Opportunity Cost

"Opportunity cost" is always present when implementing different pedagogical models in curriculum or education. One thing we began talking about in class was that a lot of times the educator holds the majority power choosing what pedagogical models are used in a classroom or learning environment. It is for this reason that I believe as a future educator in my teacher education that educators should experience as many pedagogical models as possible even if they philosophically differ with the approach. By living in the model you are able to figure out where the deficits occur, and where and how the "opportunity costs" change between a banking model opposed to a praxis model or a student-centered environment compared to a teacher-centered environment.

Grandpa T.R.

My artifact has a lot of meaning to me personally, I also think there is a lot of context, code and mythicism and symbolism involved in the picture which hangs in my apartment. My artifact is a framed picture of my Grandpa T.R. He was 17 at the time when this picture was taken by the Saint Paul paper in 1932. He was a record-setting hurdler and a top propect in Saint Paul football and was headed to the University of Notre Dame. This picture was taken just before my grandfather suffered a minor cut on his leg, the cut became infected so badly that  he was hospitalized almost lost his leg.

This was just before the end of his football career(and legacy) and his chance to go to the University Notre Dame and then who knows?

 

I think the story above would be "the coded situation" this photograph and my grandfathers stories of the glory days and his skills have been mythicized overtime to take on a new identity and shape a different history. To decode and split apart the elements of this photograph I think I need to look at the past, present and future in regards to the context and themes of the world at those times.............

Chapter three

Friere paints a beautiful picture of what it means to be a part of true dialogue. There are certain 'musts' for dialogue to occur, first of all, no one can dialogue alone. There must be humility in dialogue, there must be an intense faith in humankind, faith in people and dialogue cannot exist without hope.

Friere points out in chapter three that dialogue is similar to education in the form of praxis. To have real dialogue, like education the praxis of dialogue must involve respect and reflection and re-presentation of information through conversation. Like education dialogue is work towards the truth shared by open-minded parties. It can not be a deposit of information from one person to be consumed by another.

Like is typical with Friere we see a polar opposite of dialogue which is unauthentic word. Unauthentic word involves the speaker speaking to serve a purpose, the object of unauthentic dialogue typically seems to be meaningless. The purpose is to maintain staus-quo or to achieve dominance or hold power over an object, person or world.

I think it is all too often that we experience unauthentic word rather than dialogue in our society. This is exemplified for me by the current state of our governments politics and the manipulative nature of bipartisanism. Unfortunately for our society the sound bites created by politicians that spin through the media monster come off for many people in our society as true. This constant redundantness of our governments politics has created a limit-situation for me in my own life. Maybe it is through true dialogue that we can begin to work on the unauthentic word which is spoken so often in todays society.

Hunger Group Members: Anneka, Jeffrey, David Our Mission: We are working towards reducing the impact of hunger on our community specifically at MCTC and in our Minneapolis Public Schools
http://hungergroup.wikispaces.com/home

Dehumanization

One of the many pieces that stuck with me in the first chapter of Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the act of oppression is dehumanizing for all parties involved. Oppression is dehumanizing for the oppressor as well as for the oppressed. Oppression  for the oppressor detaches them from humanity by shifting the focus from a communal society to a more individualistic existence. Rather than the focus of life being humanity and community it shifts to a materialistic existence. Quality of life is represented by gathering items others can not afford and stacking the deck to keep the status quo. The oppressed are dehumanized through oppression through a lack of freedoms due to circumstance. The first step of the oppressed is to realize who their oppressors are. The relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor is dehumanizing and symbiotic. There must be an oppressed people for the oppressor to exist. I do not believe a solution to this interdependency and inevitability should be violence. I think violence of any type whether vertical or horizontal is dehumanizing. Violence even against an oppressor seperates an individual from their humanity by violating one of the basic human rights, the right to live. While I believe violence is dehumanizing for all parties involved I do believe it is an acceptable reaction in extreme circumstance.

WWSD

I think a major difference between teaching standardized curriculum versus a praxis model is the praxis model requires educators to be much more prepared, present and observant. When using standardized curriculum, yes a teacher may run into difficulties relaying information in the banking model of education, but typically the problems will be routine. There will be FAQ's that the teacher will be prepared to handle and probably some behavioral issues as well. Let me just say I am in no way saying teaching is easy. However in the praxis model of education the limits as to what is and isn't curriculum are expanded, the lines of real life and education are blended together making the questions and topics much more personal and relevant and in turn more important to the students and hopefully educators.

In Shultz's case he was able to work with his students, not just as an advocate but along side them towards a common goal. This required him to be more prepared and ready to pick up on 405's desire to make change. I think Shultz's ability to preserve space to go where he never imagined is one of his best qualities as a teacher who is successful in a praxis model. To limit the possibilities of 405's project would smother the classroom energy and desire for change. Shultz picks up on key moments of frustration in the classroom and allows the students to control the direction of their learning. "Most of the problems on that list have to do with our school building bein' messed up. Our school is a dump that's the problem!" In this instance Shultz creates the space for the students to be in charge of their own project and education. Shultz is also present, he is able to identify the strengths of his students in the classroom. Acknowledging his students capabilities and strengths gives Shultz the ability to understand how to assist their education. "..They told me, there was little nurturing of the strengths or abilities learned outside of school, but rather a devaluing of their adaptive abilities and street intelligences.


  



  
  

Why Relavent Pedagogy?

According to our readings, our educational structure in the current climate is set up to create winners and losers. The winners become economically successful with sometimes fulfilling jobs and live in economically prosperous neighborhoods with well-funded schools. The losers end up with typically labor intensive jobs in economically deprived neighborhoods with under-funded schools. Our public school structures promote these social and economic inequities through generalized standards across the board independent of the opportunity students have to be successful in this system. It's set up to create winners and losers and Duncan points out that the system does exactly what it is designed to do.

Relevant pedagogy escapes the suffocating nature of an educational system based on standards and tests. It redesigns curriculum to shift the focus towards issues relevant to students lives and communities. Duncan states that factoring communities and students lives into education can prevent the student from having to choose between their community and an education. When there is that pull between choosing home or education I believe that diminishes the experience of learning. Education is good and I believe education can be freeing for everyone because it helps you learn how to expand on your beliefs, thoughts and interests. When there is a separation between what is relevant to you and an expectation of what should be important(curriculum) there is a loss of self which is unfortunate because it hurts the reality of the experience. Shifting the focus from standardized curriculum and making it relevant creates opportunities for learning that are otherwise lost. I believe creating opportunities to involve students in praxis is a good way to achieve real education.