According to Paolo Freire (1987):
"There must be a dialogue, a dialectical exchange in which ideas take shape and change as the learners in the Culture Circle think about their thinking and interpret their interpretations" (p. xvi).
Rejecting the dichotomy of the affective and cognitive domains ingrained in American educational thinking, Freire "sees thinking and feeling, along with action, as aspects of all that we do in making sense of the world" (p. xvi).
Culture Circle is a way of questioning the status quo especially when there exists a power differential and teachers feel powerless, without agency and voice. For example, standardized testing, curricular decisions mandated by others, micromanaging professional learning teacher groups, among many others.
Culture Circle shines a spotlight on the conscious critical investigation of the reasons behind these mandates and procedures. "Liberated" from misconception, misperception, and misinterpretation by delving in to explore who are making these decisions and their rationale; asking what theory supports such action, we, as teachers, move from problem solving to problem posing as we continually look at our theory and practice over and over toward eventually inventing new pedagogies (xxiii).