Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach which attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate. In other words, it is a theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness. Critical pedagogue Ira Shor defines critical pedagogy as Domination is a supreme or preeminate control, rule, or governing; plural dominion. ... Critical consciousness, or conscientizacao (Portuguese), is a popular education and social concept developed by renowned Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire to address a state of in-depth understanding about the world and resulting freedom from oppression. ... Ira Shor is a professor at the City University of New York, where he teaches composition and rhetoric. ...

Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliches, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse. (Empowering Education, 129)

In this tradition the teacher works to lead students to question ideologies and practices that the students themselves consider oppressive (including those at school), and encourage liberatory collective and individual responses to the actual conditions of their own lives.

The student often begins as a member of the group or process (including religion, national identity, cultural norms, or expected roles) he or she is critically studying. After the student reaches the point of revelation (received wisdom) where he or she begins to view present society as deeply problematic, the next behavior encouraged is sharing this knowledge, paired with an attempt to change the oppressive nature of the society.

Background, Developing a Call for Action

Critical pedagogy was heavily influenced by the works of Paulo Freire, arguably the most celebrated critical educator. According to his writings, Freire heavily endorses students’ ability to think critically about their education situation; this way of thinking allows them to “recognize connections between their individual problems and experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded.”[1] Realizing one’s consciousness ("conscientization") is a needed first step of "praxis," which is defined as the power and know-how to take action against oppression while stressing the importance of liberating education. “Praxis involves engaging in a cycle of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory. Social transformation is the product of praxis at the collective level.”[2] Paulo Freire (Recife, Brazil September 19, 1921 - São Paulo, Brazil May 2, 1997) was a Brazilian educator and is a highly influential theorist of education. ...

Postmodern, anti-racist, feminist, postcolonial, and queer theories all play a role in further explaining Freire’s ideas of critical pedagogy, shifting its main focus on social class to include issues pertaining to race, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and age. Many contemporary critical pedagogues have embraced postmodern, anti-essentialist perspectives of the individual, of language, and of power, “while at the same time retaining the Freirean emphasis on critique, disrupting oppressive regimes of power/knowledge, and social change.”[3] Contemporary critical educators, such as bell hooks appropriated by Peter McLaren, discuss in their criticisms the influence of many varied concerns, institutions, and social structures, “including globalization, the mass media, and race relations,” while citing reasons for resisting the possibilities to change.[4] Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... Anti-racism, like other general social attitudes, ideas and movements, has many variations and faces. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Postcolonial theory is a literary theory or critical approach that deals with literature produced in countries that were once, or are now, colonies of other countries. ... The word queer has traditionally meant strange or unusual, but it is also currently often used in reference to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and asexual communities. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... Gender in common usage refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... Look up Sex on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A sex is one of two specimen categories of species that recombine their genetic material in order to reproduce, a process called genetic recombination. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Gloria Jean Watkins (born on September 25, 1952), better known as bell hooks, is an African-American intellectual, feminist, and social activist. ... Peter McLaren Peter McLaren (b. ...

Examples

History

During South African apartheid, legal racialization implemented by the regime drove members of the radical leftist Teachers' League of South Africa to employ critical pedagogy with a focus on nonracialism in Cape Town schools and prisons. Teachers collaborated loosely to subvert the racist curriculum and encourage critical examination of political and social circumstances in terms of humanist and democratic ideologies. The efforts of such teachers are credited with having bolstered student resistance and activism.^[1] A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ...

Literature

Famous authors of critical pedagogy texts not only include Paulo Freire, as mentioned above, but also Michael Apple, Rich Gibson, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, Joe L. Kincheloe, Howard Zinn, and others. Famous educationalists including Jonathan Kozol and Parker Palmer are sometimes included in this category. Other critical pedagogues more famous for their anti-schooling, unschooling, or deschooling perspectives include Ivan Illich, John Holt, Ira Shor, John Taylor Gatto, and Matt Hern. Much of the work draws on feminism, marxism, Lukacs, Wilhelm Reich, post-colonialism, and the discourse theories of Edward Said, Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault. Radical Teacher is a magazine dedicated to critical pedagogy and issues of interest to critical educators. The Rouge Forum is an online organization led by people involved with critical pedagogy. Paulo Freire (Recife, Brazil September 19, 1921 - São Paulo, Brazil May 2, 1997) was a Brazilian educator and is a highly influential theorist of education. ... Michael W. Apple is a leading critical educational theorist. ... Henry Giroux, born September 18, 1943, is a US cultural critic. ... Peter McLaren Peter McLaren (b. ... Joe L. Kincheloe is an internationally-known Professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University (Canada). ... Howard Zinn (born August 24, 1922) is an American historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller, A Peoples History of the United States. ... Jonathan Kozol at Pomona College April 17, 2003 Jonathan Kozol (born 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States. ... Parker J. Palmer (born 1939) is an author, educator, and activist. ... Unschooling is a form of education in which learning is based on the students interests, needs, and goals. ... Deschooling is a term used by both education philosophers and proponents of alternative education and/or homeschooling, which refers to different things in each context. ... This article is about the Austrian philosopher. ... John Caldwell Holt (April 14, 1923 - September 14, 1985) was an American author and educator, one of the best known proponents of homeschooling, and a pioneer in youth rights theory. ... Ira Shor is a professor at the City University of New York, where he teaches composition and rhetoric. ... John Taylor Gatto (born John Gatto) is an American retired school teacher of 30 years and author of several books on education. ... Feminists redirects here. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Edward Wadie Saïd, Arabic: , , (1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and outspoken Palestinian activist. ... Antonio Gramsci (IPA: ) (January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician and political theorist. ... Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Radical Teacher is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist magazine dedicated to issues of education. ...

