Empowerment Vs Oppression Analysis

Empowerment vs. Oppression The educational system is full of various teaching methods and objectives, in order to provide children with the knowledge they must obtain. Over the past few weeks, we have taken a look at how a variety of teaching methods have affected the classroom, as well as what the children learn as a result. There are two different ideas to this spectrum; oppression versus empowerment. The work of John Dewey in “The School and Society” focuses on creativity in the classroom and empowering students as members of society. Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” hones in on the formalized side of education and how students are receiving knowledge; as if they are open bank accounts and the teachers are ‘depositing’ …show more content…
It is ideal to think of cultural responsive pedagogy as liberating; a democracy that is comprised of community and active learning. Ladson-Billings states that “the first thing teachers must do is educate themselves about both the local sociopolitical issues of their school community (e.g., school board policy, community events) and the larger sociopolitical issues (e.g., unemployment, health care, housing) that impinge upon their students’ lives” (Ladson-Billings 172). It is important for teachers in such communities to be aware of what is happening; what type of environment their students are living in. Having this knowledge can be of great help in understanding the students’ needs. In Whitman’s article, it is noted that a school with “the student body being[is] overwhelmingly black and Hispanic, from low-income families usually headed by a single mother- just like their peers at neighborhood schools. Yet, despite these burdens, students graduate not only performing at grade level but doing better, in most cases, than their white peers” (Whitman 254). Students who grow up in poverty and that do not have the same resources privileged children, still have the capability to excel academically. Often times young people fall into statistics similar to the one stated above. The goal should be for teachers to take that information and use it to motivate students, and encourage them to push past academic achievement and have that overflow into the community. Dewey ends his article by writing that “when the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious” (Dewey 20). The teacher must not