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Critical Pedagogy

 

What is Critical Pedagogy?

 

Critical pedagogy is an educational movement which emphasizes the importance of and impact of power relationships in the educational process.  Proponents of critical pedagogy are committed to the critical pedagogical engagement of students in transformative and liberationist political practice.  Critical Pedagogy is also notable in the field of educational theories as an educational practice that seeks to problematise different forms of knowledge, theory and belief which are established as "truth." Critical Pedagogy studies the role which education plays in maintaining the social stratification of society, and the possibilities for social change which exist through the schools. Critical pedagogy is both a way of thinking about education and a method of instructional practice which examines the relationship among classroom teaching, the production of knowledge, the larger institutional structures of the school, and the social and material relations of the wider community, society, and nation state. (McLaren, 2007) 

 

Critical Pedagogy What is Critical Pedagogy? Critical Pedagogy and Neoliberalism Brief Historical Context Fundamental Principles, Major Concepts and Discourses Critical Theory Social Construction of Knowledge Knowledge and Power Hidden Curriculum Social Reproduction A Few Principal Proponents and Texts Paulo Freire   1921-1997 Henry Giroux     1943- Peter McLaren  1948 - Joe Kincheloe 1950-2008 Criticisms of Critical Pedagogy Critical Pedagogy In the Curriculum & Classroom See Also Selected Bibliography

 

Critical Pedagogy and Neoliberalism

 

The theory and practice of critical pedagogy did not arise as a particular response to neoliberalism; however, critical pedagogues would argue that students engaged in critical pedagogy would become aware of and critical of the hegemony of neoliberal ideologies as a manifestation of a dominant culture.  Gramsci (1991) identifies the hegemony of classical neoliberal ideologies as an "imperialistic and colonizing set of policy discourses and practices" under the dynamic of deregulation, privatization, commodification, marketization and subjugation of social policy to market forces.  (in Macdonald and Ruckert, 2009, p. 151).  An instructional practice of critical pedagogy would engage students to become aware of the dominance of neoliberal ideology, to critically analyse the apparent "truths" of that dominant ideology, to determine what is "wrong" or "hidden" in that ideology and then to propose and take action towards change.

 

 

Brief Historical Context

 

The term critical pedagogy was first used by Henry Giroux in his book Theory and Resistance in Education (1983).  The critical pedagogy movement however, traces its philosophical and practical roots much earlier.  The movement for critical pedagogy has philosophical roots in the theories of American educational philosopher John Dewey whose celebrated work Democracy and Education (1916) laid the foundation for progressive education, and in the critical theorist philosophy of the Frankfurt School of post WWII Europe.  The development of critical pedagogy traces very practical roots and origins in the educational philosophy developed by Paulo Freire from educational experiences and practices in poverty stricken areas of Brazil of the 1960s.   Since that time many theorists and practitioners have become proponents of critical pedagogy, the principal among them being Donaldo Macedo, Ira Shor, Stanley Aronowitz, Antonio Gramsci, Henry Giroux, Joe Kinchloe and Peter McLaren.  Critical pedagogy as a theory and practice continues to change and develop particularly in response to the current dominant socio-economic order of neoliberalism.  Critical pedagogy, also called called utopian pedagogy (Giroux, in Cote, 2007) is based in an understanding of education as a fundamentally political practice.  

 

 

Fundamental Principles, Major Concepts and Discourses

 

Critical pedagogy has many proponents with diverse views.  There are, however, central shared theoretical concepts which form the basis for all understandings of critical pedagogy: critical theory, the social construction of knowledge, the power/knowledge relation, the hidden curriculum and social reproduction.

 

Critical Theory

• Critical theory is a way of understanding the interactive context between humans and their society.  The individual is understood as a social actor who both creates and is created by the social universe of which he/she is a part (McLaren, p. 194).  In terms of education, critical theory understands and analyses schools as places of both indoctrination and socialization and as a places of student empowerment and self-transformation.  The critical theorist is interested in the dialectic which arises from contradictions and interface between these two realities:  school as a place of domination and liberation.  

• In the classroom:  Students learn to recognize how they are educated to become both dominated by and empowered to change the school system and society at large.

 

Social Construction of Knowledge

• Critical theorists understand that knowledge is socially constructed.  Knowledge is inevitably historically and socially rooted and bound to specific interests.  Knowledge, according to critical theorist perspectives, is never neutral but is rather embedded in a network of power relations.  The task of the critical theorist is to stand in the midst of the social context in which he/she lives and to observe or question his/her referential field. (McLaren, 197).   

