A generative theme is a pedagogical tool developed by Paulo Freire. Defining anything that Friere said or did is always tricky. For our purposes, a generative theme is an idea or concept that is relevant to the student’s life that evokes strong emotional responses. Generally, the emotional response is negative.
The reason for evoking a negative emotional response is to try and awaken the student to the injustice of whatever is being discussed. Friere was a huge proponent of awakening political literacy in students. By political literacy, we mean being aware of the oppression that the student is living through and realizing a need to resist those with power through revolution. If generative themes are used to evoke positive feelings it will probably not motivate the students to demand change.
In the Classroom
It is the teacher’s job to discover relevant generative themes for the students. There are several ways this can be achieved. Examples can include surveys, dialog, and exposure to provocative material. Focusing on proactive material, there has been a large amount of controversy about sexuality in schools and its appropriateness.
One motivation for pushing the boundaries in this area is that exposure to controversial sexuality could trigger strong emotions within students about what is okay and acceptable. Teachers can use this to discuss questioning boundaries and fighting for people who are different. Without the shock of sexual material (the generative theme), there would be no emotional engagement of the student and thus less engagement in change.
Another way in which generative themes are inserted into a classroom is by removing Western-centric material for non-Western ideas. The process of doing this is known as decolonization. An example might be deemphasizing the work of European male scientists for female scientists and scientists from other parts of the world. The focus in doing this would often be how these other scientists had to fight discrimination to achieve what they did. Showing the students the injustice these scientists faced could serve as a generative theme to develop strong negative emotional responses, which lead to a desire for change.
Generative themes must always be taken from the students’ lives in order to engage them. This is one reason for the push for culturally relevant teaching. Taking examples from the students’ lives can serve as another mechanism for moving the students to push for change. For example, students might be asked how would it feel to be a slave before the Civil War. This might be followed by how would it feel to be a slave owner.
From slavery, the conversation might move to the present day where some of the descendants of slaves and slaveowners often live different lives because of their past. A final question would ask the students if they think it is fair and just that the system treats people differently based on their past. In all of these questions, the focus was always on feelings.
Why Feelings
The reason for the focus on feelings is to trigger emotional engagement. As the students ponder these questions they will probably feel negative emotions, such as anger or guilt, as they relive in their minds these experiences. The anger and guilt they feel are then used by the teacher to show them how they need to fight oppression. The oppressed student will use their anger for change while the students who are the oppressors will use their guilt to push for change.
It is important to note that nothing the students experienced was real in terms that it happened to them or did they do it to someone else. However, the emotions make the injustice real for the students even though it may not have taken place in their own lives. It is similar to going to a movie on racism and leaving the theater angry or guilty because of what you saw in the movie. However, if the injustice has been experienced in the student’s life it makes it all the more powerful when blame is placed on a structure of power.
To be fair, Friere used generative themes to teach reading. For example, if through dialog the generative theme of poverty was discovered. The teacher is supposed to teach the students how to spell and read the word poverty. However, students are often so distracted by the emotional strange of discovery injustice that academic skill development is secondary to awakening a need for action.
Conclusion
A major problem with generative themes is their emotional focus. Students do not necessarily develop thinking skills in this context. Instead, they learn to express strong emotions, which generally should be controlled. In addition, fighting for justice is so attractive for teachers that it is pushing out the development of actual skills in an academic setting. If students feel the system is unjust and they do not have any competency in basic literacy. The only kind of employment they could do would be community activism and protesting, which when overdone is not necessarily beneficial to society.