In reading about critical pedagogy this week, it was interesting to see many things related to teaching that I had heard anecdotally take place in a scholarly format. Freire seems to be somewhat of a trailblazer on this topic!

One of the things that he said that stuck out to me most was that we should not only respect our students, but also ourselves. I know I sometimes struggle to find that work-life balance with teaching but having that friendly reminder to also respect myself (whether that be respecting my time, my energy level, etc) was helpful.

I appreciated that Darder’s article raised some interesting points about how we approach studying and education as a whole. Learning truly does bring out a wide array of emotions whether they be frustration, joy, excitement, etc. but, they are emotions no less. Recognizing that students might feel a whole host of things in response to the work they’re assigned is a concept that might not have gotten much attention previously, but one that is worthwhile to discuss. Oftentimes students, myself included, are fearful that they might be perceived as uneducated or even stupid when it comes to certain topics and as Darder points out, this can come across as frustration. Having a baseline understanding that students are approaching their work from different perspectives can help to allow for more productive and long-lasting learning to take place for both the teacher and the student.

At the end of the day everyone, even the teacher is, still learning how best navigate the most effective ways to learn and teach. By creating a culture of learning for everyone rather an “us vs them” mentality between students and teachers will go a long way. This will also allow for us to genuinely listen to what others have to say rather than just hearing…