Education as Liberation
The history of education in the United States shows us that schooling has been a space to gain power and wealth for some, and a space of sustaining disenfranchisement and poverty for others. School has been designed to empower some, and disempower others. Schooling as a whole, both historically and presently, effectively serves to maintain the status quo of the racialized class structure of our country, all the while touting the “American Dream” of anyone being able to climb the ladder of success.
And yet I believe that the far majority of teachers across the country long for the best for their students and want them to be successful, and believe in education as a tool for making any individual’s life better and for sustaining a democracy.
So where’s the divide? Why such a distance between why educators teach and the lived reality of schooling’s actual impact?
While much of this can be attributed to the greater structures of politics, power, and economics in our country, I believe the answer lies in part in the fact that we’ve never radically changed how we teach, even if we’ve shifted why we teach. We continue to teach the way we were taught, passed down from generations before us. It’s our default. But the status quo of school has sustained the status quo of our society.
If we want to dismantle schooling that oppresses and harms, we must work towards schooling that promotes freedom and wellness for all. No longer can we sustain the status quo in education, but working together, we can work to build and sustain education as an experience of liberation for all, both students and teachers.
bell hooks envisions “education as the practice of freedom” and “the classroom a place that is life-sustaining and mind-expanding, a place of liberating mutuality where teacher and student together work in partnership.” (2003, p. xv) Schools should be a place where all students thrive and life flourishes, places of community so rich that “liberating mutuality” blooms, finding freedom in our deep interconnection with one another.
I see this go hand-in-hand with the phrase written the other way around, “mutual liberation.” I believe that the liberation of students is bound up with the liberation of teachers, and the liberation of the oppressed and disenfranchised with those who hold power.
What does education as liberation look like? Bettina Love writes of abolitionist teaching that “We must struggle together not only to reimagine schools but to build new schools that we are taught to believe are impossible: schools based on intersectional justice, antiracism, love, healing, and joy.” Yes, yes and yes. Every child deserves to learn in anti-oppressive, just, loving, caring, challenging and caring classrooms every day. Education should promote the liberation of and wellness of every child, young person and teacher. Let’s not miss that Dr. Love also gets at not only reimagining schools, but also acting to actually build schools that live the dream.
Our vision for freedom should specifically include the most marginalized students. In her book Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School, Monique Morris writes of this vision specifically for Black girls:
“Imagine a future for Black girls that is filled with dignity and where their learning spaces are places they are invited to critically engage, alongside educators, in the construction of their education and in the redemption of their lives. Imagine a black female student identity that is not marred by stereotypes, but is buoyed by a collective vision of excellence that should always accompany the learning identities of our girls. As we’ve seen, Black girls’ educational lives are dynamic and complex, and too often follow a school-to-confinement pathway.”
I see the role of the instructional coach as a creative role. Coaches promote, support, cultivate, connect and inspire. As such, it’s important that we ensure that our work truly promotes the well being and liberation of all students, and does not continue practices that marginalize, stereotype or harm students who face a system stacked against them.
Questions for Coaches
Coaches can reflect on these questions with a colleague or team:
Is liberation a part of our vision for education? Why or why not?
What would “liberating mutuality” (bell hooks) look like in classrooms at our school (or in our district)? What will we do to promote this?
Where is the status quo of schooling harming or hindering students (or teachers) in our school? What will we do to interrupt this?
How can we as coaches collectively work towards education as liberation in our school/district? What one or two practical steps can we take to start or continue the journey?
Recommend Reading on Liberation in Education
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, Bettina Love
Teaching Community, bell hooks
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School, Monique Morris