Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to analyze the possibilities and limits of using technology to foster critical consciousness and engagement (Freire, 1970). Critical consciousness in our view is “an unarmed curiously that leads to self-criticism". This relentless questioning and human curiosity becomes critical by revealing something hidden such that knowledge itself becomes the object of this systematic reflection.” (Shor, 2001, p.37-8). Critical consciousness that occurs between students enables these educational actors to both create critical learning activities and reflect and respond to those activities. By doing so students develop and enhance their engagement because the motivation is not a result of a grade but rather the human activity to work together and create a text that has the signature of their identity. At the same time, teacher/professors engage with other teacher/professors such that their practice—teaching (and related policies, State requirements and other forces outside the educational institution)—becomes the object of their critical reflective curiosity. By focusing on critical consciousness and engagement our desire reflects a form of praxis--a thinking of theory and practice.

This study focuses on what is produced in a university classroom in terms of:
a) the constructed meaning of critical subjects (for students and teachers)
b) the movement, if any, toward becoming critical subjects for teachers and students,
c) the possibilities of students learning from students, how students’ culture is related to students learning from students and finally
d) how these students and teachers become more engaged and active thereby facilitating democratic imperatives.

We frame our study with critical pedagogy, collecting the production of meanings, practices and relations and assessing these as a heuristic to reconsider and act on the production by teachers and students will continue until the end of the semester. This phase of the study is a continuation of the pilot study that finished in July 2016. From that pilot study the focus on using data as a teaching heuristic and student to student learning emerged and becomes the foundation of the second phase of the described study which is near completion.

The results of the project will be discussed relative to the themes that are emerging. Excerpts from the reflections, documents, discussions and projects serve as the basis for identifying the constructed meanings emerging from the students and the teachers. For example, data from the pilot study provided insights about the meanings of the term critical subjects as well as an understanding of the possible growth in this direction. We are continuing to learn the possibilities and the limits of students learning from students as well as how culture affects that learning. Finally, pilot study findings informed our understanding of the role of schooling in furthering democratic imperatives, specifically the possibilities of students and teachers becoming more engaged and active in their work. In a more holistic sense we will share how those results may be related to policies and practices outside the classroom.

Keywords:

Technology, critical consciousness and engagement.