Freire and Jarvis: A Pedagogy of Experience

Vince commented on Groups 2 and 3
Darcey commented on Groups 2 and 5.

Freire and Jarvis: A Pedagogy of Experience

Darcey Mitchelsen

&

Vincent L. Stults

Ball State University

October 4, 2014

EDAC 631

Darcey wrote about Jarvis and his implications, as well as writing the conclusion.
Vince wrote about Freire and his implications and also wrote the introduction.

 

Introduction

This paper is a collaboration. Two authors approaching two unique educators in the field of adult education. Both educators show in their lives a validation of their students’ experience—inherently understanding that the students already have knowledge of their own, knowledge with the potential of further learning. They acknowledge this act of learning was not the role of the "teacher" alone, but emerged out of knowledge rooted in lived experience of the student.

In what follows, we have chosen to keep our examination of these educators separate (their background, profiles, contributions, impact and implications), only drawing from them to show their shared and different implications for adult education in our conclusion and only suggesting what benefit there might be in future comparison and exploration of adult education practice. We hope that a simple side by side reading of their lives and work will give readers a perspective on the essence of their shared ethos in adult education. 

Background: Paulo Freire

"Painel.Paulo.Freire" by Luiz Carlos Cappellano

Friere has been called one of the most influential educators of the 20th century. From the Thriving Twenties to the Great Depression, from World War II to the Cold War, from Vatican II, the Newly Industrialized Countries, Democracy's Third Wave, and the arrival of the internet to the rise of Sustainable Development, the scope and background of the 20th century effects every aspect of his work. Freire would both celebrate and reject this influence—"we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined" (Freire, 1998).

Two clear influences on Freire  regionally, were the rise of Radicalism in the Church of Rome (as early as 1929 and followed in 1965 with Vatican II) which was at the root of Catholic Action groups in Brazil, and "the Cuban Revolution (1959-1961) that inspired socialist movements throughout the region" (Bartlett 2008, p.1).  Much of the Freire's educational practice among the poor was formed out of this context (Bartlett 2008).  My (Vince's) own interest in Freire stems from a curiosity about critical pedagogy, transformational learning, and his beard. 

Profile: Paulo Freire

Sitting in the backyard under the shade of the Mango trees with his parents, Paulo Freire first learned to read and to write. His parents showed him how to draw pictures and form letters in the earth, making it possible for Paulo to begin his life adventure of learning. Born in 1921 in Recife, Brazil, Paulo was privileged to be born into a strong middle class family. But the great depression of 1929 hit his country, and his father lost his prestigious job in the military police—hard times followed.  The year Paulo turned 13, his father died of heart failure and his mother had to find meager work to provide for the family. His education suffered, but fortune, through Alvizio Araujo, provided a place for him to attend school (Horton & Freire 1990). Reflecting on his experience he recalls, “I didn’t understand anything because of my hunger. I wasn’t dumb. It wasn’t lack of interest. My social condition didn’t allow me to have an education. Experience showed me once again the relationship between social class and knowledge” (Gadotti1994, p. 5).

He married a school teacher, Elza Maria Costa Oliveira in 1944. In 1959 he received his Phd, and in 1961 he became the director of the Department of Cultural Extension of Recife University, were his ideas on education were implemented to target mass illiteracy. The plan was begun but could not be fully implemented because coup in 1964 brought the existing regime to an end and Freire was imprisoned for 70 days following the coup (“Freire Institute - Paulo Freire Biography,” n.d.).

Fleeing Brazil, he eventually landed in Chile, became a visiting professor at Harvard University in 1969, and was appointed the special educational advisor to the Department of Education, World Congress of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland in 1970 (SERIES, T. O. E. I. T. (n.d.).

He returned in 1980. His wife died in 1986. In 1988, Freire was appointed Secretary of Education for São Paulo. While teaching a graduate course, he became reconnected with Maria Araújo from Recife. They fell in love and married (SERIES, T. O. E. I. T. (n.d.).  After returning to teaching and writing, Friere had begun to work on his response to the planetary environmental crisis—Ecopedagogy. That work was on his desk on May 2nd, 1997 when Paulo Freire died of heart failure (Misiaszek, 2010).

