Challenging bigotry in the Freirean classroom

Abstract

In order to understand the current social, cultural, and political period of ascendant racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, classism, and xenophobia – personified in the actions and statements of the current President of the United States – and its relationship to education, Ken McGrew suggests that the scholarship of Paulo Freire is particularly helpful. In this essay he positions his use of Freirean inspired pedagogy in the history of the social foundations tradition in education. He reflects on opposition to the foundations project, drawing upon his own teaching experiences and those of other scholars. Classroom experiences like those described in this essay, including institutional responses to them, are identified as locations of struggle with larger agendas – which include neoliberal efforts to repress the social foundations tradition in teacher training and advance banking education – to manipulate, divide, and dominate the lower-classes. He observes that the radical commitment to dialogue in the Freirean classroom tends to inadvertently embolden an organized minority of students with right-wing agendas to express extreme bigotry regarding race, gender identity, religion, and sexual orientation. This highlights a delimma for the Freirean teacher in hoping to positively influence the perspectives of teachers in training towards broader consciousness and greater compassion, but without imposition. Using Freirean analysis, he identifies the relationship of bigotry with ideologies of white supremacy and fascism. He traces the roots of these ideologies and the movements they serve, connecting them to the current moment, and argues that educators must understand themselves as being engaged in a historical struggle against bigotry. Despite the challenges that come with engaging in such struggles, McGrew argues that it is necessary to do so, and that modeling Freirean pedagogy in the foundations classroom, joined with solidarity in and outside the university, remains an important front in the struggle for a more just future.