Pedagogy of the Oppressed

When reading the article, I loved that the first paragraph mentions the student-teacher relationship in the classroom.  Students are often looked as youth that teachers are to fill with all the knowledge for the world outside the classroom.  Many teachers will try to just cram a lot of information into one lesson; this often leads to students losing focus in the classroom.

During many lessons students don’t engage with the learning and “check-out.”  The lack of engagement in the classroom with the materials and content lead to a lack of student success.  Teachers used to just continue to teach in the same way all the time, lecture and notes, a “narrative education.”  Teachers now are trying to find ways to create a more engaging environment during their lessons to promote student learning.

Teachers no longer are looking just to fill the students with as much information as possible.  Study after study shows students do not learn in that kind of environment.  All the information of the content that is given to the students is just random information that they feel they will never use.  When students are taught in this form it becomes an oppressive environment.

This particular article helps outline what not to do to avoid teaching in this manner.  I currently struggle with this when creating lessons.  As a teacher, I have to take time to look at the variety of backgrounds that my students come from.  In doing this, I am able to create many different connections that can be made for my students during the lesson that will relate the content to their everyday lives.


I do reflect on my students’ behavior in the classroom to determine if I have made strong enough connections to the students’ daily lives.  There are days I have not made the strongest connection in a whole class setting but am able to explain further one-on-one with a student once the activity of the lesson is started.  This helps create a non-oppressive environment for the students.

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