Learning Should be Liberating! How to Create a Liberatory Classroom.

Just about a year ago I was introduced to the concept of a “Liberatory School Model”. What I realized is, in many ways as a classroom teacher, I was applying a lot of strategies that put my own classrooms on track to be “liberating”. While there were still some oppressive practices I had in place (you can read more about those practices and how I learned to do things differently in my book Taught: A Memoir and Educator’s Guide to Classroom Transformation and Student Liberation, coming June 2022) there were many things I was doing to create a liberatory space for students, especially when I founded the student group, Wake Up: Students for Educational Equity. In this post I share the foundational steps I have learned over the last ten years to create a liberatory classroom.

Step 1: Understand what liberation means to you and ensure your students have a deepened sense for what it means to them

I was recently in a classroom and noticed a student doodling. I said to him, “Now let’s get these notes copied down.” He responded, “Nah, I’m good.” Upon further inquiry he shared, the math they were working on didn’t mean anything to him and he was convinced he would never need it. In fact he explained, most of what he learns in school doesn’t matter. In so many ways, he was speaking the truth of far too many students in our country. And, when the curriculum or the context of the school system has not been built for students like the one I was speaking to, whose family is from Mexico and came to the United States when he was five, students can be especially disinvested.

In that moment I thought about what education could and should mean to students, especially students whose communities have been oppressed and marginalized, and especially in the education system.

The first thing you must do to create a liberatory classroom is to ensure both you and your students know deeply what liberation means and what it can mean for each of your students individually, especially if your students are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

To learn more ways on how to do this in your classroom, you can receive my free Lesson Introduction to a Liberatory Classroom here.

Step 2: Cultivate a space of belonging in your classroom

To achieve liberation within your classroom you must cultivate a place of trust and a strong sense of belonging for students to be able to be themselves in order to be truly free. This means that culture building must be prioritized in your classroom. A liberatory classroom cannot exist without this. Yes, the curriculum we provide our students is imperative for our students to think expansively and freely as well as providing students behavior that is self-directed, however this means that you, as the teacher, must put in place practices that support a culture of belonging.

You likely have instituted positive culture in your classroom in various ways. Some of the best ways I have seen and leveraged are allowing our students space to explore their identities, being first in truth with themselves. From there, it is imperative to allow students space to begin to know one another, even if it is more of a surface understanding of one another initially. Once the self and surface work is introduced, you can begin digging deeper.

Here are some things I LOVE to do with my students at each level (keeping in mind the following are geared more toward grades 3-12 but can be tweaked for primary grades).

• Level 1- Self: Core Values Exercise, I AM Poems, Six Sentence Biographies, Life Maps, Student Reflection Survey

• Level 2- Surface/ Safe: Students share Core Values in small groups, students bring in an artifact that shows an element of who they are, students work to find one thing in common with a small group of fellow students

• Level 3-Go Deeper/ Get Vulnerable: Students share their I AM Pomes with the class, students share their Life Maps, Privilege Walks, Step-in/ Cross the Line Activity

Keep in mind, as a facilitator of these different activities, it is critical to frame them in a way that first and foremost offers the “why this, why now” and sets norms and expectations of how students should show-up in these spaces. Also keep in mind, these levels should be spiraled throughout the year and are not one and done. You must revisit self-reflection and trust exercises throughout the year in order to nourish a liberatory classroom. Consider that a farmer does not just plant a seed and watch their crop grow. These crops must be watered and nurtured just as we must do to create a space of liberation.

You can get the frames, lessons, and templates here.

Step 3: Make content and learning relevant

Similar to the story with the student in the introduction, when we make learning relevant, students become more engaged and more engagement leads to more learning. It is one thing to make decimals coincide with money or making fractions connected to baking, which are both universally relevant, however when I asked the student what his family does, he shared, his dad is in construction. When I asked, what kind of construction, he said his dad does drywall. We went on to discuss what he wants to do as a career and he said, he wouldn’t mind working with his dad, or own his own construction company. In learning this, my mind went crazy thinking about how to connect lessons to his life and his future from math to all the way to leadership.

Making the content and curriculum generally relevant is a great start but when we can make it connected to who our students are, their histories, their backgrounds, their futures, they will learn so much more. This means, you must know your students deeply. A great way to start this is to simply ask. There are so many ways to get to know your students and I would encourage you to use a form of survey first, but also to really be listening when students are engaging with one another as you are working on cultivating belonging in your classroom as directed in Step 2.

Step 4: Ensure learning is student centered

One of the first things I look for when observing a classroom is who is doing the work? Is it the teacher or is it the student? Many, if not most of us learned via direct instruction (at least I know my generation did and the generations before me) however, Constructivist Theorist, Jean Piaget, believed, “Children are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge (as traditional pedagogical theory had it). They are active builders of knowledge-little scientists who construct their own theories of the world.”

When teachers begin to see themselves as facilitators, working to support students to be builders of knowledge, helping them grapple with concepts, supporting their ability to ask questions and analyze thoughts; this is when classrooms become student centered.

As you work to cultivate a liberatory classroom, constantly reflect on your lessons and be asking yourself, “Who is doing the work and the thinking?”

Conclusion

This is not a one and done thing. As you work towards building a liberatory classroom, know that this takes time and thoughtful action. Be ready to work toward changing student habits, especially knowing, there is a strong likelihood, what you are doing in your classroom has not been expected of your students in previous classes. But I guarantee, as you use these steps as a foundation, you are well on your way.

Reach out to me if you have any questions and don’t forget to get the free resource guide that supports strategies within this post!

To Liberation,

KP