• In the classroom:  Students are taught to frame and respond to questions about the potential power relations in various forms of knowledge.  Students would identify the power interests within which any given "truth" is situated. 

 

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Knowledge and Power

• Critical pedagogy is concerned with the fundamental relationship between knowledge and power.  Critical pedagogy draws upon the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault whose work examines the socially constructed nature of "knowledge as truth."  Foucault understands power relations as entirely embedded in our discourses and ways of knowing and understanding.  According to Foucault, the discourses we use, or ways of speaking about and framing our understandings are almost invisible to us as speakers.  Discourses speak us we don't speak them.  
• In the classroom:  Students develop an awareness of the how the knowledge that is deemed valuable has been determined by those who have power.  Students would gain experience analysing "dominant" discourses which are used in society to determine what is understood to be the "truth."  Students would identify voices which are "silenced."

 

Hidden Curriculum

• According to critical pedagogy a curriculum is more than just a program of study; a curriculum is an introduction to a way of life that prepares students for particular roles in an existing society.  A curriculum affirms certain types of knowledge and skills.  The hidden curriculum would therefore refer to the unexposed or unconscious outcomes of the educational process.

• In the classroom:  Student would identify the biases which are embedded in any given curricular content or structuring.  Students would be asked to examine how they are "slaves to a belief system."

 

Social Reproduction

• According to the theory of social reproduction, schools perpetuate or reproduce the social relationships and attitudes which sustain the existing dominant class relations of the larger society (McLaren, 2007, p. 214).  Schools are said to reproduce the structures of social life by colonizing student subjectivities. 
• In the classroom:  A critical educator would ask how he/she is transmitting existing societal structures and norms and to what purpose.  He/She would ask the students how they are prevented from self-realization due to existing power structures.  Students would examine their own attitudes and values about existing inequalities in their country, community or school and propose alternative structures, policies or understandings.

 

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A Few Principal Proponents and Texts

 

 

Paulo Freire   1921-1997

 

Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator and principal theorist of critical pedagogy.  In Brazil, after the early death of his father, Freire experienced extreme poverty and hunger and consequently fell behind in school.  His family fortunes improved and Freire became a teacher in Brazil but his early experiences remained influential in his work with improverised people in north-eastern Brazil.  Freire began to conceive of education as a force for social renewal.  His ongoing work in education in Brazil led to his most famous text, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1973).  Freire states that there is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes ‘the practice of freedom’ the means by which citizens critique reality and discover how to participate in changing or transformating their world. 

 

"... to teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create possibilities for the production and construction of knowledge." (Friere, 1999, p. 30) 

 

                                                         

                                             1970 Most famous work        1999  Last published work

 

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Henry Giroux     1943-

 

Henry Giroux is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States.  Giroux taught high school for 6 years before pursuing further studies and achieving a doctorate of education in 1977.  Giroux has held a number of academic appointments as a professor of education in the USA.  Since 2004 Henry Giroux has held the Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton.  Giroux is an outspoken commentator and champion of social justice issues and a prolific, widely published writer. Henry Giroux has written over 50 books and over 300 academic articles.  He is an advocate of radical democracy and is vociferous in his opposition to neoliberalism, religious fundamentalism and all forms of social injustice.  "Feeding into the increasingly dominant view that society cannot be fundamentally improved except through market forces, neoliberalism strips utopianism of its possibilities for social critique and democratic engagement" (Giroux, in Utopian Pedagogy, 2007, p. 32).   "Central to my argument is the assumption that politics is not simply about power, but also ... questions of civic education and critical pedagogy ... are central to the struggle over political agency and democracy.   (Giroux, in Utopian Pedagogy, 2007, p. 28).

 

 

             

                                                                      Recent monograph 2011              2011  Peter Lang Publishers   

 

Culture, Politics, Pedagogy:  A Conversation with Henry Giroux, August 27, 2011

 

In this approximately 5 minute interview produced by Challenging Media, Giroux talks about his new book On Critical Pedagogy (2011).  Giroux shares autobiographical background to illuminate and trace the development path of his ideas.  Giroux makes very clear statements about his understanding of the importance of the integration of theoretical understanding into educational practice and the basic principles of critical pedagogy.  He also comments decisively on the US No Child Left Behind (NCLB policy). 

