Liberatory Education: What It Is and Why Teachers Deserve It
By: April Brown
At Educator Forever, we believe that liberatory education is what students and teachers deserve. Keep reading to learn more about the education for liberation movement and why liberation-centered curriculum is so important.
I vividly remember the day I landed my first teaching position as a 5th-grade special education teacher. When I met the teacher I was replacing (she was retiring), she handed over file cabinets filled to the brim with worksheets, overhead sheets for the document cameras, and various workbooks to reinforce reading and mathematics skills. To say I felt overwhelmed is an understatement.
With a degree in special education and over five years of experience as a student teacher and paraprofessional, I knew that the curriculum for disabled and neurodivergent students relied heavily on skills related to their Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals.
What was often missing, however, was a validating curriculum that affirmed their neurodivergent brains and allowed them to make meaningful connections to the world around them. I wondered why my students had to suffer and miss out on inquiry projects and interest-based learning because they learned in different ways. Something needed to change.
That was when I started to learn more about the liberatory education movement.
What Is Liberatory Education?
Leaders in the liberatory education movement have been speaking about liberatory education for decades. Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire’s well-known book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is one of the foundational texts in the field of critical pedagogy. It invites us to question and challenge unbalanced power dynamics and encourages us to dive deep into what it means to co-create learning alongside students. It’s a powerful foundation of the education for liberation movement.
Author, educator, and social critic bell hooks provided us with hope and important reminders related to finding joy in teaching in her book, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. She said, “To emphasize that the pleasure of teaching is an act of resistance countering the overwhelming boredom, uninterest, and apathy that so often characterize the way professors and students feel about teaching and learning, about the classroom experience” and it’s a reminder that trying to fit into systems and structures that don’t serve us is dehumanizing.
At Educator Forever, we believe that anti-bias, culturally responsive curriculum that’s rooted in joy, inquiry, and accessibility creates more equitable learning environments for students and supports the idea that education is liberation. In addition, it also contributes to teacher wellness and professional satisfaction and growth.
3 Reasons Teachers Deserve Liberation-Centered Curriculum
So, what makes liberatory education so powerful not just for students, but for teachers too? Here are a few reasons why:
Transformation
Curriculum that disrupts the banking model of education — which focuses on “depositing information” and rote memorization — and allows teachers and students to co-create learning experiences in real and meaningful ways transforms the way we think about teaching and learning. Even more, it promotes critical thinking, empathy, and social justice.
Liberation-centered curriculum provides all students with the opportunity to see themselves reflected in lessons and empowers them to understand and confront systemic biases. Out-of-the-box thinking is what we need to reimagine the role of an educator and transform the education system, conformity is not.
Reflection
Moving from the banking model of education supports teachers in developing the same critical thinking skills we desire from students. In our Curriculum Development Foundations program, we encourage teachers to think about the “why” behind their chosen topics and standards instead of producing curriculum that is disconnected from students’ daily lives and experiences.
So often, teachers enter our programs with low confidence and fear around developing curriculum that truly supports and nurtures students. This is because so often, teachers are told to teach in ways that do not align with our beliefs about education.
We forget what it means to hope, dream, and create. When we write liberation-centered curriculum that represents and validates students, we continuously adapt our teaching practices to support equity and inclusion. We also learn more about ourselves as lifelong learners.
Relationships
When we create curriculum for liberatory education, we show students that we value them. Instead of having students memorize answers to a test, we empower them to come up with solutions for problems they see in their communities and the world. By doing this, we create a safe and brave space for students to engage in open dialogue and ask hard questions.
We also shift the relationship between teacher and student to one of mutuality. The students are not the only ones learning, instead, the teacher and student are learning alongside each other.
Teachers are at the forefront of shaping future generations, and they deserve an educational framework that empowers them, aligns with their values, and fosters their well-being. By embracing education for liberation, we can create a more equitable and just educational system.
Ready to Create Meaningful Curriculum Your Students Love?
If you enjoy creating equity-centered, meaningful learning experiences for students and are passionate about transforming education, curriculum design is an exciting career pathway for teachers.
As a curriculum developer, you can make a significant impact in education with more freedom, flexibility, and work-life balance.
At Educator Forever, we love helping educators go from teacher to curriculum developer (You can check out some of our many success stories here!).
Our Curriculum Development Foundations Program is a 5-week flexible and empowering program designed to give you everything you need to develop engaging curriculum, stand out in the job market, and take your curriculum development career to the next level.
You'll also be assigned a curriculum coach, an experienced curriculum developer, who will give you support and personalized feedback on your work. You'll walk away from the program with a polished portfolio of curriculum samples and an amazing community supporting you as you step into working as a curriculum developer.
If you’re ready to embrace the liberatory education movement and play a pivotal role in transforming education as a curriculum developer, join us!
About The Author
April Brown (M.Ed) is Educator Forever’s community facilitator and a curriculum coach for the Curriculum Development Foundations program. In 2015, April began designing curriculum and writing articles for an EdTech company as a side gig while she was teaching in Placencia, Belize. After having her daughter in 2016, April was eager to use her unique experience teaching and leading in mainstream and alternative settings in the United States and internationally to work remotely while still making a difference in education.
The Beyond the Classroom course empowered April to leverage her skills as a compassionate disruptor and out-of-the-box thinker to excel as an instructional/well-being coach, adjunct instructor of a Trauma Supportive Schools course, curriculum developer, and writer for publications such as PBS SoCal, Education.com, and Britannica for Parents. April is an advocate for teachers and students – inside and outside of the classroom. You can find April in rural Vermont spending time with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and charming rottweilers.