Course Description:
“An education that does not strive to promote the fullest and most thorough understanding of the world is not worthy of the name education” (Counts, 2007)
Community engagement is a political act, and the classroom is a potential transformative space. These words, proclaimed by Brazilian educational theorist Paulo Freire, are often used globally to situate teaching within notions of activism. In a time when education is confused with schooling, and learning is solely gauged by “standardized” assessments, we must critically interrogate our roles as teachers and as learners.
This course is founded on democratic education, presupposing that everyone actively participates in the generation, transformation, and production of knowledge.
In this way, everyone must engage in the process of transformative learning, facilitating active participation in a process “that by rethinking our past, we can fundamentally gain an understanding of the formation of our self, the roots of our present condition, and the limits as well as the possibilities of our being a self-in-the-world” (Torres, 2007).
One such way to join in this process is by examining the commonly complacent role of the student, a disengaged “consumer” of education. In this way, students (and professor) will begin to explore social justice issues and sincerely participate in a revolutionary act, the collective production of knowledge.
This course will be motivated by student interest and the commitment to construct critical dialogue. Likewise, we will assume responsibility for the individual and collective learning processes. We will ask ourselves: what are the questions most important to us in the context of our lives and learning, right now? What are the issues that cut across the generations? What are our collective responsibilities to engage with these issues?
Through engaging in the revolutionary practice of education, participants will stretch the boundaries of conventional classroom discourse to a create a space where everyone freely engages in the production of knowledge.
Taught By:
Estrella Torrez
Associate Professor
Residential College in the Arts and Humanities
Michigan State University
Read profile here.