becoming."
(Freire, 2006)
Ira Shor
“Empowered students make meaning and act from reflection,
instead of memorizing facts and values handed to them.”
(Shor, 1992).
Freire and Shor on Education:
Power Sharing
Problem-Posing
Co-developed Syllabus
Teacher as Facilitator
=
CRITICAL PEDAGOGY/
LIBERATORY LEARNING!!!
“THE ONLY WAY
TO LEARN IT IS
TO DO IT!”
-(Freire and Shor, 1987)
Links to Theory
in
Action
In New York:
* http://www.theatreoftheoppressednyc.org/
Inspiration. Collaboration. Transformation. TONYC incites
transformative action by offering tools of popular theatre to individuals,
communities and institutions in New York City facing situations of
oppression.
* http://www.judson.org/bailouttheater
Free theater and other events at Judson Church
*
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/18_01/ineq1
81.shtml
Urban Students Tackle Research on Inequality
AND MANY MORE WAITING TO BE FOUND, AND STARTED… BY
US!
In the World:
* http://www.freireproject.org/
The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical
Pedagogy
* http://www.tellingmystory.org/
International: Using theater to break visible and invisible walls
* http://www.neurokitchen.org/
Chicago: Artistically becoming self-actualized, growing collective
intelligence
* http://newurbanarts.org
Providence, RI: Mentoring relationships to empower youth to
develop a life-long sustainable creative practice
* http://www.artcorp.org
International: Artists and communities work together for
social change
* http://www.rethinkingschools.org/
National: Nonprofit publisher of educational materials,
advocate of public school reform, great resource for
teachers
* http://www.tonywardedu.com
Critical education theory and practice- great free resource
site
Works Cited
Freire, P. (2007). Daring to Dream. Boulder, CO: Paradigm
Publishers.
Freire, P. (1992.) Pedagogy of Hope. London, UK: Continuum
Publishing.
Freire, P. (2006.) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London, UK:
Continuum Publishing.
Freire, P. & Shor, I. (1987). A Pedagogy for Liberation. New York,
NY: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc.
Shor, I. (1987). Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Chicago, Il:
University of Chicago Press.
Shor, I. (1992). Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social
Change. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press.
Shor, I. (1996). When Students Have Power. London & Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.
Appendix:
Freire on Education:
The teacher offers her/his own “reading of the world” in order for
students to establish that there are other “readings of the world”

Curriculum must be chosen in a democratic fashion by both
teachers and students

Teachers must establish that they are teaching “with the students”
not “to the students”

Teachers must respect the students and never manipulate them.
The teacher should also allow themselves to show students their
dreams and how they effect their teaching.

Teachers teach students how to learn, and the importance of the
“why” or reason for the content.

Freire's reflections on student and
teacher interaction:
“Sometimes it is not even necessary to show the hidden
thing, but rather it is about helping the student to
know that there are hidden things for him or her to
discover.” (Freire, 2007)