   

Perspectives: Paulo Freire

From these pages I hope at least the following will endure: my trust in the people, and my faith in men and women, and in the creation of a world in which it will be easier to love. - Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

For Freire, education was a political act and he acknowledged the gravity of that realization in all his work. Two substantial perspective demonstrate this acknowledgment and can be seen clearly underlying Freire's pedagogy. Torres (2007) summarizes them for his work in social justice education as: First is that Humanization is "the ontological vocation of the human race" (p. 1). Simply expressed, education can improve the human condition. Second, is that the "pedagological subjects of the educational process are not homogenous citizens but culturally diverse individuals (p. 2). 

Therefore there is an implicit ethical imperative for the educator to cross the barriers of difference that exist between people in the practice of education (Torres 2007). For Freire, if this realization is to be fully acknowledged and acted upon in practice, there are two critical problems to address that underlay the political act of education itself:  The Banking Model of Education and The Culture of Silence. 

Contributions: Paulo Freire

Freire moves us in his many writings and works, and especially from Pedagogy of the Oppressed, to an understanding of several key concepts that have made a huge contribution to adult education.

The Banking Model of Education

According to Freire (1970), in this banking model of education, the student is without any knowledge (an empty vessel) and the teacher is the giver of knowledge (the one who fills). "This very act negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry," says Freire (p. 53). This perspective is central to understanding Freire's respect and care for the student: Rejection of the banking model places the student and the teacher in a mutual relationship and restores the power of learning to the student.

The Culture of Silence

Freire (1970) describes the culture of silence in a dominant subordinate social relationship that creates a negative, silenced, and suppressed sense of self in the subordinate—the oppressed. This social domination is embedded in the conventional educational system eliminating the  ability to develop a "language of critique.”  For Freire, "Human beings are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection" (p. 69).

Other Concepts

This list is not exclusive nor complete, but all reside within the work of Freire (1970), though he himself feels indebted to so many for them as well (edited list to add definitions 10-26-14):

•  Naming the World- False words cannot feed us, only true ones can. To be silenced, is to live in oppression. To be human is to name your own existence and to change it. Once named it must be named again because it re-emerges as a problem.
• The Process of Conscientization - The practice of learning to be critically aware of one’s societal position through reflection and action.  To become aware of the myths of one's own existence in society in order to act upon that new awareness and debunk the old myth and recreate the world in which one lives, not just individual but as the community once held back by the former myth.
• Dialogue- is the meeting between people that occurs as they both together name the world in which they live. It cannot occur between those who would deny others this act of naming, or who would control such naming. " Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers."( p. 67)
• Praxis- Rooted in action it is the realized connection between theory and reflection, in this realized connection the world in transformed.
• Dehumanization- The act of aggression that disallows the basic right of human beings to "speak their word." An act that must be resisted and prevented.
• Problem-Posing Education - Emphasizes  critical thinking as the focus of education. It is the opposite the banking model of education, filling students up, or the pouring knowledge into them. It is to realize the potential of students to act on their own behalf and to facilitate and give them the tools they need to solve their own greatest problems, and the problems of the world. It is rooted in listening and in the student teacher dialogue.
• ‘Class Suicide’ or ‘Easter Experience’ of the Teacher - The action of dying to one's own power in the active role of being the teacher, so true learning can be reborn anew.
•  "Situating educational activity in the lived experience of participants" (Smith 1997) - Recognizing and acting upon the reality that the student already has knowledge, and that the act of teaching is not so much to give knowledge as to facilitate the discovery of the knowledge that is already there. So it is in the context of the learner that the activity of teaching should be realized.

Impact: Paulo Freire

Theoretical Innovations

Philosophers, educators, theologians, social workers, politicians, sociologists, peace activists, and many from diverse disciplines and schools of thought have drawn upon Paulo Friere's work and legacy. From his educational reform in his own home country, to his impact upon liberation theology throughout Latina America and the Caribbean, from his work with the World Council of Churches in courtiers in Africa, Asia and the world, to his greater connection to Popular Education throughout the World (including the Highlander Folk School in the US), Paulo's impact is significant (Roberts 2007). His books have been printed in numerous languages and Pedagogy Of The Oppressed has sold over 3/4 of million copies.

