Home⇛PCS Review⇛vol. 14 no. 1 (2022)

Classrooms as socio-politically conscious learning spaces: Developing political literacy, affect, and discourse

Holden Kenneth G. Alcazaren

Discipline: Essay

 

Abstract:

With the Philippines’ current political climate that has seen the rise of fake news and misinformation, young people, particularly students, turn to their classrooms to help them construct their own views and perspectives on various social and political issues. However, with educational agencies enforcing teachers to be apolitical, it is high time to open discussions and conversations on how classrooms can foster an environment where students develop a more socially and politically conscious mind. In this essay, critical discussions in making classrooms a safe space for political discussions between students and teachers were made. In encouraging this type of learning space, classrooms should be able to emphasize the development of political literacy, political affect, and political discourse among students. Through these three components, classrooms can be able to increase political participation of the youth while promising a stronger citizenship education. Aside from the supporting literature, the paper also included constructs and tenets of the Sociocultural theory, Consciousness theory, and Social Construction of Reality theory in situating student learning in a more sociological perspective. These theories have highlighted the significance of social interactions, most especially inside of the classrooms, in shaping and co-constructing students’ worldviews on various societal and political problems and issues. The essay calls for teachers to be an active agent of transformation where classrooms are able to develop not just skillful and capable students but also empathic and critical citizens of the country.



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