The teacher provides the students with information
he/she feels is important.
The teacher encourages the students to make their
own choices.
The teacher acts as a guide when students are lost.
Both the teacher and the student have active roles in
the learning process.
Shor on Education
*Ordinary/Extraordinary: Dialogic and Dialectic Process From Freire roots in liberation theology, dialogue is a
"critical and criticism-stimulating activity". "Horizontal"
dialogue is which is seen as liberating pedagogy is
distinguished from "vertical" anti-dialogue which is viewed
as oppressive pedagogy.
*Counter-Structures: Doing, Undoing, Re-Doing - Here the
teacher is the architect of the un-doing and re-doing.
Using dialogue as a means to "systematically and
problematically represent to students what they have
unsystematically and uncritically been taught by the
teacher."
Shor on Education cont.
*Conversions: The Object-Subject Switch - "Teacher accepts
responsibility for a process which converts students from
manipulated objects into active, critical subjects" resulting
from "re-perceiving reality".
*The Withering Away of the Teacher: Separation,
Transformation, Re-Integration: The teacher's function is in
constant motion in the class. As the class unfolds, the teacher
is not always the leading factor in the class.
*Listening: Ready for Anything: At every moment the teacher
must be a "sensitive listener" for "ideal moments of
intervention, withdrawal and re-entry" "The teacher needs to
come to class with an agenda, but must be ready for anything,
committed to letting go when the discussion is searching for
an organic form".
Shor on Education cont.
*Creation and Re-creation: Shaping the Re-shaping: Building upon
the foundations of dialogue, a class can create it own texts and
forms of communication or expression to "magnify their own voiced
against the sensory saturation of mass culture and could serve "as
an object of reflection as well as process of development"
*Diving into the Wreck - "One purpose for a liberatory form for
class interaction is the restoration of community...The Liberatory
class can address this problem through collective work styles, self
and mutual instruction and peer/group evaluations." This also helps
the "object-Subject switch" to succeed by getting students to
appreciate each other " as competent, effective and worthy human
beings"
*Counter-Disciplines: Changes and the Changed: "Interdisciplinary
approach , in a liberatory framework, is the most potent means to
free consciousness from the limits of the particular"
Shor on Education cont.
*Using Daily Life: Hamburgers and the Ordinaiversity - View
that daily life provides *vast resources* of subject matter for
every class and discipline. Helps make "intellectual work of
tangible relevance to students".
*A Little Laughter: The Resources of Comedy: A liberatory
classroom is accompanied by unavoidable tensions as it
reconstructs social and self realizations. A comedic atmosphere
relaxes the fears that come with desocialization. Also through
sharing humor, the teacher "comes down from the pedestal, in the
process of withering away...A humorous class flowing through the
comic folkways of the students will become a serious place to enjoy
change and an enjoyable place to change seriously....Comedy can be
an unexpected landmark in a liberatory frontier"
Shor on Education cont.
*The Convertible Classroom: A Space for All Reasons: "As a
companion to the mobile complex of roles and functions for the
teacher, the liberatory classroom also assumes a variety of
convertible modes. The classroom changes its forms so as to adapt
to the profile of student needs. Each mode fulfills a concrete
developmental service: workshop, studio, skill and counseling
center, consciousness-raising group, kiosk-news service and
library". There is no standard operating procedure for when to
convert from one spatial mode to another. Since students don't
expect school "to shape itself around their needs, it will be a
surprising to them that a class can be "reconstructed in their
interests."
Ira Shor's Theory on
Power-sharing between Teachers
and Students
“Education works best when students set goals for themselves, clarify
their purposes, deliberate with others on the rules, evaluate
themselves, their peers, the process, and the teacher, and not wait to
be told what to do and what things mean. When you have intentions,
power, responsibilities, and purposes, you are more connected to what
you do and focus more intelligence on your experience.” (Shor, 1987)
Critical Questions for Students in a Classroom:
·
·
Where do the students sit?
·
Why should students come to school?
·
Is there need for an After-Class Group?
How should the syllabus be designed and the course be evaluated?
Freire & Shor Conversations
Paulo Freire: I am asked often about how to motivate students. Why don’t you say more
about that in your situation?
Ira Shor: …A big crisis now in the U.S. is student resistance to the official curriculum…
which various official bodies have mis-defined as student ‘mediocrity.’ I call it a
‘performance strike’ by students who refuse to study under current social conditions…
What matters most to me in the beginning is how much and how fast I can learn about the
students… It is the base information for reinventing knowledge in the classroom.
Shor: How can I motivate students unless they act with me? …Openness is required to
overcome the student alienation which is the biggest learning problem in school. How
can a teacher learn to do this kind of teaching? By doing it.
Freire: Reading is rewriting what we are reading... to discover the connections between
the text and the context of the text… and with the context of the reader.
What is indispensable is to be critical.
Shor: …No curriculum is truly neutral. To have a policy of "no politics in the class" or "no
religion in the class" is to say that being politically opinionated is wrong, or to be
religious is wrong.
Shor: What mattered, I think, was my refusal to install the language of the professor as
the only valuable [language] in the classroom. My language counted, but so did theirs.
My language changed, and so did theirs… I wish I could repeat to you their surprise at
my interest in their words… Very rarely had a professor taken them so seriously, but
the truth is that they had never taken themselves so seriously either
(Freire and Shor, 1987).