Freirean Conceptions of Participatory Action Research and Teaching for Social Justice - Same Struggle, Different Fronts

Abstract

There are similar assumptions between participatory action research (PAR) and teaching for social justice (TSJ). Much of this paper focuses on the influence of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire on both PAR and TSJ. Personal anecdotes with both PAR and TSJ from my twenty years of experience as a teacher educator/researcher in western Canada demonstrate Freirean approaches. In their most successful incarnations, both PAR and TSJ use critical theory to deconstruct hegemony, utilize critical discourse analysis, and engage in ideology critique. Both aim to challenge the forces that give rise to false political consciousness. PAR concentrates on the subjectivity and lived experiences of the research participants. The TSJ approach I employ is also based on the lived experience of the students. Freirean conceptions of political consciousness-raising, or conscientização, is integral to both TSJ and PAR. Freire’s model for TSJ promotes a more progressive role for the school that encompasses pedagogy based on critical inquiry. Schools should unveil and transform oppressive practices and social arrangements that are created by unfair social hierarchies created by patriarchy, white supremacy, and unregulated capitalism. Freire emphasized the concept of praxis in his educational theory for emancipation. Praxis is the embodiment of students using their new found knowledge and political consciousness to employ agency and challenge the sources and structures of oppression. Praxis underlies Freire’s perspectives on both PAR and TSJ.