Presentation Reflection: Importance of Change

Document the session -This week we covered the topic of education for social change, reflecting on Conversations on Education and Social Change by Myles Horton and Paulo Freire in addition to Perspective-Taking as a Tool for building Democratic Societies by José Calderón. The main concepts discussed were practice, theory, knowledge, diversity and neutrality.

Almost the entirety of the class was present which was exciting because I knew that what I prepared would not be in vain. In addition to lecturing , I prepared an activity that was meant to summarize the purpose of the topics discussed. I had students partner up and talk about the discussion questions that were tailored to touch on the concepts mentioned, relay the importance of experience while seamlessly in-sighting further conversation. After the students spent about 15 minutes discussing I asked them to then share, but instead of sharing what they spoke about I asked them to share what their partners spoke about. This activity emphasized the importance of listening in relation to the key concepts covered this week. It is easy to acknowledge the importance of concepts such as diversity but people cannot simply just acknowledge but must act upon, and this cannot be done unless a person knows how to listen.

Reflections — I really learned a lot from this discussion, I had an opportunity to learn a more about those around me and the different insights and personal experiences that they bring to the table.

I feel the thing that didn’t work out was the possibility of difficult wording when asking certain questions, I know the class as a whole is not very outspoken so I was not sure if the wording of my questions were off or if they were just shy. On the other hand I thought the time I saved for the students to discuss worked really well. The students were able to properly work through the discussion questions and bring back well thought out answers and thoughts to the group.

Connections — There were many topics discussed in the presentation. One of the main points was on the topic of neutrality. In particular, neutralities detrimental effects. Myles Horton mentioned that neutrality is just following the crowd thus blinding the participants to the correct decision. Looking back at Americas history, the Salem Witch Trials began in the spring of 1692 and was fueled by the notion of neutrality. The individuals in the colony of Salem all kept quiet and just followed the groupthink- not speaking out or saying anything while neighbors and friends were hung, drowned and even burned alive. It was not until the Governors Wife, Ms. Phips was accused of witchcraft that the governor himself was forced to depart from the neutral stance that he faced. This example clearly draws a line to Myles warnings about neutrality as discussed in the readings.

Additional References

http://louisville.edu/journal/workplace/issue5p2/singerpezone.html

http://www.sociologyguide.com/socio-short-notes/value-neutrality-in-social-science.php