 

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Peter McLaren  1948 -

 

Peter McLaren is one of the leading proponents of critical pedagogy in the United States.  He is a professor an UCLA and the author of 45 books and hundreds of articles. Peter McLaren was born in Canada.  His early experiences working as a teacher at Jane and Finch in Toronto in the 1970s was formative in his development as a critical pedagogue.  The daily journal that he wrote about his experiences teaching in the urban ghetto formed the cornerstone of his monograph Life in Schools:  An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education, originally published in 1998 and now in its 5th edition.  Life  in Schools (2007)is considered to be a textbook of critical pedagogy.  "Life in Schools is the story of my reinvention as an educator, from a liberal humanist who pressed the necessity of reform to a Marxist humanist who advocates revolutionary praxis.  By "revolutionary praxis" I mean educating for a social revolution through critical pedagogy" (McLaren, Life in Schools, 2007, xvii).  McLaren is active an active participant in critical pedagogy initiatives in Mexico and Venezuela.

 

"[Critical pedagogy] resonates with the sensibility of the Hebrew symbol of tikkun, which means ‘to heal, repair, and transform the world, all the rest is commentary.’ It provides historical, cultural, political, and ethical direction for those in education who still dare to hope. Irrevocably committed to the side of the oppressed, critical pedagogy is as revolutionary as the earlier view of the authors of the Declaration of Independence: history is fundamentally open to change, liberation is an authentic goal, and a radically different world can be brought into being” (McLaren, 2007).

 

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                                                          2007 5th Edition                                2000    

 

Peter McLaren in Venezuela, Pedagogia Critica I 

 

Peter McLaren is participating in Conferencia "Retos de la pedagogía crítica ante la crisis socioeducativa actua." in Venezuela.  This approximately 7 minute interview is part one of a five part series about critical pedagogy.  In part one McLaren shares autobiographical background from his early teaching experiences in extremely marginalized neighbourhoods. McLaren then discusses the development of his critical pedagogical theories from his teaching practice. 

 

 

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Joe Kincheloe 1950-2008

 

Joe Kincheloe was professor and Canada Research Chair in Critical Pedagogy at McGill University. He wrote more than 45 books, many many book chapters and hundreds of journal and other articles.  Joe was a proponent of critical pedagogy.  He established the Paulo and Nita Freire Project for Critical Pedagogy based in Montreal Canada.  Kinchloe was interested in Freire's concept of conscientization or "critical consciousness."  Freire's conscientization is important to a theory of critical pedagogy.

 

Conscientization involves the ability to pose questions that "make problematic" forms of knowledge generally assumed and understood as "normal" or innocuous.  Freire's concept of "critical consciousness" enables the learner to become aware of the discourses that speak through us in social, cultural, economic, and political contexts and therefore leave knowledge or "truth" unquestioned, unexamined and unchallenged.

 

             

                                                       2008                                                  2008 Second Edition                    

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Kincheloe and Giroux in Conversation Dec 7, 2007

 

In this approximately 9 minute video Joe Kincheloe interviews Henry Giroux about critical pedagogy.  While Giroux is the interviewee, Kincheloe's questions lead thoughtfully to a greater understanding of critical pedagogy.

 

 

 

 

Criticisms of Critical Pedagogy

 

Ellesworth, in her widely published essay, critiques critical pedagogy based on her experience of the implementation of critical pedagogical practice.  Ellesworth, in "Why Doesn't This Feel Empowering:  Working through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy" (1999). outlines her attempt to develop an anti-racist course with students on campus in response to violent incidents.  Ellsworth unsuccessfully tried to use the language of critical pedagogy and concluded that "the discourse of critical pedagogy is based on rationalist assumptions that give rise to repressive myths" (p. 298).   Ellsworth argues that if these assumptions, goals, implicit power dynamics, and issues of who produces valid knowledge remain untheorized and untouched, critical pedagogues will continue to perpetuate relations of domination in their classrooms." Ellesworth states that "to the extent that our efforts to put discourses of critical pedagogy into practice led us to reproduce relations of domination in our classroom, these discourses were working through us in repressive ways and had themselves become vehicles of repression" (p. 298).  In conclusion Ellsworth asks the question, “What diversity do we silence in the name of liberatory pedagogy?” (p. 299).

 

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Critical Pedagogy In the Curriculum & Classroom

 

Critical pedagogy is evident in various forms in the Ontario curriculum.  Elements of critical pedagogy are, for example, implicit rather than overt in the Language curriculum through the development of critical literacies and in the Social Studies/Geography/History curricula, through the teaching of social justice. .  

 

For example, according to the Ontario Elementary Language Curriculum:  Media Literacy (REVISED), students are expected to learn to "critically interpret media texts." Curricular content is worded almost identically in the Secondary English:  Media Literacy expectations from grades 9-12.  Some of the expectations from the Media Literacy curriculum can be understood to engage students in important elements of critical pedagogical learning through a development of critical literacy skills.  The following expectations, for example, are taken from the expectations of student achievement in the Ontario Curriculum, Language K-8: Media Literacy. 

