Critical Pedagogy

May 28th

After an eventful weekend, we are ready to head back to Colegio Roosevelt for the week!On Friday night, the group went to a restaurant, Koi Koi, which was right down the street from us where we tried a pisco sour (which is the famous drink in Peru) and had sushi. We were also able to sing karaoke, which was a lot of fun. On Saturday morning, we went back to El Augustino, where they were having a “right to play day” party. We played games with the kids that included ping pong, marbles, and trumpo (which is like a yo-yo and a spinner combined). They were all so curious about where we came from and our families. There were also a group of girls who wanted to learn English so we asked them questions in English and they asked us questions in Spanish. We were both learning from each other! We got to see traditional dances that the kids had learned and most importantly watch as all the kids had a smile on their face and a lot of fun! We then spent the afternoon in Miraflores, where we ate lunch and walked around the little markets that they had.

We got to sleep in on Sunday, and enjoyed a quiet morning. We then spent the day in Barranco, where we ate at a café and got gelato at Blu. It was delicious and they had many different flavors. We also walked around the Incan markets some more and enjoyed the day outside!

In the first week at Colegio Roosevelt, the students have been engaging in critical inquiry through their exhibition projects, market place, and science fair projects. In these projects, they have been addressing critical issues in the community around them and have been proposing ways to make a change and improve them for the better. For example, in the exhibition project, the students were proposing a way to eliminate ocean pollution. They researched their project and then proposed a solution to reduce the pollution. By taking action, the students were participating in critical pedagogy.

Values essential to a critical pedagogy are encouraging students to make a social change and to think critically about their work. The students should participate in critical inquiry by researching information on their own before the teacher just tells them everything that they need to know. The teacher should serve as a resource and a sounding board, however, the students should be taking control of their learning. The students should also engage in dialogue and conversation with each other to come up with the best solution to whatever they propose. Students should struggle to figure problems out and continue when it gets difficult.

Where I saw this last point in practice was in Mr. P’s classroom during math. The students were given a problem to decide how many hours they sleep in their life. He posed the question and asked the students to think about whether naps count, if you sleep more at different ages, and if you sleep in. There were many factors that the students could account for. Most importantly, there was no correct answer. It was up to the students to decide what a close answer was and then to explain how they got to that answer. As an educator in this situation, my role would be to encourage the students to engage in dialogue with each other and to think about whether they have accounted for all the variables. The students could then engage in a research project on whether we are getting enough sleep in our lives and if we are not, what they can do to change that. As an educator, I would encourage my students to struggle through a problem, just like Mr. P did. When students were overwhelmed at how many variables there were, he encouraged them to keep going and include all that they thought were important. Like Freire said, teachers and students should be “co-investigators”. I am looking forward to seeing how Mr. P continues to use critical pedagogy in his classroom for our last week there!

Here are some photos from the Right to Play Day!