Seventh Task

How to Critically Spot Fake News?

How do you think we can empower our Colombian students to critically spot fake news?

The society in which we currently live is one that exposes us to the events happening every minute around the world. That is possible thanks to the digital media we possess. However, having this digital media is not only an advantage but also it might be a disadvantage. That is to say, everyone can post on the internet whatever they want or claim something that may not be true. This affects us in terms of being exposed to news, events, discovers or facts that someone thought would be interesting to share even if they are not true. Therefore, we would go around taking as authentic something that is just fiction and living in nescience.

As Henry Giroux claims, students must learn to think critically and not just acquire an entire piece of information without questioning it. And that it is the teacher the one that should provide their students with the necessary tools for taking power and taking part in society. Besides, it is the teacher who should make their students understand that they are the ones with that power, that the future lies in their hands, and that a real, good change is possible when they are aware and have the understanding of their surroundings. Additionally, students must learn that knowledge is a social construction in which not only the teacher knows, but in which it is the teacher who along with their students constructs the knowledge.

Hence, how is it that we can empower our Colombian students to critically spot fake news? Well, as Peter McLaren sees it, the curriculum may be a form of cultural politics. In other words, it means that we can use the curriculum in helping students to learn to question and doubt, to learn to selectively appropriate the knowledge they are provided with. By doing so, students are acquiring foundations for transforming rather than for just being one more piece of a puzzle. On his perspective, Ira Shor establishes that "we build ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the different identities we carry forward in life". That means that as society evolves and changes, we are also in constant change. Therefore, not only are we what we think we are but are we what we read, what we say, what we think, what we believe, what we know, what we watch and see, what we acquire, and what we do. And all those are provided by society, by our surroundings. Thus, it is remarkable that we teach our students to question critically, to look for answers, and to go beyond what a source or an author is telling us.

Sixth Task

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IN DARK TIMES

According to Henry Giroux, education is surrounded by political, economic, and social structures. Pedagogy is related to politics because it remarks on the relationships among knowledge, authority, and power; with questions like who has control over the conditions for the production of knowledge. Regarding the cultural and social structures, pedagogy attempts to influence how and what knowledge are being produced and acquired within a certain context.

What Henry Giroux points out is the need for students to raise their voice and defend the university, to demonstrate that the university is important in a democracy. Students must get engaged in the importance of social issues, they must learn to think critically and not just acquire an entire piece of information without questioning it. However, for being capable of doing so, the beginning is the teacher. Teachers are the responsible ones for getting their students engaged in political, economic and ethical conditions, which they will use to think, question, doubt, and imagine.

The education we currently have is one in which students are getting prepared only for presenting exams and not for what is coming next in their lives. It is in this context where we live, where we have the opportunity and possibility to build a critical society in our own life. Nevertheless, the education is still in that lethargy where only a few have the advantage for going beyond. For Henry Giroux, pedagogy is the essential tool for eradicating this problem. He proposes a certain pedagogy in which students be social agents and learn from their own reality; in this case, one in which the student be the main character of their learning process and where the teacher does not have the control, but they learn along with the students. This pedagogy is about the teacher being in a continual learning process with their students and understanding that there is not paramount knowledge but the one they find out and build together. 

Summing up, education has real power because it is through it that individuals become critical. It is only when students look from a critical perspective of what is going on in the world that they are able to reflect and work on the gaps between learning and everyday life.

Stereotypes

STEREOTYPES

Every day and everywhere we can find ourselves listening to some stereotypes. Whether we like it or not, stereotypes are part of our lives and they are a way in which society is shaped. As we are either classified or classifying others into categories, in a certain way, we are playing along with those stereotypes and make them stronger. Therefore, it is up to us believe or not what society has established for certain behaviors and ways of thinking. To a certain extent, those categories may be annoyed for the people involved due to the fact that they might be false or they are just an exaggerated version of the truth. On the other hand, they might make people laugh because they are nonsense.

We are the responsible ones for making stereotyping grow, not only when we contribute to creating them, but when we take them as the absolute truth without questioning them. We have grown up in a community where it is normal to define people because of the groups they have been classified as part of. Consequently, stereotypes can damage the image of a person just because according to that person's behavior they are part of a group or community which is not well accepted. 

In the particular case of Colombia, people all around the world have many stereotypes and misconceptions about what Colombia and Colombian people really are. Whenever a Colombian goes abroad they will find with people's rejection because people from other countries believe that we all are drug dealers or that our country is very dangerous due to the thieves and guerrilla fighters. Those are two of the main wrong stereotypes about Colombia, we Colombian people neither go around taking a drug bag with us nor is Colombia a dangerous place to live in. In that way is how a few people screw up the image of a whole country. However, there are also some stereotypes that although they are not bad, can make feel people uncomfortable or out of place. For instance, when people think that every Colombian must dance very well like Shakira or that we all must be good Salsa dancers. Another stereotype is the one that makes people think Colombia just has good and beautiful beaches. Well, for some people it may be a surprise to find out that not every Colombian likes dancing and that in Colombia there are many beautiful places aside from the beaches.

On the whole, stereotypes are a way in which we may think we can recognize and categorize a person into a group, but that does not mean those characteristics are true for everyone in a group. That is why it is important to get to really know different cultures instead of just believe what we hear or what we perceive about them.