My Selfie with Paulo Freire; or, Honest Work
Education spins on the axis of reputation which spins on the axis of influence...so much so that the desire to simply help people learn can get very, very lost in the mix.
Sean Michael Morris
Sean Michael Morris
Latest posts
See who is in there with you
I have always understood teaching as a utopian work.
The Pedagogy We Practice
On May 20, 2025, I was invited to keynote the Spring Pedagogy Institute at Plymouth State University. The text of that keynote is below, followed by the slide presentation. It’s been awhile since I’ve presented a keynote. And even longer since I presented in person. And
Remember who you are
Agency is inevitable, and in the empty space of layoff, we can begin building again.
Ungrading, AI, and Feedback as Scholarly Work
When we take the time to write feedback, we connect our own thinking to a student’s thinking, thereby opening up the possibility for new knowledge and insight to develop.
AI, Humans & the Future of Education: an Interview
The most important opportunity AI presents: The opportunity to recognise that we made AI, it didn’t make us. It learned from us, not the other way around. It’s trying to imitate us, to be more like us, because what we’ve got going on is pretty remarkable.
What GenAI May Take Away
A great deal is being said about the transformative power of generative AI. Digital tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Claude.ai, Otter.ai, and a host of chatbots and AI supplements to existing platforms all promise to change the way we work, learn, enjoy media, create art, and write. New "
Hitting Backspace: Critical Digital Pedagogy and AI
AI only works because we have let human life become automatable.
To Open Myself to Possibilities
"The word becomes an alibi." — Roland Barthes I have writer's block. And this is how it feels: it feels like the start of a conversation—that terrific moment when you know you're going really get into something, and you can see the
The End of Grades: An Afterword to Undoing the Grade
When we grade, we teach students to rely less on their own thoughts about their worth than upon ours.
"if boredom should prevail": A Few Thoughts on Student Engagement
On February 23, 2023, I was invited to present at keynote at the Fierce Education conference. Below is the text of that keynote. A very long time ago, I wrote a letter to my students. I was a teacher then, a teacher of creative writing. And every day, I went
Opening Doors with Open Pedagogy: Access, Imagination, and Student Engagement
On August 10, I was invited to present a keynote address to the Affordable Learning Pennsylvania (ALPA) summit. The text of the keynote is below. An interesting thing happened on the way to writing this keynote. I began reading—or more accurately, listening to—a book called Emergent
Technology is Made of People
To me, pedagogy happens when learning defies its container. In that strange and awkward and generative moment when the normal containers for education are opened or broken… and no one is quite sure what will come next.
Critical Resilience
This piece was originally published on 14 October 2021 by OEB Insights, the newsletter for the Online Educa Berlin conference. Many years ago when my father was still alive, he used to tell me to keep my chin up. I came out of the closet and divorced the person I&
A Primer for the Progressive Educator
On August 3, 2021, I was invited to give a talk to primary and secondary educators at a Human Restoration Project event. The text of that talk is below. I started my now 20-year career in progressive pedagogy in a very unprogressive way. The first job that I had