Moving Beyond the Banking Model
Overview
During the Winter semester of 2023, the Equitable Teaching Website team conducted a series of focus groups with students across the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus. The goal of this was to gain student perspectives and learn about their experience in inclusive classrooms to help inform the website. The students identified non-interactive lectures, pushback to accommodations requests, and strict classroom standards and curriculum as being less inclusive. We realized that many identified issues within the classroom could be considered characteristics of the Banking Model of Education, coined by Paulo Freire.
The Banking Model of Education is a pedagogical model that positions the educator as an authority figure that deposits knowledge into the brains of students. Students, as the target oppressed group, face dehumanization and limits placed on their ability to engage within the classroom. “It attempts to control thinking and action … and inhibits students’ creative power (Friere 1970, pg 77).” In We Want to Learn, students reflected on teachers’ over-reliance on passive teaching and learning strategies employed by teachers, such as note-taking, worksheets, PowerPoint presentations, and fact-based assessments (Busey & Russell 2016, pg. 9). Too, in the focus groups we conducted, students shared dissatisfaction with the same teaching methods.
Fortunately, there are many ways to identify and subside the influence of the Banking Model of Education in our classrooms to create a more equitable experience for students and educators. Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) is a framework that aims to promote equitable opportunities for learning and academic success for students with disabilities in mind (DeVore et al 2016, pg. 2). There is great research on the value of dialogue in spaces of learning since its push from Friere and other social justice thinkers. However they choose, educators should recognize cultural diversity within each classroom as an opportunity to value the richness of other cultures and foster intercultural dialogue.
We find that deeper learning is even more possible the further we move from the Banking Model of Education and prioritize critical consciousness development in our classrooms.
Suggested activities for classrooms:
