Curing Education's "Narration Sickness": Freire, Critical Consciousness, and the Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot

• In Event: 45.077 - Ethnic Studies as Freirian Pedagogy: Praxes Filipina/o/x American Studies

Abstract

Objectives and Research Questions
In his seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), Paulo Freire describes a challenge in education involving what he referred to as “narration sickness” which leads to a process of learning that is “lifeless and petrified.” This paper takes seriously Freire’s observation in an effort to respond to the ways schooling addresses the unique needs of students of color. The study focused on the ways Filipino American teachers bridged Freirean praxis, critical race theory, and Ethnic Studies to develop the “Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot” (ESPSP). The authors describe the ways the ESPSP supported students’ learning and literacies while simultaneously supporting students’ multiple literacies, academic engagement, and critical consciousness. The following research questions guided this study:

1) What are the possibilities of utilizing Ethnic Studies-framed tools to better support students’ learning English and language arts?
2) How might Freirean praxis inform how students learn to identify and act upon the unique needs of their communities?

Theory
This study draws from Freire’s critical pedagogy (1970), critical race theory in education (Solórzano, 1997; Solórzano and Delgado Bernal, 2001); and Ethnic Studies pedagogy (Tintiangco-Cubales, et al., 2015). Beginning with the premise that reflection and action are central to critical pedagogy (Duncan-Andrade and Morrell, 2008), this paper identifies the necessity of supporting students’ abilities to read the word and their worlds to develop an “ideological literacy” (Camangian, 2013) of power and use of one’s narrative (Solórzano and Yosso, 2002). These frameworks supported the development of an Ethnic Studies-framed tool to teach English and language arts alongside raising students’ critical consciousness and community responsiveness.

Methods/Sources

The Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot (ESPSP) was first developed and utilized in Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP). PEP is an innovative Ethnic Studies teaching pipeline connecting undergraduate and graduate students to teach Ethnic Studies in surrounding K-college classrooms. Data from this study focused on one elementary and one middle school classroom that served students of color in San Francisco. The authors draw from autoethnography and participatory action research (Cammarota and Fine, 2000; Morrell, 2006) to identify novel ways for teaching PEP students literacy skills like reading and writing. In particular, we analyzed teacher-researcher’s field notes, interviews with students, and students’ work. Freirean praxis guided approaches to interviews, analyses, and on-going dialogue in the subsequent development of the Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot.

Findings and Significance

This study reveals the utility of how Ethnic Studies can be used as a transformative tool that supports learning across multiple content areas and encourages students’ identity development and critical consciousness. Findings include: 1) ways Ethnic Studies classrooms support the teaching and learning of Ethnic Studies pedagogies and 2) how students, when given tools to analyze power are able to critique and create worldviews reflective of their lived experiences in reading and writing. As Paulo Freire’s work continues to provide a basis for liberatory learning, Ethnic Studies offers a nuanced way to apply critical pedagogy that respond to the needs of students of color.

Authors

• Edward Ryan Curammeng, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• Daisy Lopez, San Francisco State University

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University