Reading Summary 10

Lauren Glasser
30049003

The article begins by placing the teacher as a narrator and the student as a container to fill
with information, the more information she fills the students with the better a teacher she is
considered. This is called the banking process where students can only receive, file and store
deposits of information. This is oppressive, as it projects the idea that someone who is
knowledgeable (teacher) is projecting knowledge onto someone who knows nothing (student),
and it fails to incorporate any form of inquiry into it. Instead education must happen in a way
where students and teachers fill both roles at the same time. The better students get at just
depositing the information the less critically conscious they become of the world and instead of
becoming transformers they become adapters to the changing world. Oppressors are concerned
with changing the consciousness of the oppressed but not their situation, because it is then easier
to dominate them. The oppressed are treated as a marginal group who must adjust from being
lazy and incompetent and be integrated into “normal” society. These people have always been
part of society though, and instead of changing them they argue the structure of society should be
changed, so that they can become beings themselves. When using the banking process for
liberation we create a society of domination and further oppression. For true liberation they must
instead use problem-posing education, which fosters ideas of consciousness and conscious
learning, it consists of cognitive learning and thus resolves the teacher-student contradiction. It
terminates any authority by creating an environment where everyone is equal, in this concept
everyone becomes responsible for teaching each other. The role of the teacher in this process is
to create critical investigators by constantly unveiling new components of reality. Exposing
students to reality will challenge them and the sense of responsibility will force them to respond.
Keeping students in the “here and now” allows for them to see the challenge in front of them, as
they solve more challenges and increase their awareness of reality, more challenges present
themselves and students become invested.
The wonderful thing about my practicum is that it is purely based on innovative research,
this makes every student’s journey unique, thrusts them into reality and forces them to be
conscious of the world around them. The idea of problem-posing education is a perfect model for
me to embody and I believe I already do that by guiding students to be critical thinkers and
opening them up to reality. I have already seen the investment of each student in their topics as
well as an increase in cognition and consciousness of the world. As students move closer to their
final proposals, I will continue to ask questions that present more challenges and force critical
thinking and deeper research from these students which in turn will create a greater investment
and consciousness about their problem and solution. I’ll know this is working when I see the in-
depth analysis and resolution to the problem they have chosen.

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