Argument: Empowering Education

Empowering Education by Ira Shor

Ira Shor argues for the transformation of traditional educational approaches. He offers a critical-democratic pedagogy, in which the classroom is highly participatory which allows for students to become critical thinkers, active learners, and involved members of society.

Shor begins by defining what education truly is, and what is its product? The purpose of the educational system is to produce skilled workers, active citizens, and critical thinkers while serving all students equitably. He points out the difficulty in this, due to the politics of education. Politics affect classroom atmospheres, and subject content as well. In terms of subject matter, teachers are often restricted by traditional curriculum. They follow a fixed, standard syllabus, which deters students from having critical curiosity about the world around them as well as socializes students into passive habits with a dependency on authority. Shor offers a solution by asking students to critically analyze why they in fact need an education? You are legally required to receive an education, so what do you want to get out of the experience? Teaching democratically means taking subject matter and molding it to student culture. Crafting each lesson plan to tailor fit student needs, as well as having high participation within the classroom. Problems arise when students are subjected to passive learning. Learning that is not organized by their own conditions, backgrounds, and cultures. Classroom participation is where democracy truly comes into play, in the form of active learning. A participatory classroom is an environment where students thrive, where their thoughts and feelings can be exchanged freely. When this is not present, student’s productivity is lower which causes something called performance strike. This is a mass refusal to perform well due to negative connotations in the classroom, things like resentment, boredom, frustration, and hostility. Often times students feel “their role is to answer questions, not to question answers.” If we want to sculpt future generations of students into skilled, intelligent, active members of society then we need to create a democratic learning space for them, an environment where they feel equal and able to learn.