Teachers as transformative intellectuals v10

https://quotefancy.com/quote/1195732/Paulo-Freire-The-educator-has-the-duty-of-not-being-neutral
Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals
Teaching and Learning Symposium 2017
Farzad Maghami

Teachers as Transformative
Intellectuals
Teaching and Learning Symposium 2017
Farzad Maghami

Content
History
Teachers’ role
Keywords
Measures of teachers’ performance
Paving the way
A few activities to promote critical pedagogy
Wrap up
Q & Discussions
Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals| Box Hill Institute | 7.Sep.2017
3

History
First school 1789 (Wight, 2003)
Deliberately Burned down (Year Book Australia, No.2, 1909)
Schooling was aimed at class structure
Compulsory clause of the 1872 Act
Excluded “gutter children”
World War II
Frank Tate (Victorian Director of Education) (Wight, 2003)
4

http://aplus.com/a/un-women-cartoons-comics-gender-stereotypes?no_monetization=true
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Teachers’ role
7
Kumaravadivelu (2003)
• Historically there have been three roles attributed
to teachers:
1. Teachers as Passive Technicians
2. Teachers as Reflective Practitioners
3. Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals

8
• In this approach teachers’ role is to function
like a conduit:
• Channeling the flow of information from
one end to the other end
• Teachers are expected to work from a fixed
handed down pedagogy from a group of
experts (top down pedagogy)

9
• Disempower teachers
• Classroom behavior is to receive knowledge
• This is why technicians’ approach is considered
so passive, so unchallenging and so boring that
teachers often lose their sense of wonder and
excitement about learning to teach
Kumaravadivelu (2003) and (Kencheloe, 1993)

10
• This approach was proposed by John Dewey
• Teachers are passive transmitters of received
knowledge
• but as a problem-solver promoting cause effect
thinking
• to do task analyses and anticipatory planning

11
This approach has at least 3 shortcomings:
1. By focusing on the role of teacher and teacher alone, this approach
tends to treat reflection as an introspective process involving a
teacher and his reflective capacity, and not an interactive process
2. It has not paid adequate attention to the social-political factors that
shape and reshape a teachers reflective practice
3. In spite of its expressed dislike for the teachers’ excessive reliance on
established professional wisdom, the approach contributed very little
to change it

Keywords
Pedagogy
Praxis
Critical Pedagogy, Engaged Pedagogy
13

Pedagogy
Is a term concerned with what a teacher does to influence
learning in others; including the arts and the science of
teaching and education instructional methods (Department of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), 2009)
(Siraj-Blatchford et al. 2002. cited in Child Australia Pedagogy statement 2017)
Is the instructional techniques and strategies that allows
learning to take place; including
•The interactive process between teachers and students
•Some aspects of learning environment
Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals| Box Hill Institute | 7.Sep.2017 14

Praxis
15
Freire (1970)
• The complexities of the modern world demands the
educators engage in Praxis
• Praxis is the action and reflection of man upon their world
to transform it
• This process of conscious participation was
conceptualized by Freire as Praxis
(Cited in Zimmerman 2009)

Praxis
17
• “Praxis involves a transformation of the situation to the
end of overcoming oppressiveness and domination”
(Zimmerman 2009, p.46)
• Teachers need to engage in transformative action and
reflection of praxis
• Teachers should teach their students how to engage in
praxis, so that the students can learn not just to accept
the world as it is now, but can learn to transform it into a
better place (Zimmerman 2007)

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/12/how-wars-and-disasters-fuel-child-labor

https://twitter.com/amnestyOz/status/889810718958145536

Critical Pedagogy
22
• The group of critical pedagogists believe that classroom
reality is socially constructed and historically determined
• Therefore what is required to challenge the social and
historic forces is a pedagogy that empowers teachers and
learners
• Such a pedagogy would take seriously the lived
experiences that teachers and learners bring to the
educational context (ibid. p.13)

