Teacher Activism: Striving for (a Pedagogy of) Liberation

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Doing Equity Work: A (Critical) Policy Analysis Approach to Complex Issues (Table 25)

Abstract

I often ask myself if education reform is possible only through teacher activism. In this literature review, I look at teacher activism as a means for educational change and an attempt toward a social justice education. I problematize that teaching should be neutral, objective, and apolitical. I then argue alongside Hytten (2014) that teaching should disrupt, challenge, and transform the social order because, as Freire (1998, as cited in Hytten, 2014) said, teaching is a political act, and the mere transmission of ideas is fundamentally oppressive. I conclude by asserting that teacher activism in these times of neoliberal reforms is not a choice_ it is a must.

Author

• Naila Shahid, Teachers College, Columbia University