How Engaged Pedagogy Can Use Participation in Stimulating Learning

Introduction

Engaged pedagogy, the call for student voice in liberatory education, is a necessary focus of progressive educational institutions for the sake of individuality and providing a path of enlightenment for students. Presumably speaking, it is safe to state that most students, at one point or another, have felt trapped within the incessant boundaries of the current educational system. It is becoming unbearable for some students who wish to strive for academic excellence to even coexist in a classroom with teachers who simply feed information only to be recited. The world has grown too large to give individualized attention to each student; therefore, the only hope lies within the enhancements brought by engaged pedagogy.

The Need for Engaged Pedagogy

The commonly held theory that students must simply consume information and be able to efficiently relay it in an appeasing manner is to educational advancement what outhouses are to modern restrooms. It is a system sterilized to the convention of learning, an insincere method of making taught information unsustainable. This has been recognized as a significant issue by scholars like bell hooks, who sought to reconfigure the underlying infrastructure that prevented certain individuals from active class involvement (hooks, 1994). As both an individual with extensive experience in education and self-actualization and a teacher who maintained a persistent attitude toward benefiting the composed self of their students, Gloria Watkins (known by her pen name bell hooks) exemplified a mentality focused on the collaboration of self-enlightenment and academic prosperity that should be modeled throughout educational institutions.

Book-Based Intelligence vs. Spiritual Wisdom

Since a young age, I have always perceived a certain separation between book-based intelligence and the spiritual wisdom gained through the often-unsteady course of life. Both aspects are necessary elements of a healthy life. However, I have always placed slightly more importance on the commonly heard idea of self-actualization. The process of self-actualization cannot be taught due to the fact that a proper method can never be established. This is because self-actualization is, in its most modest form, the individually gathered findings and teachings that contribute to the constantly adapting betterment of one’s soul, mind, and grand essence as they reach contentment in an enlightened journey. While self-actualization can only be unraveled within oneself, many of those who claim to have achieved their own enlightenment may attribute some credit to certain individuals (teachers or not) who they feel dramatically pushed them in a proper direction. Guidance, subjectively shamanistic mentorship in some sense, is an indubitably vital inclusion in any person’s education.

The Role of Teachers

This problem of stymieing self-growth present in education is not because of the students. The blame is to be placed on the uncommitted and unemotional instructors who are merely clocking in and clocking out. For an engaged educational experience to be plausible, the teachers, or hopefully revolutionists, must be entirely committed to both their students and themselves. Stability is a necessary prerequisite for the very act of educating. One who is not self-enlightened should make no effort at mentoring youth in self-actualization. The transformation in educational practices requires a paradigm shift where educators are not just conveyors of knowledge but also facilitators of personal growth and self-discovery (Freire, 2000).

Personal Experience and Conclusion

As a student who has been unfortunately under the rule of an unenthusiastic instructor, I sympathize with those who long for much more than copying down a PowerPoint presentation in the classroom. If one is deprived of educational freedom from their institution, their instructor(s), or in any form, it is their responsibility to seek better and achieve greater. It is unjust, but it is true that not every, or even many, professors will deprive us of gaining anything beyond a grade. This requires a greater level of commitment from the student, which will ultimately render a greater lesson. Students must actively seek opportunities for engaged learning, whether through extracurricular activities, community engagement, or self-directed study, to truly harness the potential of their educational journey.

References

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge.

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.