Teacher and Students as Revolutionary Partners

• In Event: Beyond Dreams and Possibilities—Revolucionarias en Acción as Movement Intellectuals Preparing Critical Pedagogues

Abstract

Objective:
This presentation, based on a comprehensive philosophical investigation of Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1970) chronicled in companion book, (forthcoming), centers on Paulo Freire’s notion that revolutionary teachers must be partners with their students.

Theoretical Framework:
This pedagogical principle of problem-posing education is associated with overcoming the teacher–student contradiction—a banking education phenomenon where the role of the teacher is not only hierarchically conceived, but is situated at the opposite pole in an absolute and permanent dichotomy of teacher as the one who knows and students as those who do not know. In contrast, teachers and students as revolutionary partners encompasses the dialectics of teacher and students simultaneously, whereby teachers exchange the role of depositor, prescriber, domesticator, for the role of student among students. As such, the teacher-student as revolutionary partner with the student-teachers engages in a humanizing relationship that supports their mutual quest for liberation.

This partnership also points to dismantling an authoritarian and alienating intellectualism; which, in so doing, enables teachers and students to unveil and challenge the unjust structures and deficit myths that obstruct their consciousness as free beings for themselves. Freire rightly argues that revolutionary partnerships between teachers and students can only generate liberating praxis when there exists a profound trust in students and their creative power. In order to establish the genuine praxis inherent to a relationship of revolutionary partnership, Freire firmly contends that educators must transform vertical relationships rooted in authoritarianism. This entails dismantling the colonizing ethos of domination by establishing conditions for horizontal relationships within schools and communities. Freire provide us a language of humanization from which to articulate the horizontal nature of genuine dialogue, serves as an emotional, political, intellectual, and spiritual foundation for the establishment of what he terms indivisible solidarity—an essential feature of revolutionary partnerships between teachers and students.

Scholarly Significance:
The underlying purpose of this presentation is to stimulate dialogue about this phenomenon within the context of this panel that is exploring revolutionary dimension of teacher preparation. In addition, it is an opportunity to assist the audience to reconsider the continuing relevancy of Paulo Freire’s ideas for educators who are uncompromisingly committed to the making of a more just world. The sources for this presentation include the primary text and its companion book that is carefully researched with respect to Freire’s lived history and intellectual roots, which inform the major themes he develops throughout his seminal text.

Author

• Antonia Darder, Loyola Marymount University