As a professor of psychology, I transform my psychology classrooms into creative thinktanks to help students see themselves as visionaries who can build a more loving world.
Teaching Method: Dialoguing for Collective Knowledge-Production
“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and therefore bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which [humans] deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” ― Paulo Freire, liberatory educator
In my classroom, I apply Paulo Freire’s method of teaching for transformation. Freire insisted that education must be based on non-hierarchical relationships, where every member of the classroom holds wisdom from their lived experience that can contribute to collective knowledge-production. This knowledge can, accordingly, facilitate creative transformations to build a better world. His vision of pedagogy empowers students to see themselves not only as knowledge consumers but as knowledge producers whose brilliant, creative ideas can meaningfully shape the world.
According to Freire, the most effective method for producing transformative knowledge is dialoguing for critical consciousness. This approach invites students to: (1) select a concrete social situation that concerns them, (2) pose a problematizing question about it to the class, (3) guide a collaborative dialogue that moves back and forth between theory and lived experience, (4) identify themes from the dialogue that reveal fresh insight into societal structures and dynamics, and (5) develop concrete solutions for social change based on these themes.
I tend to structure my classes with the above steps, so students learn to fall in love with the creative genius of their own minds to come up with visionary solutions that can improve the world.
Blueprints for a New Society in Which it Will Be Easier to Love
In Fall 2025, my students and I used Freire’s method to produce a playbook of blueprints to build a more loving society, based on the wisdom of social psychology. Created by 17 undergraduate psychology students and myself, this project was produced by transforming the psychology classroom into a collaborative thinktank devoted to reimagining our society’s future.
We ascribe to bell hooks’ definition of love as “the will to extend oneself to nurture the wellbeing and spiritual growth of self and others.” This 200-page playbook offers psychological insights and practical interventions to shape human behavior towards a love ethic that is infused across all societal institutions.
We invite you to read these blueprints, spread the ideas that inspire you, and join us in shaping a “society in which it will be easier to love,” in the words of Paulo Freire. The full project website can be viewed here: www.blueprintsforanewsociety.com
Dr. Nisha Gupta 