Why public schools need critical, humanizing teaching

How can we look at a classroom where students show up with contrasting political viewpoints as an opportunity?

How do we unpack different viewpoints without feeling so offended that we just walk out of the room?

These questions were posed by a middle school teacher who’s a part of Justice-Oriented Literacy Teachers of Atlanta, a teacher collective I’m facilitating this year. When she asked, “How do we disagree?” this teacher was referring to students in her classes and the adults they will become. Students are learning how to read, write, think, and talk about what’s happening in the world — in the past and the present so that they can become stewards of this world in the future. The world in all its diversity, beauty, complexity and conflict, requires people who can come together across different perspectives and make decisions despite disagreements on challenging issues, such as climate change, immigration and foreign wars.

Yet public schoolteachers are facing increasing obstacles to helping students consider different perspectives and learn how to disagree respectfully. Legislation and policies focused on limiting conversation about “divisive concepts,” as well as “anti-woke” and “anti-DEI” legislation and policies, are causing teachers to feel fear and hesitation to include challenging, important topics in their curricula. This self-censorship and chilling effect not only damages the teaching profession but, of even greater concern, cheats students out of a robust educational experience.

Credit: Con

Credit: Con

Conservative politicians position this legislation as a way to combat indoctrination of young people into leftist ideology. Certainly, there are teachers who tell students what to think. But those teachers, wherever they happen to be on the political spectrum, are not good teachers, and there is no data to indicate that the majority of teachers are engaging in this bad teaching. Good teachers bring in multiple perspectives on a topic and then ask students: What do you think about these different views? What evidence are people offering to support their views? But they also help students see why people hold different perspectives. Good teachers embrace critical, humanizing teaching practices.

The reason I include “humanizing” along with critical is that critical teaching can generate tension, conflict, and sometimes feel heavy or uncomfortable for students. This discomfort is not bad. It’s just real. It’s what happens when we disagree. It’s what happens when we examine struggles and oppression in the world. But good teachers balance this discomfort with compassion and joy. Dorinda Carter Andrews and colleagues explained in their article on humanizing pedagogy: “When educators exclusively focus on how certain groups have been oppressed and the struggles they have faced, they fail to identify the strengths, assets, and resistance those groups possess.”

They argue that humanizing teaching is needed in the current moment to “cultivate civility, empathy, cultural humility, and authentic caring,” values that allow students to recognize joy and beauty in different cultures and ways of being. One of the JOLT Atlanta members said it this way: “I just think we have to see people. We have to see hearts and minds and blood and birth and loss and love in each other. We have to recognize that you are my other me — we are all connected. Nobody is less human than anybody else.”

When students are prevented from reading, writing, thinking, and talking about what has happened and is happening, they miss the opportunity to see how they could take informed action to confront social injustice and initiate change. Critical, humanizing teaching shapes young people into informed and engaged decision makers in a democracy who do not see the “other side” as stupid, yet rather perceive those with different views as having different experiences, identities and values. Critical teaching helps the next generation imagine what could happen in the future, a future that will be of their making. With people in the United States becoming increasingly polarized, our public school classrooms can be spaces of hope and possibility — where young people can learn how to disagree, how to consider perspectives and experiences other than their own, and how to love their neighbors despite holding different political views. This requires critical, humanizing teaching.

A call to action

How can you help young people in public schools access critical, humanizing teaching?

First, if you’re a teacher, organize with other teachers to figure out how to do critical, humanizing teaching. Teachers in JOLT Atlanta are doing this work, as are teachers who are members of the Georgia Association of Educators.

Second, if you’re a parent, you can communicate your desire for critical, humanizing teaching to your school administrators and district leaders. Voice your support for teachers and librarians who engage in critical, humanizing teaching. Both parents and teachers can join the Georgia Coalition for Education Justice, an advocacy group focused on local and state education policy.

Third, for teachers, parents, and other concerned community members, be in conversation with your state legislators. Make sure they know you do not want legislation misrepresenting critical, humanizing teaching as divisive, when this approach to teaching is grounded in empathy and compassion for others.

Nadia Behizadeh is a professor at Georgia State University, a member of the Georgia Association of Educators, the Georgia Coalition for Education Justice and the vice president of the GSU American Association of University Professors chapter. The opinions expressed are the writer’s own and do not represent the viewpoints of Georgia State University.

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