 

• Identify the purpose and intended audience of a media text (1.1)
• identify overt and implied messages in simple media texts (1.2)
• identify whose point of view is expressed in a media text (1.5) 
• identify who makes some of the simple media texts with which they are familiar, and why those texts are produced (1.6)

 

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eentary/language18currb.pdfng/curriculum/elem  

 

Critical pedagogues might argue that, despite recognition of and inclusion of the critical literacy element of critical pedagogy in the Ontario curriculum, without explicit teaching of critical pedagogy as a means of political transformation and social renewal, student engagement in critical literacies will inevitably fall short of a truely transformative critical pedagogy.  

 

Ira Shor is a transformative critical pedagogue in the USA.  Shor has written about a wide range of his experiences implementing critical pedagogy in the classroom setting.  The principal praxis of critical pedagogy is understood to be non-formulaic; each teacher must develop a praxis through design of locally situated context-specific curricula and strategies.  In Education is Politics:  Critical Teaching Across Differences, K-12 (1999), Shor and Pari provide examples of critical pedagogical practice through narratives of individual teachers.  Shor and Pari define the role of  education as challenging inequality and domİnant myths rather than as socializing students into the status quo.  Critical pedagogical classroom praxis is developed in localized contexts. According to Shor and Pari (1999), the following ten elements of critical pedagogy would be found in a critical pedagogy classroom context.

 

• Oppose socialization with desocialization
• Choose critical consciousness over commercial consciousness
• Transformation of society over reproduction of inequality
• Promote democracy by practicing it and by studying authoritarianism
• Challenge student withdrawal through participatory courses
• Illuminate the myths supporting the elite hierarchy of society
• Interfere with the scholastic disabling of students through a critical literacy program
• Raise awareness about the thought and language expressed in daily life
• Distribute research skills and censored information useful for investigating power and policy in society
• Invite students to reflect socially on their conditions, to consider overcoming limits.

 

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See Also

 

Ecopedagogy

 

 

Selected Bibliography

 

Cote, M., Day, R. J. F., & de Peuter, G. (Eds.). (2007).  Utopian Pedagogy:  Radical Experiments against Neoliberal Globalization.  Toronto:  University of Toronto Press.

 

Ellesworth, E. (1999).  "Why Doesn't this Feel Empowering?  Working through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy.  In B. Pescosolido (Ed.)  The Social Worlds of Higher Education: Handbook for Teaching in a New Century.  USA:  Indiana University Press. 

 

Friere, P. (1999).  Pedagogy of Freedom.  USA:  Rowan & Littlefield.  

 

Giroux, H. (2011).  On Critical Pedagogy.  New York:  Continuum International Publishing Group.  

 

Hill, D., & Kumar, R. (Eds.). (2009).  Global Neoliberalism and Education and it's Consequences.  New York:  Routledge.

     http://www.scribd.com/doc/59388364/Dave-Hill-amp-Ravi-Kumar-Ed-Global-Neoliberalism-amp-Education-amp-Its-Consequences

 

Hinchey, P.  (2004).  Becoming a Critical Educator:  Defining Classroom Identity, Designing a Critical Pedagogy.   New York:  Peter Lang.  

 

Hursch, D. W., & Hendersen, J. A. (2011).  "Contesting Global Neoliberalism and Creating Alternative Futures."  Discourse:  Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(2), 171-185.

 

Kinchloe, J. L. (2008).  Critical Pedagogy. 2nd Ed.  New York:  Peter Lang. 

 

Kinchloe, J. L.  (2008).  The Foundations of Critical Pedagogy:  A Primer.  New York:  Peter Lang.

 

Macdonald, L. & A. Ruckert. (Eds.) (2009).  Post-Neoliberalism in the Americas.  New York:  Palmgrave MacMillan.

 

McLaren, P.  (1995).  Critical Pedagogy and Predatory Culture:  Oppositional Politics in a Postmodern Era.  New York:  Routledge.  

 

McLaren, Peter.  (2007).  Life in Schools:  An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education. 5th Ed.  USA:  Pearson.

 

Roberts, P.  (Ed.)  (2010).  Paulo Friere in the 21st Century:  Education, Dialogue and Transformation.  USA:  Paradigm Publishers.  

 

Shor, Ira. & C. Pari.  (Eds.).  (1999).  Education is Politics:  Critical Teaching Across Differences, K-12.  New Hampshire:  Heineman.  

 

Spring, J.  (2006).  Pedagogies of Globalization:  The Rise of the Educational Security State.  New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

 

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