I shoved my annotated, well-used copy of Pedagogy of the Oppressed into my book bag as class ended and I approached my professor, Dr. Carrillo. I told Dr. Carrillo, an education professor, that I had finalized my summer plans: I would be interning with The Center for Education Reform in Washington, DC. I joked that I was unsure if he would approve; the Center has been one of (many, many) organizations criticized by Diane Ravitch, the education icon and author of our assigned reading the previous week. Dr. Carrillo laughed and the two of us agreed that my internship would give me an opportunity to apply the class material in the real world and engage in Friere’s notion of critical consciousness. The internship would give me the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and challenge myself to think critically about education policy and my own beliefs.
Before interning at CER, my experience with ed policy had been informed by academic theory and research learned in class (I am an education minor) and the realities of ‘policy in practice’ I witness while working in local classrooms. CER gave me the opportunity to experience a policy actor I had only read about in introductory public policy textbooks: the non-profit sector. This past summer I have learned the intricacies involved in non-profit work and the incredible networking that fuels any organization. Through the lens of CER I have come to see how various political actors (legislators, school districts, teachers, parents, media, etc.) work with non-profits to push reform forward. It is an incredibly complex and personalized effort that cannot be understood through the dry language of a college textbook.
Furthermore, I have been exposed to an incredibly diverse array of opinions and positions at CER. Researching and reading about pertinent education policy ‘hot-topics’ has enabled me to better understand the nuanced complexities of education issues. I can confidently walk away from this summer feeling as though my opinions are not only more concrete, but better informed. I may not be a newly realized education authority à la Linda Darling Hammond or Caroline Hoxby, but I do have a firmer understanding of the problems facing our public education system today. And furthermore, I am excited to continue developing that understanding.
In a month, school will be back in session at Chapel Hill, and I will be setting forth to conquer my senior year. The finality of senior year would worry me more, I think, if I hadn’t interned with the Center for Education Reform this summer. I am surer than ever that I want to be involved in education after graduation, either in the classroom or in the policy arena. I am excited to apply the experience and lessons I’ve gained and learned at CER to my education classes and activities. And I hope to find myself in Dr. Carrillo’s office, discussing what the summer taught me about education and myself and the steps CER coaxed me to take towards achieving the ever-elusive critical consciousness of Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.