Critiques of Critical Pedagogy

This approach has its critics. They attack the methodology, the goal, and appearances. Below are some contrary views.

• Teachers that use this method will often bias the class towards an anti-status quo position instead of allowing them to decide if they agree or disagree with the situation at hand.
• This approach to understanding the nature of society is often presented in a very intellectual fashion. When an individual attains the interest to find out the validity of the statements he inherently must consider himself separate from the rest of society. Critics will describe such a self-image as being elitist in a way which excludes the bulk of society thus preventing progress.
• The goal exceeds the desire to instill creativity and exploration by encouraging detrimental disdain for tradition, hierarchy (such as parental control over children), and self-isolation.
• Such a high degree of distrust in generally accepted truths will create or perpetuate conspiracy theories.
• Critical pedagogists selectively pick icons to interrogate and subvert: for example, Thomas Jefferson but not Martin Luther King.
• Many people involved in critical pedagogy have never been involved in serious struggles and have used the field to build themselves and a small publishing cabal rather than a social movement.
• Critical pedagogy is, in many instances, a movement in opposition to revolutionary or marxist movements as easily seen in its roots in Catholic base communities of Latin America, created to stave off the potential of class war. Much of critical pedagogy focuses on culture, language, and abstractions about domination rather than criticizing the centrality of class, alienation, and exploitation.
• Rather than "liberating" student thought, teachers replace a cultural bias with their own bias.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Critical pedagogy

This article is about the English rock band. ... Elitism is a belief or attitude that an elite — a selected group of persons whose personal abilities, specialized training or other attributes place them at the top of any field (see below) — are the people whose views on a matter are to be taken most seriously, or who are alone... A conspiracy theory is a theory that defies common historical or current understanding of events, under the claim that those events are the result of manipulations by two or more individuals or various secretive powers or conspiracies. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ... “Martin Luther King” redirects here. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. ...

See also

• Curriculum studies
• Inclusive classroom
• Conscientization
• Queer Pedagogy
• Student voice
• Critical thinking
• Conscientization
• Critical consciousness
• Popular education
• Teaching for social justice
• Adult literacy
• Adult education
• Praxis
• Praxis intervention
• Social criticism

Curriculum studies is a field that addresses distinct and important issues related to education. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The term Conscientization comes from the Portuguese term Conscientizacão. ... // Introduction Queer Pedagogy explores the intersection between queer theory and critical pedagogy. ... // Student Voice is a neologism describing the distinct perspectives and actions of young people throughout education focused on education. ... are you kiddin ? i was lookin for it for hours ... The term Conscientization comes from the Portuguese term Conscientizacão. ... Critical consciousness, or conscientizacao (Portuguese), is a popular education and social concept developed by renowned Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire to address a state of in-depth understanding about the world and resulting freedom from oppression. ... It has been suggested that Folk high school be merged into this article or section. ... Teaching for social justice is an educational philosophy that proponents argue provides justice and equity for all learners in all educational settings. ... Literacy is the ability to read and write. ... Libraries are useful resources for adult learners. ... Praxis may refer to: Praxis (process), the process of putting theoretical knowledge into practice Praxis (Eastern Orthodoxy), the practice of faith, especially worship Praxis (band), a Bill Laswell musical project Praxis (moon), a planetary body in the Star Trek universe Praxis Care Group, a Northern Ireland based mental health charity. ... // Praxis Intervention is a kind of Participatory Action Research, with a difference. ... A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis; a social critic of a given society, but the overlap is large. ...

External links

• Radical Teacher magazine
• The Rouge Forum
• Radical Teaching, a critical pedagogy site
• Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, Culture
• Liberatory Education
• Many relevant links
• "What is Critical Literacy?" by Ira Shor
• For Your Own Good by Alice Miller

Paulo Freire (Recife, Brazil September 19, 1921 - São Paulo, Brazil May 2, 1997) was a Brazilian educator and is a highly influential theorist of education. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Unencyclopedic. ... The term Conscientization comes from the Portuguese term Conscientizacão. ... Critical consciousness, or conscientizacao (Portuguese), is a popular education and social concept developed by renowned Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire to address a state of in-depth understanding about the world and resulting freedom from oppression. ... Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the most widely known of Paulo Freires works. ... It has been suggested that Folk high school be merged into this article or section. ... Look up praxis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Teaching for social justice is an educational philosophy that proponents argue provides justice and equity for all learners in all educational settings. ... Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults. ...

References

1. ^ Wieder, Alan (2003). Voices from Cape Town Classrooms: Oral Histories of Teachers Who Fought Apartheid. History of Schools and Schooling Series, vol. 39. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-6768-5.

2 - 4. http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/~stevens/critped/page1.htm