final paper on emancipatory dialogue and critical consciousness
Name: Matthew Smith
Course Department, Number & Title: D512 Forms and Forces in Adult Education
Semester & Year Enrolled: Fall 2016
Document: Emancipatory Dialogue and Critical Consciousness in an Era of Discontent
My final artifact is the term paper from my penultimate course in the adult education program which asked me to identify the most-pressing challenge facing adult education in the years to come. In it, I make the argument emancipatory learning through dialogue, or emancipatory dialogue, is the preeminent opportunity in the profession and practice of adult education. The paper is chosen as it is the culmination of my journey. It is all the bits and pieces put together. It is the nuance present in my first artifact I did not recognize at the time. It is the manifestation of the internal struggle I have in reconciling what I do with what can be done.
Most important, this is when I arrived at the realization emancipatory dialogue is the process through which critical consciousness, or becoming aware of the hegemonic factors exerting power over one’s life, is achieved. It is a realization there are no teachers, merely co-discoverers in learning. Emancipatory dialogue is the result of the free exchange of ideas and creativity without reservation. It is how whole-person knowing, or becoming intuitively aware of another person’s thoughts, feelings and actions from their perspective, is realized. It removes bias and replaces it with empathic understanding. It is the means through which opposites find understanding and work together toward solutions to common problems. It is, in my opinion, what all adult educators should strive for. Emancipatory dialogue has applications in communities and in professional spaces. It results in asking questions we never considered because we never thought to look at it from a different direction. It is the key.
Finally, when I look at how I might apply this, I turn to the section which discusses overstating (or oversimplifying) opportunities for equality. For me, it is money. I tend to rely on the belief an ideological attachment to wealth as a symbol of power and station is the driving force behind social stratification, suffering and all forms of social inequity. I believe it is what leads many employers to mistreat workers. I believe it is what leads politicians to abandon entire swaths of people. Upon critical examination, however, money is not the only culprit. It is certainly a large one, though if currency were removed entirely from the conversation, there are still factors including race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and age to consider, among others. So in focusing on economic factors, I oversimplify the potential solution, giving those other factors greater value inasmuch as they are not being addressed as independent variables. Again, I find, altruist motives are not enough. We must move forward with intention.
Through emancipatory dialogue, then, these things are all considered as the realization of concept in practice is an intimate understanding of the whole person and arriving at critical consciousness. It is now my professional, academic, political and personal mission to take this realization to another level. I am not merely satisfied with having realized the opportunities in front of me. I must find a way to bring emancipatory dialogue and all of its outcomes into all manner of setting.
Course Department, Number & Title: D512 Forms and Forces in Adult Education
Semester & Year Enrolled: Fall 2016
Document: Emancipatory Dialogue and Critical Consciousness in an Era of Discontent
My final artifact is the term paper from my penultimate course in the adult education program which asked me to identify the most-pressing challenge facing adult education in the years to come. In it, I make the argument emancipatory learning through dialogue, or emancipatory dialogue, is the preeminent opportunity in the profession and practice of adult education. The paper is chosen as it is the culmination of my journey. It is all the bits and pieces put together. It is the nuance present in my first artifact I did not recognize at the time. It is the manifestation of the internal struggle I have in reconciling what I do with what can be done.
Most important, this is when I arrived at the realization emancipatory dialogue is the process through which critical consciousness, or becoming aware of the hegemonic factors exerting power over one’s life, is achieved. It is a realization there are no teachers, merely co-discoverers in learning. Emancipatory dialogue is the result of the free exchange of ideas and creativity without reservation. It is how whole-person knowing, or becoming intuitively aware of another person’s thoughts, feelings and actions from their perspective, is realized. It removes bias and replaces it with empathic understanding. It is the means through which opposites find understanding and work together toward solutions to common problems. It is, in my opinion, what all adult educators should strive for. Emancipatory dialogue has applications in communities and in professional spaces. It results in asking questions we never considered because we never thought to look at it from a different direction. It is the key.
Finally, when I look at how I might apply this, I turn to the section which discusses overstating (or oversimplifying) opportunities for equality. For me, it is money. I tend to rely on the belief an ideological attachment to wealth as a symbol of power and station is the driving force behind social stratification, suffering and all forms of social inequity. I believe it is what leads many employers to mistreat workers. I believe it is what leads politicians to abandon entire swaths of people. Upon critical examination, however, money is not the only culprit. It is certainly a large one, though if currency were removed entirely from the conversation, there are still factors including race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and age to consider, among others. So in focusing on economic factors, I oversimplify the potential solution, giving those other factors greater value inasmuch as they are not being addressed as independent variables. Again, I find, altruist motives are not enough. We must move forward with intention.
Through emancipatory dialogue, then, these things are all considered as the realization of concept in practice is an intimate understanding of the whole person and arriving at critical consciousness. It is now my professional, academic, political and personal mission to take this realization to another level. I am not merely satisfied with having realized the opportunities in front of me. I must find a way to bring emancipatory dialogue and all of its outcomes into all manner of setting.
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