Ally Pedagogy: Theorizing Praxis in Troubling Times

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-24 - Praxis and Pedagogy: Creating Legitimacy Through Resistance

Abstract

In a context of calcifying inequalities, how can white teachers act as allies to students of color rather than as paternalistic authorities? Contrasting student-centered pedagogies (e.g., self-organized learning environments) with the neoliberal context of urban school reform, this conceptual paper argues that ally pedagogy requires a reframing of the work of the teacher. Ally pedagogy centers students’ lives and contexts in the curriculum; from a position of humility and partnership, teachers work to match students’ inquiry and meaning making with the appropriate tools to do so. This theorization of ally pedagogy provides an anti-oppressive framework for dismantling systems of oppression within pedagogy.

Author

• Melissa Leigh Gibson, Marquette University