Reconciling Freedom and Control in the Early Grades: Toward a Critical Consciousness for a Freedom of Choice

Abstract

Social educators have long sought to understand the relationship between personal freedom and social control and to contemplate the implications for classroom practice. In this year-long ethnographic study conducted in an ethnically mixed first grade classroom, we focused on the relationship between a European American teacher and two of her African American students. Among other things, we examined the specific social, cultural and linguistic factors involved in the negotiation of freedom and control, the nature of the socialization process that exists in schools, and the consciousness that emerges as a result of this process. Our findings are consistent with Dewey's notion that freedom and control are highly interrelated aspects of a unified whole. Our data also support the conclusions of sociocultural (re)productionist theorists who suggest that many students participate uncritically and unconsciously in their own socialization and that of their peers. We questioned the value of the socialization process. By limiting contemplation upon multiple perspectives, educational socialization restricts opportunities for the personal development of citizens and erodes the diversity needed to maintain complex systems like our own society. Still, since some form of socialization is essential for the development of self and survival of society, we do not reject socialization itself. Rather, we advocate alternative approaches based on mutual accommodation and the construction of a critical consciousness for a freedom of choice.