Freire’s Dialogic Process as a Means of Facilitating the Teaching of Controversial Public Policy Issue

Educators have long advocated for the pedagogical and civic importance of engaging students in discussions regarding controversial issues. Unfortunately, due to today’s polarized political atmosphere, many teachers hesitate to introduce issues that might be potentially contentious for fear of repercussions. The Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire’s notion of the dialogic process offers educators a means of pursuing this critical work. In his classic work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire described five dispositions that are critical to effective dialogue: humility, hope, faith, love and critical thinking. This article details the findings from a qualitative study of a group of three pre-service teachers that used the Freirean dialogic process to teach about the thorny issue of police reform during their student teaching experiences in urban public school settings. The results of this study, which employed a narrative analysis approach, point to a number of valuable insights resulting from this innovative instructional practice.