A RED-letter day

Author: Tony Davis

Edition: Volume 61, Number 3, November 2021

Introduction: Paulo Freire spent over ten years in exile from his native country. His letters are full of reflections and advice to modern readers and were a way to share his ideas about the unity between theory and practice. This is why we have invited readers to contribute ‘letters to a teacher’: not to emulate one of Freire’s last publications, Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach, but to help bring his thinking to life.

In ‘A RED-letter day’ Tony Davis, another teacher educator, describes to a Technical and Further Education teacher how they might have more agency in changing the way that teaching is assessed in their college. He suggests turning the observation of teaching sessions into a research project in which risks are taken and colleagues peer-review one another’s work in a supportive way. Tony argues that it is necessary to take risks when you teach if we are all to improve what we do for adult students. His letter suggests engaging with ‘accountability’ and turning our teaching into a transformational activity in which we learn. ‘Our job as teachers’ he says, ‘is to help adult learners to be curious, excited about the learning they do, to grow as individuals, and to care’.

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 61:3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.