Critical Pedagogy

According to Roberts (2007), Freire's thoughts have played a key role in critical pedagogy and adult education: "Almost all philosophers of education have some knowledge of Freire's work..." (p. 506).  Freire's critical pedagogy has been picked up by the marginalized, as Findsen (2007) sites: the Maori of New Zealand; the working class suburb of Gorgie Dalry in Edinburgh, Scotland; "popular education in Canada" (p. 549), including the "Ah-hah" workshops by Gatt-Fly (1996); "Ira Shor's adaptation of Freire's literacy approach in the community college system of New York" (p. 549); and "varied contexts such as Latin American immigrant workers, Toronto steelworkers and indigenous communities" (p. 549).

Methodology

"Method Paulo Freire"

Although Freire cautioned practitioners from "exporting" his methods and practices to their own contexts, and challenged practitioners to reinvent these methodologies and practices anew for their own context, a few examples of application show how his practice and methodology have been applied (Freire 1985).

     Problem Posing Solutions to the Banking Model

His "social inquiry method" (Gibson 1999, p. 130), employed in many contexts in Latin America, followed this course (this model is also clearly connected to Freire's childhood memory of his own early learning under the mango trees with his parents):

1.      examination of a students' context

2.      a "codification session" were primary aspect of a student's life were drawn as pictures

3.      examination of their pictures, as problems and not representations of reality: first was a review of problems relevant to the individual student, then collective problems and examination of the underlying reasons. Codification then led to problem solving solutions, through linking relevant words to the students' drawings of their lives, they remake their reality as an act of their human creation.

4.      the act of literacy becomes the students way to construct plans for change

     Cultural Circles

Out of his roots in Catholic Action, Cultural circles became a part of Freir's work in Popular Education (Bartlett 2008).

Institutes, Schools and Conferences

A number of institutes throughout the world have been established to engage in the work and legacy of Freire. Many headed by prominent scholars. Other significant schools and conferences also represent this continued work. Among others these include the Paulo Freire Institute in São Paulo with a focus on popular education, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (Augusto Boal), University of Nebraska, The Paulo and Nita Freire Project for International Critical Pedagogy, McGill University, and Western Massachusetts, Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School.

Implications: Paulo Freire

One practical application is working with those for whom education is nothing more than a citizenship program carried out by the dominant culture to maintain the status quo. In prisons, drug rehabilitation programs, workforce development opportunities, or other educational environments where learning is either not by choice or at the very least perceived as "forced" upon the student. This is especially true if there are other dominant subordinate cultural dynamics at play.  In this instance and in similar dynamics, we must acknowledge that we as educators are embedded in the political world. As Freire (1970) says, "Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."  Additionally, if we recognize another implication from Friere's work, that content is always embedded in a context we can help learners to reframe the content for their own contexts, thus making the learning outcome become helpful to their own context. This is in fact, as we have seen in the earlier example of his methodologies, what Freire often centered his practice around. To do this we must also act on another implication as educators, there is a simultaneous reading of the world and reading of the word for both educator and learner. If we in fact take this path seriously, we will also be acknowledging a fourth implication, learners are more than receptacles for knowledge, but are problem solving beings.

There are of course other arenas for these same implications, to name a few, social justice training, peace studies, environmental activism, multicultural environments, and even in more "conventional" educational systems. There are also many more implications from Freire's life work to uncover. Perhaps the last one to share in this synopsis should be one central to Freire, we must always consider hope. 

Background: Peter Jarvis

Peter Jarvis contributed a frame work for understanding how adults learn, earning the status of “leading educator”.  Jarvis’s learning process suggests that all learning starts with experience and that it includes the five senses. Through the experience, unfamiliar sensations gain meaning through practice and repetition. The sensations transform learned knowledge into skills, attitudes, and values. The world of the individual is constantly changing requiring a constant transformation of unfamiliar sensations into knowledge. "The learner is a whole person made up of the mind and the body and comes to a learning situation with a history, a biography that interacts in individual ways with the experience that generates the nature of the learning" (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007, p. 101). The concept that learning is not singular in nature and that it is not isolated from the world in which the learner lives brings experiences to a much deeper level of learning and understanding. This concept of the whole person and his on-going story aligns with my own sense of how to serve adult learners. My (Darcey's) aim is to develop curriculum around such a learning process while incorporating aspects of the narrative learning method. 

