Teaching in Two Worlds: Critical Reflection and Teacher Change in the Writing Center

By Dale Jacobs

Excerpt

I had strategies for getting students to talk in class, but my words always remained at the center of the pedagogical relationship. I laid out ground rules for peer writing groups, but never shared my own writing. I wrote comments on student papers, but never talked with students about their writing. Despite the veneer of student-centered methods, I was engaged in what Paolo Freire calls ‘banking education,’ pouring knowledge into passive students. Working in the writing center radically challenged my approach to teaching and forced me to step back and examine critically my pedagogical location, methods, and philosophy.