#grinage

What I’ve discovered so far in this program is that once you’ve adopted some sort of theorist as a prophet, suddenly an instructor presents a new text or idea that ultimately sends you spiraling and unlearning/relearning something you’ve only just learned. One thing I am discovering that I love about the field of education is that there is no right answer, and there is no magical method of doing anything. Luke, in regard to Freire, points out Foucault’s critique that “binary opposition [has] the potential to obscure the complexity of discourse” (Luke, p. 6). I’ve felt quite comfortable in Freire’s binary of oppressor/oppressed because as humans, we like binaries. It’s easier to conceptualize—good/bad, capitalist/communist, etc. Yet interestingly enough, this negates the very concept of critical literacy, doesn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, I love Freire, but I think we’re diving into perilous waters when we treat his writings like they were whispered into his ear from the teaching gods. Sometimes I even critique the term “banking model.” If education is a conversation, why can’t teachers have dialogue back? I say this because honestly, I don’t hear my instructors talk enough about their experiences, and it’s disappointing. So many instructors are adamant that they remain completely student-focused, but I feel like we’re missing out on getting to know them. Also, I don’t mean to be awful here, but what if you’re a teacher who’s teaching in a predominantly white, middle-class school? How do students learn through crisis in that situation if there’s not a tiny bit of banking model going on? 

Coffey and Janks further define critical literacy. Janks suggests that “texts are partial—they cannot capture the world as it is” and that texts are “not neutral but reflect the point of view of the text producer” (p. 17). I jotted down in my notes as I was reading. Let’s say you’ve got to read a problematic, canonical text. Could you supplement that text (or partial story) with contemporary texts and voices? Ones that present contrasting views/perspectives? It seems like Coffey and I have similar ideas! Coffey brings up a practical application of this in which a teacher might incorporate Bob Marley’s “Buffalo Soldier” lyrics into a lesson to “make connections between popular media and political issues” (p. 5).