Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

348 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
ROLES FOR AGENTS OF CHANGE
Different people in different roles can promote literacy for wellness. These agents of change
can promote wellness and liberation and resist oppression through literacy, not any literacy, but
participatory literacy. For each of these groups of people, action presupposes the development of
one’s own literacy for wellness and liberation.
Roles for Teachers
Classroom teachers can facilitate the development of literacy for wellness and liberation by
attending to their own personal and professional development, by the use of critical pedagogy,
and by acting as agents of change in their own schools and communities.
In Personal and Professional Development. It is important for teachers to attend to their
own development, most importantly, their own critical consciousness. Unfortunately, this is not
the central aim of many training programs. Teachers must seek out ways to expand their own
awareness of critical events in the world. They should also seek to impart that knowledge to their
students. More difficult than learning about external events is reflection about how we, in our
personal and professional roles, contribute to injustice and oppression.
In the Classroom. Central to literacy for wellness and liberation, and, for that matter, all
effective learning is the “teacher-student” relationship. Teachers need to be skilled at studentcentered,
constructivist approaches to learning. Additionally, a joyful and participatory environment
in the classroom helps students feel respected, valued, and capable. Teaching in this type
of setting should inspire personal reflection and consciousness-raising and promote the values
of personal as well as collective well-being. Teachers should take care to utilize diverse cultural
references, theories, authors, and perspectives as well as intentionally tap into the experiences
and wisdom of students.
This requires that teachers cast off any ties to the banking method of education (teacher deposits
knowledge into students) and, instead, embrace the problem-posing method of teaching Through
skillful posing of people’s problems in their relation with the world, teachers can enter into
meaningful dialogue with students who then become joint owners of the process. To quote Freire,
Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating themselves in the world and with the
world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge ...Their response to that
challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually, the students come to
regard themselves as committed (p. 81).
There are numerous examples of this in our schools today. In our local community, we often
hear stories of problem-posing methods being used to help students learn and apply critical
thinking. In one example, a fifth-grade science teacher charged with having to deliver a lesson
on endangered species joined with students to research the problem and to explore the issue in
depth. This led to the conclusion that humans have played, and continue to play, a major role in
the elimination of species. They then explored the possibilities for doing things differently in the
world.
In the School. Teachers can also play an important role in creating organizational wellness in
their own schools. Schools, unfortunately, are often not settings that promote human development
and well-being. Teachers can help to create a school community that is just, participatory,
supportive, and caring. They can help reduce power dynamics, especially between the adults
and the students in the setting, and can do this by advocating for ways that students can play
meaningful roles in the ongoing functioning of the school organization.