From the “Ivory Tower” to the “University of the Poor”

Abstract

Adopting a Freirean perspective, the purpose of this autoethnography is to reframe the typical relationship between university educators and communities in poverty by highlighting the educative impact of such a community on a university professor’s academic, cross-cultural critical and civic learning. By reframing communities in poverty as sources of learning for counter-hegemonic praxis, this article highlights how community engagement facilitates the authentic understanding of critical pedagogy, the rethinking of curriculum development, deeper critical awareness of the mechanisms by which privilege and marginalization are perpetuated, and opportunities to learn how some of these processes might be interrupted through meaningful university–community partnership.