To help maximize your educational experience, I think it is important that you understand where I'm coming from and what ideas inform my teaching. Having this information will allow you to maximize the classroom experience as well as allow you to make an informed decision about whether you wish to be involved in this class.

1. I teach using a discussion-intensive approach or what we will call problem-posing dialogue. I believe in breaking down the "student-teacher contradiction" whereby the teacher is the only one who teaches and the students are the only ones who learn. You all have opinions, experiences, and insights that are unique to your own biographies and histories. I am eager to learn from you just as you should be eager to learn from me and from the other members of the class. A problem-posing dialogue promotes this type of expansive, diverse, and multi-directional learning.

I recognize that most of us have more experience with the lecturing/banking approach to education and that the problem-posing dialogue may seem foreign. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to engage successfully in problem-posing dialogue as long as you accept and practice the following two principles of instructive dialogue:

Respect: It is imperative that we exhibit respect for each other. Even when we disagree, and we will disagree--which is good because disagreement breeds understanding, we must be respectful toward others. Such respect must be demonstrated in our words, our behavior, and our demeanor. When people feel disrespected they either turn to confrontation or to silence and both responses are fatal for promoting instructive dialogue.

Respond: In order for dialogue to transpire, we must be willing and prepared to react and reply to what we read as well as to what others say. As noted above, we all have opinions, experiences, and insights. In this class, it is necessary that you bring these responses into the dialogue. Remember, I do not approach education as a medium through which I may impart my knowledge on to (or into) you. You are not empty vessels that I will fill with arcane and irrelevant information. Rather, I see you and the classroom as a community of learners in which all must participate respectfully if we are to achieve our objectives.

2. Paulo Freire once noted that "education is a political act; that is why no pedagogy is neutral." I agree. Like it or not, our mere presence in the classroom catapults us into the role of "scholar change agents." Education produces action (as well as re-actions). Through education, we learn to do and to be. We do not engage in the process of learning so that we may not do and not be. Ask yourself: Why are you acquiring knowledge? What ends are you seeking to achieve by becoming more educated? Implicitly, the answers to these questions suggest a course of action for yourself, for others, and for the social world in which you live. We must not shy away from this connection between education and action for if we do, then we are negating the entire foundation of the educational process.

Having said that, let me also point out that action takes various forms and comes in various shapes and colors. I am not trying to convince you to think like me (much less do like me); but, I am trying to get you to think critically and sociologically. If you engage in this type of thinking and we disagree, so be it. As noted above, such disagreements (provided they are enacted respectfully) enrich the educational process and add considerably to the dialogue.

3. Education should be a fun and enjoyable process. Why should we bother being here if we are disengaged, disruptive, disgusted, or distraught. Learning new ideas, being open to new ways of thinking, gaining insight and perspective of others, these are all processes of education that we should pursue and relish. If you are having trouble achieving these objectives, please come talk to me immediately so that we may try to rectify the situation.