Critical Pedagogy
23
• Critical Pedagogy is a teaching method that aims to
challenge and struggle actively against any form of social
oppression and the related customs and beliefs (Freire,
1970)
• A Freirean critical teacher is a problem-solver who asks
thought-provoking questions and who encourages
students to ask their own questions
• (cited in Paulo Freire: A critical Encounter, edited by Peter
Leonard, Peter McLaren, 1993)

Critical Pedagogy
26
Hooks (1994)
• Critical pedagogy goes beyond questioning and
examining; it aims toward transformation
• Engaged pedagogy
• Promotes critical thinking, taking people to a higher level
of thinking, and helping them to connect with themselves
and the world
• Addresses students’ needs as individuals as well as
members of various collectives, race, gender, class

Critical Pedagogy
28
Hooks (1994)
• Engaged pedagogy recognizes that external forces
(political and economical power) are strong forces
shaping people’s lives
• Practitioners of engaged pedagogy
• Are aware and engage different ways of learning
• Do not treat everyone the same
• Value the different voices that teachers and students
bring to the classroom

http://theconversation.com/why-poverty-is-not-a-personal-choice-but-a-reflection-of-society-79552?sa=pg1&sq=poverty&sr=1
30

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-29/poverty-rate-in-australia-increasing-report-shows/7974996

http://emergesupport.org.au/spread-the-word/domestic-violence-and-murder

Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals - Introduction
33
• The role of teachers stretched beyond classroom
• Teachers to embody in their teaching a vision of a better
and more human life (Giroux and McLaurin 1989, quoted
by Kumaravadivelu, 2003)
• Teachers are engaged in the dual task of
• Striving for educational advancement
• Personal transformation

No education is neutral (Dewey, 1910)
Absolute power of state officials on Educational system
(Dewey, 1916,Democracy and Education)
Dewey (1930) stresses the dominant influence of global market
on education (cited in Giroux, 2009)
Responses:
Dewey (1916) proposes a progressive ideology in which views
education as freeing individual capacity in a progressive
growth directed to social aim (Cited in Naeini & Shakouri, 2016)

Aronowitz and Giroux (1991) speaking of a new approach to education
in 1960s:
• Postmodern education:
• Initially built on Dewey’s progressive ideas
• Later constructed its own principles
Giroux (2009): These oppressing forces continued to exist in the form
of a market-based rationality which looks down on democracy and
publicly engaged education
35

http://theconversation.com/pauline-hanson-is-wrong-we-need-to-include-children-with-disability-in-regular-
classrooms-79897

http://theconversation.com/why-politicians-think-they-know-better-than-scientists-and-why-thats-so-dangerous-72548

Intellectuals (TTI)
Giroux (1988)
• Coined the term
• in reaction to the long-lived perception of teachers as
high level technicians, who were trained only to
transfer the information that they were dictated by
experts far removed from the realities of classroom
(Cited in Naeini & Shakouri 2016)

3. Educations vs Training
40
Education Training
Systematic learning
Learning English (already have some
command but still learning)
Skills - Specific to your needs
Theoretical orientation Practical application
Wide Narrow
Classroom learning – Education is not
equal to schooling
Job experience
Long term - Life learning Short term
Future job – Education learned helps a
person to face future challenges
Present job
Develop sense of reasoning and judgment Improve performance and productivity
General concept Specific task
Learning certain knowledge Doing
Is about facts, events, values, beliefs,
general concepts, principles, …
Well-planned program
Internship, apprenticeship, job training

Who is Intellectuals?
An Intellectual is someone who knows about his or her field, has
a wide breadth of knowledge about other aspects of the world,
who uses experience to develop theory and questions theory on
the basis of further experience
An intellectual is also someone who has the courage to question
authority and who refuses to act counter to his or her own
experience and judgement
( Heb Kohl, cited in Aronowitz & Giroux, 1985)
Intellectuals (TTI)

Teachers as Trans. Intel.
Freire (1970)
• Transformation is a process that results from the interaction
between action and critical reflection on both the social
environment and self
• Adapting critical stance by teachers presupposes the
understanding of reality as a process, undergoing constant
transformation
• Teachers should participate consciously in the process of
transformation to establish a just society (cited in
Zimmerman 2009)
43

