Analysis Of The Freirean Method

There has been plenty of discussion on which teaching methods best engage students in a classroom setting. The proposed methods come in variety, but one method that has had success recently is the Freirean method (Santos 363, 364). The Freirean method is composed of dialogical classes, classes that are based around discussion, whose intentions are to provide relevant social and technological education to students. For example, Wildson Dos Santos writes in his article “Scientific Literacy: A Freirean Perspective as a Radical View of Humanistic Science Education,” “beyond identifying chemical products in garbage, or the separation methods adopted in the recycling plant, it is necessary to discuss why there are people in our society living in landfills”

Moses and Santos both believe that this is due to the fact that social change must use a communal process (Moses 20; Santos 373). The former places most of the accomplishments of the civil rights movements in the hands of communities, not in the hands of individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr. (20). Moses draws on previous experiences when he says that communities have more power than any individual and once they place their resources into a goal, there is no possibility of stopping them (Moses 21). Moses personally saw southern communities finally speak out against oppression and obtain the civil rights that everyone deserves (21). Also speaking towards the power of communities, Santos writes that communities allow for an education that is different from a “banking” education (365). A banking education is characterized as a teacher speaking directly to a student, with the student having little interaction with the teacher (365). It is called “banking” because the teacher “deposits” information into a student, and the student only “stores” information for later use, like a bank stores deposited money (Santos 365). Dialogue is what truly educates students, and this is accomplished in a Freirean environment (366). Students must learn with their counterparts, as is taught at HMC in Socratic seminars. Socratic seminars are classes dependent on the dialogical process to teach students.

Santos writes that although technology has the ability to be liberating, it has been used primarily by oppressors to subjugate others (362). Technology has been made for those with money and power because they have the ability to purchase it (Santos 370). In the early 2000s, Santos provides the example of cellphones (370). Many of the first cellphones were made for executives and contained advanced features that only they would require (Santos 370). Cellphones have the potential to bring about great change, but were initially designed with only the wealthy in mind. If HMC students are to make the next wave of technology, then they must know what their creations will do for others. HMC students may go on to work on the next generation of cellphones and should use the potential technology possesses to benefit the underprivileged. By educating the professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) that may have a hand in creating the technology that could be detrimental to the disadvantaged, you are able to eliminate a large source of oppression. This education is only made possible through the empathy that HMC students learn by following the Honor