Advancing Humanization in Education: A Framework for Developing and Assessing Humanizing Dispositions

• In Event: Building a Pedagogical Repertoire for Teacher Educators to Support Dispositions for Equity

Abstract

Purpose: Recent developments in U.S. politics have unmasked the fear, intolerance, and dehumanization that is rampant in U.S. society. This reality makes pedagogical methods that cultivate humanization in education essential. This can be accomplished by nurturing humanizing dispositions in teacher education. The purpose of this paper is to: (a) present the need for humanizing dispositions, (b) provide a review of literature related to humanizing dispositions, and (c) propose a framework for developing and assessing humanizing dispositions in teacher education. In this paper, I explore the following questions: What are humanizing dispositions and why do they matter? How can teacher educators develop and assess pre-service teachers’ commitment to, and enactment of, humanizing dispositions?

Theoretical Framework: Freire’s (1970) conceptualization of humanization guides the exploration of the aforementioned questions. Humanization is the process of becoming more fully human as social, historical, thinking, communicating, transformative, creative persons who participate in and with the world (Freire, 1970). Freire’s construct of humanizing pedagogy extends his theory of humanization into the practical realm of instruction. Freire describes humanizing pedagogy as a revolutionary approach to instruction that “ceases to be an instrument by which teachers can manipulate students, but rather expresses the consciousness of the students themselves” (p. 51). Salazar (2013) proposes five principles of a humanizing pedagogy. Freire (2005) identifies eight attributes of a progressive teacher: lovingness, humility, courage, tolerance, decisiveness, security, patience and impatience, joy of living, and verbal parsimony. These attributes can be conceived as humanizing dispositions. Salazar, Lowenstein, and Brill (2010) extend Freirean philosophies to develop the term humanizing dispositions, these are “beliefs and actions that advance the dignity, humanity, and achievement of culturally and linguistically diverse learners” (p. 29).

Methods: This study is a systematic literature review based on RAMESES guidelines which include the following phases: (1) search, (2) screening, (3) appraisal, and (4) data extraction and analysis (Batbaatar, Dorjdagva, Luvsannyam, & Amenta, 2015). The search phase includes: identification of seminal sources, snowballing techniques, and keyword search in selected databases. The literature targeted is published between 1970 and the present. Freire’s work on humanizing pedagogy was first published in English in 1970. In the analysis phase, the researcher established patterns across the literature using the constant comparison method (Dye, Schatz, Rosenberg, & Coleman, 2000; Glaser, 1965).

Results: The results of this study demonstrate a need for humanizing dispositions, along with a dearth of literature on humanizing dispositions. The available literature lends itself to the development of a framework for developing and assessing humanizing dispositions that synthesizes the following: (a) Freirean (1970, 2005) philosophies on humanization and the attributes of a progressive teacher, (b) seminal work by Salazar (2013) related to the principles of humanizing pedagogy, and (c) Salazar, Lowenstein, and Brill (2010) work related to humanizing dispositions.

Significance: This paper presents the need for humanizing dispositions, reviews the available research on humanizing dispositions, and proposes a framework to develop and assess humanizing dispositions.

Author

• Maria del Carmen Salazar, University of Denver