Giroux (1988) Transformative Intellectuals are people who
critically examine the world and its process and subsequently
transform it
Nieto (1996)
• Conceptualized education as a vehicle for promoting social
justice
• By challenging social, political and institutional structures
that situates large group of students at a disadvantage
• Adopting a critical pedagogy that emphasizes knowledge,
reflection and action (cited in Saavedra 1996)
45

Freire (1987) in an interview with Macedo noted
• Reading the world always precedes reading the word.
• Reading the word implies continually reading the world
• Reading the word is not preceded merely by reading the
world, but by a certain form of writing and rewriting it
• Transforming it by means of conscious practical work
(Literacy: Reading the Word and the World, p. 23, 2005)
46

http://theconversation.com/its-true-97-of-research-papers-say-climate-change-is-happening-14051?sa=pg2&sq=global+warming&sr=7

Measures of Teachers’ performance
50
In a joint research pursued by the Institute of
Education of University of Leeds, and the University
of London, they examined teachers’ views on how
they understand and construct their professional
responsibility to develop skills and relevant
attitudes in their students

51
This is analyzed under four headings:
1. Teaching to create a just, inclusive and multicultural
society
2. Teaching to promote students’ ability to critically evaluate
their social conditions and engage in self-reflection
3. Teaching to cultivate students ability for self-reflection
4. Teaching as a path to praxis

52
Teachers settled on the following items:
1. Social change (Teaching to change society)
• Importance of Citizen Education
• CE develops critical skills
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_b/interac
t/mod07task03/appendix.htm
• Important role of Human Rights as the framework
• Level of familiarity of teachers were diverse
2. Teaching to promote students’ ability to critically evaluate
their social conditions at local, national and international
levels

53
3. To support students to recognize that there are multiple
standpoints from which social reality can be viewed
4. To promote to view the society as dynamic
5. Teachers expect students to recognize and reject forms of
injustice that they consider as important

http://aplus.com/a/un-women-cartoons-comics-gender-stereotypes?no_monetization=true
55

Paving the way to teach as Transformative Intellectuals
56
In order to achieve the dual task, transformative teachers should perform
the following points as summarized by Kincheloe (1993, p201-3) :
1. Inquiry Oriented (Students to explore academic content by posing,
investigating and answering questions (Center for Inspired
Teaching, 2008)
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/
An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember,
involve me and I understand." The last part of this statement is the
essence of inquiry-based learning
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/

57
2. Socially contextualized
3. Grounded on a commitment to world making
4. Dedicated to an art of improvisation
5. Promote critical self and social-reflection shaped by
a commitment to democratic self-directed education

58
6. To cultivate student participation
7. Steep in sensitivity by pluralism (diversity)
8. Committed to action
9. Concerned with the effective dimension of human
beings

59
I ask myself:
• “Are the students engaging in critical thinking and
evaluation of the issues we are grappling with?
• How can I present the material in a way that challenges
them to see that there are different perspectives, and often
there are multiple solutions?
• What do I need to do differently? Where are my own
perceptions and expectations creating barriers to learning
and engagement”?
(Zimmerman, et al. 2007, p.46)

https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/education/#axzz4plZ3CC00
61
60% Percentage of Aboriginal children
significantly behind non-Aboriginal
children by the time they start Year One
66.7%Percentage of Year 10 Aboriginal
students in Queensland who go on to
complete Year 12, compared to 83%
among non-Aboriginal children

Activities to promote critical pedagogy
63
1. Students pair up according to similar physical attributes;
for example their hair colour, eye colour, hand size, and
height.
Students may have a choice of representing a minority
groups
For each attribute, students discuss times when they
were discriminated against because of it.
They then take on the roles as victim, perpetrator, or
bystander and discuss.

64
2. Gap Fill in: Students are shown a picture, projected in the front of the
room, if possible. At the top of their paper, students should write:
"What is happening in this picture?" At the bottom of the page, they
should answer (very simply, in 1-2 sentences) with what they believe
should happen in the photo.
In the middle of the page — and this is why it's called "Gap Fill In" —
students write down all of the steps they took to arrive at that answer.
Students are encouraged to write down the evidence they see that
supports their conclusion.
GOAL: This activity not only uses evidence, but supports meta cognition
skills by asking what prior knowledge brought you to your conclusion.