Profile: Peter Jarvis

Professor Peter Jarvis came to a deeper level of understanding through a series of events in his own M.Soc.Sc. (1972), and a PhD in Sociology of Professions.
life. After failing all of his A-Level school leaving qualifications in his home country of England, he entered the British Royal Air Force. Because he had a desire to help people, upon departing the Air Force, he found himself at Theological (Methodist) school where he earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree (1965) and his A - Levels. Jarvis became an inner city pastor but feeling ill-equipped “to deal with the issues and problems he faced as a preacher, he studied for a Sociology and Politics degree whilst working as a full-time minister to four churches” (Education Arena). He later moved into training teachers and earned a B.A. in Economics (1969),

He is also the founding editor of International Journal of Lifelong Learning and has served on the editorial boards of various prestigious publications including Adult Education Quarterly and International Education. For over fifty years, Jarvis has traveled the world addressing topics of adult education, distance learning, and lifelong learning (University of Surrey). 

Perspectives: Peter Jarvis

Jarvis’ learning process model has influenced adult education in several key areas. One such area is a shift in the understanding that adult learning happens through experience. The person arrives at the learning experience with a history and a story that brings with opportunity for change. Moving through the process is dependent on whether the individual chooses to acknowledge or ignore uneasiness that happens in his social context.  This process happens on a continual basis throughout a person’s life and has a tremendous effect on learning. “His model helps us understand how learning occurs throughout the lifespan, teaches us to empower learners, and also clarifies how social roles are involved” (Adult Education Contributors).

Another important influence is found in the following statement made by Jarvis during an interview with Adult Arena “…the most important goal of all is that we get people to understand the connection between living and learning.”  Learning is a lifelong experience and completely dependent on learning. People cannot live without learning and visa versa. When we assist students in comprehending the profound effect that education has on their lives from relationships to jobs and that those areas are ever changing in scope and purpose, we create lifelong learners. And that is vital to not just the individual, but to the society in which we live in as well.

A final influence on adult education is a fundamental shift in how educators approach teaching. Jarvis said also stated in his interview with Adult Arena that “I don’t teach sociology and I don’t teach education: I teach people.”  This modification in focus from academic content to the whole person and his experience created emphasis on establishing the discipline of human life as a point of study. By doing so, adult education entered into a new realm, recognizing that it is not about what we teach, but who we teach. 

Contributions: Peter Jarvis

Dr. Jarvis has written and edited over 30 books and 200 papers and chapters in books on adult education and learning, continuing education, nurse education, primary school education, and distance learning (Adult Education Contributors) including Adult and Continuing Education: Theory Practice, The Sociological Perspectives on Lifelong Education and Lifelong Learning, and An International Dictionary of Adult and Continuing Education. He has served on the Consultative Committee for the UNESCO World Conference on Adult Education. And has participated in global research in the U.K., Hong Kong, Australia, and United States in the field of adult education. In addition, Dr. Jarvis is a noted scholar in a wide range of academics ranging from economics to theology.

Jarvis’ contributions to adult education reflect over fifty years of his own experience of learning, questioning, and rethinking. His identification of adult learning as unique to adults because children have few experiences or history to bring to education changed how adult educators taught content. In addition, he challenged the “education as usual” position by recognizing that education is not just about content and topics, but primarily about the whole person’s experience coming into the learning and leaving.  Jarvis’s focus calls for educators to pay attention to not just how we teach, but why. 

