Engaged Pedagogy

“When education is the practice of freedom, students are not the only ones who ar asked to share, to confess. Engaged pedagogy does not seek simply to empower students. Any classroom that employs a holistic model of learning will also be a place where teachers grow and are empowered by the process. That empowerment cannot happen if we refuse to be vulnerable while encouraging students to take risks” (hooks 21). We are working with people, not authorless papers/portfolios/projects/speeches/etc.

Read "Engaged Pedagogy" Chapter 1 of Teaching to Transgress

Generalist Tutoring

Our positions: More than Writing Tutors

Peer instructors “can work effectively with students in ways that teachers can not” (Harris 28).

Bottom-up grassroots organizing has historically been most effective for advocating for better conditions, yet traditional instructors “inhabit the top of the classroom hierarchy” precluding a bottom-up organization in their advocacy for students in many contexts (Stanford 121).

We are uniquely positioned to advocate with and for students

Read "Talking in the Middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors" by Muriel ("Mickey") Harris here

Refusing the Banking Model of Education

A term coined by Paulo Freire in the late 60s, the banking model assumes students to be empty receptacles for information and instructors to be the sole arbiter of what knowledge is. This concept is foundational in education studies for good reason, especially when speaking of student agency. As students, yourselves, I'm sure you can recognize how the banking model is a fundamental misunderstanding of how learning takes place. At least, the kind of learning that keeps you coming back for more. Students and instructors alike are people (Again, obviously) but education through the banking model has also functioned to deny personhood to both students and instructors in various ways.  

Read Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed here