American History through American Lives

Abolitionist Teaching

As a newer concept in educational circles, the Abolitionist teaching framework has emerged as a trending philosophy at the forefront of teaching and learning in all settings.  Leading the way with this philosophy is Bettina Love.  Her work has made a place for itself in this curriculum unit specifically due to its straight-forward nature and attention to marginalized cultures as it pertains to education in America throughout the years.  In examining her work, I have discovered that it is imperative to focus on the “mattering” of individuals in order to propel them forward in thinking and succeeding.  Similar to Ladson-Billings, Love focuses on scaffolding the achievement of students through the unrelenting teaching of the truths of cultural events and individuals.  In her book We Want to do More Than Survive:  abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom, she channels Freirean concepts of individual agency and liberation in education.  She states, “abolitionist teaching is the practice of working in solidarity with communities of color while drawing on the imagination, creativity, refusal, remembering, visionary thinking, healing, rebellious spirit, boldness, determination and subversiveness of abolitionists to eradicate injustice in and outside of schools.”¹⁴ (Love, 2019, pg. 2)

Although it is easy to see why many educators may be leery of this newer style of teaching students, it becomes clear that implementing the theory of “mattering” is the key to turning the tide.  A students’ self-worth is critical, at times, to their inherent desire to push forward, even in times of distrust or the unknown.  Love confirms, to begin the work of abolitionist teaching and fighting for justice, the idea of mattering is essential in that you must matter enough to yourself, to your students and to your students’ community fight.  If our everyday repetitive, mundane life decisions are made by racism, Whiteness, and sexism, then so are our curriculums, discipline policies, teacher hiring practices, school-closing decisions, testing, teacher pay, teacher turnover and school leaders.¹⁵ (Love, 2019)

Looking in retrospect at the education process over even the last few, decades, and examining the gaps in achievement and opportunity, Love so gracefully states that when you understand how hard it is to fight for educational justice, you know that there are no shortcuts and no gimmicks; you know this to be true deep in your soul, which brings both frustration and determination.¹⁶  (Love, 2019)

Myles Horton-Founder of The Highlander School

Paulo Freire-Educational Agency and Conscientization

John Dewey-Educative Experience

Three dramatically different educational philosophers, yet similar in many aspects, John Dewey (Educational pioneer and author of Experience and Education), Paulo Freire (Brazilian Educational Philosopher and author of Pedagogy of Oppression), and Myles Horton (Founder and Director of the Highlander Folk School) were some of the most forward-thinking individuals of their time and within their profession. For Myles Horton, education is integrally related to peoples' struggles against oppression. The Highlander School is devoted to this concept and so stands in contrast to schools of formal and traditional education. He states that you don't give people motivation. You give them experiences that stimulate their motivation-motivation is from within. They learn that they can do things that they never thought they could do before other than read and write. They can talk about their problems with someone that they never knew before. That's a very important learning experience-a step in the right direction from being self-centered and toward having confidence not only in yourself but in other people, your peers. As they see that, they can begin to see how they can link up with other groups that have the same problems-another community, another state and eventually other people in the world.  So, you are empowering people to broaden their horizons to a place where they can grow…You can go to school all your life, you’ll never figure it out because you are trying to get an answer that can only come from the people in the life situation.¹⁷ 

When compared by Bingham, it becomes quite clear that Horton and Freire had similar ways of thinking and acting that pioneered the foundation of schools today as well as enlightened the thoughts of how higher education could benefit from their theories and practices. Bingham shares that Horton and Freire’s ideas were to develop through two very different forms of Praxis-Myles’s from a small independent residential education center situated outside the formal schooling system or the state, Paulo from within university and state-sponsored programs.  Their ideas were to converge not through a series of theoretical deductions but through their interaction with the social context and their involvement with broader popular struggles for participation and freedom.  Though both are often credited for what they contributed to these movements, perhaps more significant is the way in which their careers were in fact shaped by social movements themselves.¹⁸

It is amazing to think that during the earlier portion of the twentieth century similar thoughts on schooling and teacher-student relationships as a means for success, within the classroom and community existed in full force. In a surprisingly current way of educational debate and thinking that emphasizes history repeating itself, John Dewey wondered why the school environment of desks, blackboards, a small school yard, was supposed to suffice. There was no demand that the teacher should become intimately acquainted with the conditions of the local community, physical, historical, economic, occupational, etc., in order to utilize them as educational resources. A system of education based upon the necessary connection of education with experience must, on the contrary, if faithful to its principle, take these things constantly into account. Basing education upon personal experience may mean more multiplied and more intimate contacts between the mature and the immature than ever existed in the traditional school, and consequently more, rather than less, guidance by others.¹⁹

Analyzing these education theorists, philosophers and pioneers is a guiding light within this unit.  The importance of their stance as well as their acknowledgement of the need to address students of all creeds shows the urgent nature of the jobs of educators today.