Impact: Peter Jarvis

A student is more than just a body sitting in a seat in classroom. The student is a person with a history and with a biography of experiences. Dr. Jarvis and his emphasis on experience that occurs in the individual student’s world and how that experience affects the student’ life aligns with what many in adult education believe to be one of the most positive approaches  to reaching students. It is the goal to reach each student on a level that encourages utilization of prior experiences and adds new experiences that expands the student’s understanding – understanding that is developed through a variety of senses. Methodology in teaching adult learners needs to include the provision of opportunities aimed at bridging the academic topic/content to the emotional memory that builds strong, lasting awareness. Studying Jarvis’ Learning Process, this writer discovered that what I believe/know/do actually has a name. 

Implications: Peter Jarvis

 In the adult education classrooms, providing situations that allow students to experience a topic, an event, or a concept, with all of their senses, would lead to great learning.  Paying attention to the senses and creating opportunities to connect emotional experiences with content adds a level to memory and recall. Although Jarvis's learning process offers several challenges to the educator such as finding the time and the experience that will lead to the learning, there is much to be gained from the histories that the students bring with them into the classroom and the interaction between students.

Utilization of Jarvis's learning process with another learning style such as the narrative that explores the experience/story and continues to re-story as new experiences and learning occurs will allow for the mind and the body of the learner to gain new meanings and understandings that will take the unfamiliar and move towards building a good foundation for future learning where the student as a whole is considered in developing programs and curriculum; where Jarvis’s learning process brings real, lasting learning and understanding. 

Conclusion

On the surface, it would appear that there is little commonality between these two leading educators, but upon a deeper examination of both Freire and Jarvis, a few key components can be found. Both bring their own life experiences into their development of understanding adult learning and both have a connection to their faith/religion that called them to help others, to serve others. Their learning came from a place more personal than theory, theology, or methodology. It came from a profound need to know, to understand, and to do, in order to bring assistance to those who need education to better their situations.

Also, both believe that there is a social/contextual aspect to learning and that learning is done in relationship between instructor and teacher. Learning is not done in a bubble or alone, but rather in shared experiences.  And finally, both recognized that learning has an effect on the learners’ current understanding and it constantly reframes, changes, or shifts to new perspective. These new perspectives lead to the ability to solve problems, learn new information, and create the ability to hope.

Table 1. Summary of Leading Adult Educators

	Paulo Freire	Peter Jarvis
Time Period	Mid 1940's to 1997	Late 1950's to the Present
Background	The Thriving Twenties The Great Depression World War II The Cold War Vatican II Newly Industrialized Countries & Democracy's Third Wave Arrival of the Internet The Rise of Sustainable Development	Little can be found on his personal background. It is believed that he has children and grandchildren.
Profile	Born in the Middle Class Experienced Poverty University & Marriage PhD and Entered Government Political Exile and International Experience Return to Brazil and Widowed Remarried Died Before Completing Ecopedagogy	Was a drop out. Went into the Royal Air Force. Upon discharge, entered Theological School, earning a BA Divinity. He served as a pastor for inner-city churches. Realized that he was not equipped to deal with the issues and problems of his church, he went back to school earning a masters and a PhD.
Perspectives	Education is a Political Act Education can Improve the Human Condition Students are Culturally Diverse Individuals	1) Adult learning happens through experience. 2) Learning is a lifelong experience and completely dependent on learning. 3) It is not what we teach, but who we teach.
Contributions	The Banking Model The Culture of Silence Naming the world The Process of Conscientization Dialogue Praxis Dehumanization Problem-Posing Education ‘Class Suicide’ or ‘Easter Experience’ of the Teacher Situating Educational Activity in the Lived Experience of Participants	Wrote and edited over 30 books and 200 papers and chapters in books on adult education and learning, continuing education, nurse education, primary school education, and distance learning. Served on UNESCO as well as numerous other organizations.
Impact	Theoretical Innovations Critical Pedagogy Methodology Institutes, Schools and Conferences	The student is a person with a history and with a biography of experiences. Understanding is developed through the senses.
Implications	We Must Acknowledge That We as Educators are Embedded in the Political World. Content is Always Embedded in a Context. There is a Simultaneous Reading of the World and Reading of the Word for Both Educator and Learner. Learners are More Than Receptacles for Knowledge, but are Problem Solving Beings. We Must Always Consider Hope	Awareness of senses and creating opportunities to connect emotional experiences with content adds a level to memory and recall.

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