As a child, I would never have imagined myself as a teacher, educator, and advocate for education. While a student of New York City Public Schools, the classroom was the last place that I wanted to be, although I found myself there five days a week. Schools were a place where I had no voice, where my culture was not reflected, and where I was not challenged to think critically. I went to school daily because there was no alternative and, as a result, I was disengaged. I struggled to find the connection between school and myself, and school and the real world – it was hard to make the connection between what was going on in my local community and what was happening in the global community. I was encouraged to engage in respectability politics with my teachers and peers, encouraged to conform to socially acceptable standards of appearance and behavior while in school and, therefore, was not allowed to be my true authentic self. I was not encouraged to be creative or allowed to engage in the literacies that I shared with friends and family in my community. I was one of the many youth who have had negative experiences in schools as a result of systemic inequities in education.
As I grew older, I realized that my school experiences were not unique to me, with many of them shared by my peers and current students. Even with the time that has passed, when I walk into schools today, I observe the same ineffective pedagogical strategies, lack of student culture, and disproportionate discipline based on race and gender I knew in my youth. What propelled me to become an educator in the Bronx was the need to identify ways to directly address systemic inequalities in school curriculum and pedagogy in the classroom. This is also what encouraged me to connect and collaborate with scholars and educators who also work to interrupt the systems – especially those in education – that perpetuate inequalities experienced by marginalized groups across the nation. One thing that I realized as an educator is that an individual, alone, cannot effect change within a massive system such as the Department of Education. It takes change-makers in classrooms and schools, yes, but also others committed to the creation of shared frameworks that are guided by theory that engages with cultural phenomena. These frameworks can then lead us to more effective teaching practices designed to guide educators with practical and tangible steps to effect change.
In The Pedagogy of Consciousness, scholar-practitioner Nadira Jack brilliantly presents the current context of education and argues against a system that reinforces inequities and which is hyper-focused on standards and assessment while at the same time neglecting the needs of the student. Jack draws from her experiences as an educator and school leader to argue that teaching and learning that is not community-oriented and anchored in the authentic culture of students cannot be considered rigorous instruction because it fails to acknowledge and teach to the whole student. In this book, Jack provides her framework for the pedagogy of consciousness, which facilitates the awakening of young people to the sources of systemic oppression, encourages them to identify and consider possible solutions, and guides them on a path toward enlightenment and liberation. This work cannot be done in silos or solely by educators, it requires the entire school community – all stakeholders in education – to shift from traditional ideologies of teaching and learning that are teacher-centered and which focus on basic educational practices and learning in core subjects such as math with little to no consideration for students’ culture. The framework of the pedagogy of consciousness is composed of four phases with actionable steps and suggested timelines for educators and school leaders who want to adopt a critical approach to teaching, learning, and school culture.
One of the most significant offerings in The Pedagogy of Consciousness is Jack’s focus on creating a culture of learning as the initial phase toward self-actualization. Jack calls for, and offers protocols for, educators to intentionally and thoughtfully build relationships with students in the classroom. For example, the protocol Family Business provides the steps for educators to engage in discussions with students around topics curated by the students. This provides the educator with an opportunity to gain an authentic understanding of what the students care about as well as their culture while also promoting student agency by centering their voices. The opportunity for teachers to listen to, and gain insight from, students while privileging their voices, can lend itself to the creation of a positive classroom culture and environment that opens up space for learning. Once the educator and school leader have a deep and authentic understanding of their students and the community, they can then use that understanding to influence teaching, learning, and school culture. Jack’s articulation of The Pedagogy of Consciousness is necessary and needed in schools across the nation. Read the words of this text with an open mind and with an intention to engage in impactful work that will benefit all students.