Facilitating Freirean Pedagogy and Asset-based Learning in an Asynchronous Environment in a Doctoral Public Health Course

The Department of Social and Behavioral Health offers an asynchronous course, Advanced Applications of Social and Behavioral Theories (HED 762), to doctoral students in public health. In this course, commonly used behavior and social change theories are taught. One such theory is the Freirean theory of adult education, which emphasizes dialogue, critical conscientization, praxis, transformation, and critical consciousness. The instructor of this course uses a variety of methods to imbibe this pedagogy that comprise (a) the use of the fourth-generation multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change to motivate students, (b) Freirean dialogue in the Canvas discussion forum with students taking the lead on a peer-reviewed application case study, (c) video recordings of interviews with Paulo Freire, (d) exploration of websites on liberation education, (e) synchronous clarification session, and (e) review of Freire’s books. In this presentation, a duo team of doctoral students (one international and one minority domestic) who participated in this course in Fall 2025 shares their experiences. Furthermore, the mean course rating over the four years for the course on semester-end evaluation was 4.91/5.00, the instructor was 4.93/5.00, and overall, 4.91/5.00.