The Liberationist....

A teacher who uses the liberationist approach is almost a mix between the executive approach and the facilitator approach.  To me, it collects certain aspects from both of the other approaches. It focuses on the knowledge of the students, like an executive would. Then, it also focuses on helping the students grow as better human beings, like a facilitator would. It has some of the same concepts going on but the liberationist approach is quite different from the executive and facilitator approaches. Liberationist teachers see knowledge in a completely different light than executive teachers do. They see the ends as something different that facilitator teachers do.

For me, personally, I think it would be somewhat hard to use a liberationist approach to teaching. I feel that it doesn’t have the right type of structure to it to help in learning mathematics or chemistry. I am talking about using a pure liberationist approach though. I wouldn’t mind doing hands-on projects in either of my subjects and connecting them to different things in the world. I could easily connect math to every day issues. Chemistry would be able to be connected to food and beverages we eat and drink every day. The relations to life are what help the students to see why they are learning topics and going to school at all. At the same time though, I think more executive aspects will appear in my classroom. I do like the points about mannerisms of being a liberationist teacher. I think it almost applies to teaching in general though. If you don’t have the ability to have the right mannerisms, you won’t be able to connect with the students in the way that they need in order to learn. I think it is important for teachers and students to find that connection or relationship to help aid in the reinforcement of wanting and needing to learn and the ability to learn.