Teaching

(Pics Above: Hong Kong: Ming Yin College: Form 3C Farewell to Student Teacher Miss Doris Lui & Form 7 Oral Exchange between MYC & Ming Kei College.


My days have been filled up with intense studies. As mentioned before, I am currently working on a graduate degree: Masters in Education focusing on Equity & Social Justice Issues. I am enjoying the exchanges and collaborations with my fellow classmates, a very bright and diverse group of adults, who have all contributed to the field of education either as teachers or leaders in the Bay Area public schools and/or Community Based Organizations (CBOs). A degree in education requires a lot of grounding work in reading and responding to education theories and research, and something call 'praxis' which is putting theory into practice. The predominant theory that we are immersed with is Critical Pedagogy which is the idea of being critically observant and reflective on the choices we, as teachers, make in our teaching methodology and philosophy. It is like holding a flashlight and knowing how and where to 'shine' and focus on those spots that we feel that could be 'clearer.' Those 'spots' are reflections of us, our students, and the process of 'schooling.' Being aware of being 'institutionalized' and knowing how to undo that if possible.

Critical pedagogy is understanding that it is never perfect because 'schooling' is not perfect. A must-read in the field of education is educator & writer, Paulo Freire, a Brazilian, whose work has been translated all around the world. He gave up his profession as a lawyer to teach literacy to a group of peasants in the countryside of Brazil. The program he started was very successful, and the outcome was that within 41 days, his students were able to read & write. He suggest that education is never neutral. There is paradigm in our society that destroys our humanity, and that is the dialectical relationship of the oppressed & the oppressor, those with power & privilege and those without. That paradigm is structured into free markets and capitalistic societies for which globalization is quickly developing around the world. Freire, in his time 1940's-1980's saw the reality of society and was not satisfied with what he saw - the disparity (gap) between the haves and the have nots. In truth, that gap is widening in our world. How is that justified? What is the goal of education? Is it enough to just earn a degree and a living?

Freire's Critical Pedagogy theory suggests that it is not enough. Education is the one area or field in our world that allows us to re-produce what society should be - equal and just, socially and economically. All the 'trappings' or 'walls' that stop us from seeing our own humanity and that of others are fed to us from our societies. He propose that schools should be better than society. We must strive toward equity & social justice because we could only thrive together, never by ourselves. To do away with oppression (superior/inferior power paradigm that permeates our being) is good not just for the oppressed but for the oppressor, and all of us who are society. The following are some quotes from Paulo Freire's book, Teachers as Cultural Workers - Letters to Those Who Dare Teach
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... it is not possible to be a teacher without loving one's students, even realizing that love is not enough. It is not possible to be a teacher without loving teaching.

Education should raise the awareness of the students so that they become subjects, rather than objects, of the world. This is done by teaching students to think democratically and to continually question and make meaning from (critically view) everything they learn.

...our relationship with the learners demands that we respect them and demands equally that we be aware of the concrete conditions of their world, the conditions that shape them. To try to know the reality that our students live is a task that the educational practice imposes on us: Without this, we have no access ' to the way they think, so only with great difficulty can we perceive what and how they know.

... there are no themes or values of which one cannot speak, no areas in which one must be silent. We can talk about everything, and we can give testimony about everything.
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I really can't wait to teach again. You don't know what something means to you until it's not there. Through my studies this year including reading Paulo Freire, I have a feeling that I will be forever changed again as to being a human being, thinker and teacher. I learn to keep pushing myself to be better. Once you believe that you've reached the 'finish' line metaphorically, you will stop. Take a break, reflect and re-charge. You don't ever stop because it is not about you anymore, when it comes to your passion, it is about others too. After all, we don't live in a vacuum, we are beings in society. thanks for reading....