FRIERE - DEBATE

Total: Up to 40 (depending on who wins)
Time frame: Now through December 3

                      Introducing Friere    

The class has addressed many themes, but the core issues:

  1) What is justice? To answer this means that we must, by now, also
be able to defend our views on a philosophical AND down-to-earth level.

  2) What are the sources of injustice? Bad leadership? Public apathy?
Social structure? Cultural factors?

  3) What can we do about injustice?

Is education the SOURCE OF or SOLUTION TO injustice?

Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed examines several issues pertaining 
to education, one of which is the notion that the current structure of 
classrooms today, in the United States and many other countries, operate to 
both oppress the students and the teacher. At the root of this oppression is a 
relationship between the teacher and students that involves a narrating 
subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students).

This relationship is particularly problematic because it also prevents, 
according to Freire and other scholars, education from achieving it's  true 
potential, which is to free both students and teacher from this oppression."
__________________________________________________

This is from the text:

   "Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate 
   the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present 
   system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes "the practice of 
   freedom," the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively 
   with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their 
   world."

_________________________________________________

THE TEAM EXERCISE: EDUCATION - BOON OR BANE?

We will have another team debate, focusing on the role of education in
social change. Is education an emancipatory tool, or is it a tool of
dominant groups to maintain their powerful position?

Here are the issues to think about:

1) What does Friere mean by "the practice of freedom" (in the quote above,
but also elaborated in Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

2) How would you assess classes at NIU as either a "practice of freedom"
or as instrument of oppression?

3) Would Friere see this class, Soci 452, as "emancipatory" or oppressive?

To address this, it is helpful to also read Kafka, Camus and Sartre,
because these lie at the heart of social change, human agency, and
justice.

The Debate:

RESOLVED: SOCI 452 IS ULTIMATELY OPPRESSIVE, BECAUSE IT REFLECTS THE
DOMINANT VALUES, IDEOLOGY AND MIND-SET THAT RECREATES SYSTEMS OF DOMINATION!

Teams A and B will take the affirmative (ie agree with/defend the proposition);
Teams C and D will take the opposite side.

You can begin discussing in your teams any time.

WEDS, NOV 30: DISCUSSION WILL STOP
THURS, DEC 1: Team leaders will post
DEC 1-Dec 3: Free for all

POINT DISTRIBUTION:

Winning team: 30 points
Others: 20 points
Discussion: Up to 10, depending on quality

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