65
3. Alien Travel Guide:
You are conducting a tour for aliens who are visiting earth and observing
humans. You’re all in their spaceship when you fly over a football stadium.
One of the aliens is confused, and turns to you for help. Try answering
these questions:
• What is a game, and why do humans play them?
• What are “teams” and why are they so important for humans to be part
of?

66
Alien Travel Guide:
• Why is it these games seem to get more attention than other matters
on your planet, like disease and poverty?
• Why do humans get so emotional and even violent when watching
games?
• What would happen if no human could ever play these games again?
http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/critical-thinking-workbook.pdf

Wrap up
Pedagogy
Praxis
Critical Pedagogy

Thanks for your attention
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/robertkenn745908.html
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Questions and Discussions
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/robertkenn745908.html
70

References:
Aronowitz, S. and Giroux, H., 1985. Radical education and transformative
intellectuals. CTheory, 9(3), pp.48-63.
Austin, A.G., 1977. Australian Education 1788-1900. Church, State and Public
Education in Colonial Australia.
"Child Australia Pedagogy Statement."
http://www.childaustralia.org.au/CA_website/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CA-
Statement-Pedagogy.pdf. Accessed 4 Jun. 2017.
Center for Inspired Teaching, 2008, Inspired Issue Brief: Inquiry-based teaching
Freire, P. and Macedo, D., 2005. Literacy: Reading the word and the world.
Routledge.
Giroux, H., 2010. Teachers as transformative intellectuals. Kaleidoscope:
Contemporary and classic readings in education, pp.35-40.
71

References:
72
Giroux, H., 2017, “Thinking Dangerously: The Role of Higher Education in
Authoritarian times“, Truthout, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41058-
thinking-dangerously-the-role-of-higher-education-in-authoritarian-times “
Hjalmarsson, R & Lochner, L., 2012, “The Impact of Education On Crime:
International Evidence”, CESifo DICE Report, 2/2012
Hooks, B., 2014. Teaching to transgress. Routledge.Hooks, B., 2014. Teaching to
transgress. Routledge.
“INTERACT WP 14 Teachers as transformative intellectuals”, Centre for
Citizenship and Human Rights Education, University of Leeds Institute of
Education, University of London,
http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/cchre/Interact-wp14.pdf

References:
73
Kashani, T., 2012. The Transformative Intellectual: an examination of Henry
Giroux's ethics. Policy Futures in Education, 10(6), pp.622-626
Kincheloe, J.L., 2008. Critical pedagogy primer (Vol. 1). Peter Lang.
Leonard, P, McLaren, P, 1993, Paulo Freire: A critical Encounter, London)
Naeini, A.V. and Shakouri, N., 2016. Preparing for a postmethod pedagogy: A
transformative approach to curriculum development. Theory and Practice in
Language Studies, 6(3), p.586.
Oanh .L.V. 2013, Teachers as transformative Intellectuals, Paving the way to
transformative education
Saavedra, E., 1996. Teachers study groups: Contexts for transformative learning and
action. Theory into Practice, 35(4), pp.271-277.

References:
74
Susan Wight, (2003), Australian Schooling: A History of Social
Control, Bendigo, Victoria http://www.home-
ed.vic.edu.au/2003/10/30/australian-schooling-a-history-of-social-
control/
Zimmerman .L, 2009. “Reflective teaching Practice: Engaging in
Praxis”, The Journal of Theory and Construction and Testing Volume
13, November 2
Oanh .L.V. 2013, Teachers as transformative Intellectuals, Paving the
way to transformative education

References:
75
Susan Wight, (2003), Australian Schooling: A History of Social
Control, Bendigo, Victoria http://www.home-
ed.vic.edu.au/2003/10/30/australian-schooling-a-history-of-social-
control/
Zimmerman .L, 2009. “Reflective teaching Practice: Engaging in
Praxis”, The Journal of Theory and Construction and Testing Volume
13, November 2

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