QUESTION
Describe in detail the roots of critical pedagogy.
Course: Critical thinking and reflective practices
Course code 8611
Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment
ANSWER
ROOTS OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
Freire (1970) distinguished between banking education and problem-posing education. In the traditional view of education, teachers are pillars of knowledge; they know everything and students know nothing. This model mirrors the structure of an oppressive society in which the oppressed and the oppressors are divided. It advocates the fixation on reality. So it is a vehicle for continuing political oppression and working against liberation or emancipation. In critical pedagogy, this model is rejected because teachers should be concerned about society and allow human beings to critically reflect and act on their position within society. In this model, students believed that power, authority, and activity are held by the teacher and students are viewed as objects rather than humans. So in Joldersma’s (1999) term, this model is dehumanizing because it creates oppressive passivity in students. Gadotti (1994) also noted that pedagogy is of major interest for Freire by which he seeks to change the structure of an oppressive society. Critical pedagogy in Kanpol’s (1998) terms rests on the belief that every citizen deserves an education which involves understanding the schooling structure by the teacher that would not permit education to ensue. Vandrick (1994) claims that the major goal of critical pedagogy is to emancipate and educate all people regardless of their gender, class, race, etc.
Critical pedagogy is a
transformation-based approach to education. Critical pedagogy is a philosophy
of education and social movement that combines education with critical
theory. First described by Paulo Freire, it has since been developed by Henry
Giroux and others as a praxis-oriented educational movement, guided by passion
and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize
authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to
take constructive action.
Ira Shor (1992) defines critical pedagogy as: “Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional clichés, 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.” (p.129) Critical pedagogy developed in the 1960s and 70s as a reaction amongst academics to an activist, radical left-wing inclination to the repeated failure of socialist governments around the world to deliver on their promises of economic equality
Critical pedagogy includes relationships between teaching and learning. Its proponents claim that it is a continuous process of what they call unlearning, learning, relearning, reflection, evaluation, and the effect that these actions have on the students, in particular students whom they believe have been historically and continue to be disenfranchised by what they call ‘traditional schooling’. Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach inspired by Marxist critical theory and other radical philosophies, which attempts to help students question and challenge posited domination and undermine the beliefs and practices that are alleged to dominate. In other words, it is a theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness. In practical terms, the goal of critical pedagogy is to challenge conservative, right-wing, and traditionalist philosophies and politics. Here the teacher works to lead students to question ideologies and practices considered oppressive (including those at school) and encourage freedom of collective and individual responses to the actual conditions of their own lives.
The student often begins as a member of the group or process he or she is critically studying (e.g., religion, national identity, cultural norms, or expected roles). After the student begins to view present society as deeply problematic, the next behavior encouraged is sharing this knowledge, paired with an attempt to change the perceived oppression of the society. A good picture of this development from social member to dissident to radical teacher/learner is offered in both Paulo Freire's book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and Bell Hooks' book Teaching to Transgress. An earlier proponent of a more active classroom, where students direct the epistemological method as well as the actual object of inquiry is the late Neil Postman. In his Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Postman suggests creating a class where students themselves are entirely in control of the syllabus, class activities, and grading. The primary concern of Critical Pedagogy is with social injustice and how to transform inequitable, undemocratic, or oppressive institutions and social relations. At some point, assessments of truth or conceptual ambiguousness might come into the discussion. Other important questions, from this standpoint, include: Who is making the assertions? Why are they being made? Who funds such research? Who propagates these "findings"? Such questions, from the Critical Pedagogy perspective, are not external to, or separable from, the import of also weighing the evidentiary base for such claims.
Critical Pedagogy and the Role of Teacher and Student
Teachers in this approach are viewed as
problem posers. As a pioneer in this approach Dewey (1963) believes that,
learning through problem-solving and practical application leads students to
take a more active role in determining their experiences and positions within
society. Kincheloe and McLaren (1994) maintain that teachers must empower their students by raising their awareness of the reproducing process of an
inequitable status quo in schooling and offer societal institutions. So
teachers, in Giroux’s terms, are Transformative Intellectuals who have the
knowledge and skill to critique and transform existing inequalities in society.
The role of this transformative intellectual, she maintains, is to learn from
students, appreciate their viewpoints, and take part in the dialogical
process. According to Giroux (1997), by creating appropriate conditions,
teachers enable students to become cultural producers who can rewrite their
experiences and perceptions. They also help students learn from each other and theorize and understand how to question the authoritarian power of the
classroom.
According to Paulo Freire (1998), classroom experiences, with the help of the teachers, should become situations in which students are encouraged to act as active agents in their own education and to develop a critical consciousness that helps them evaluate the validity, fairness, and authority within their educational and living situations. Teachers have also a critically reflective role, that is to say, to produce an open and equal environment, they must engage in deep self-reflection about their position and the effects of their authority in the classroom. According to Crabtree and Sapp (2004), self[1]reflection is the form of questioning one’s motives, purpose, ideology, and pedagogy as informed by theory and habit.
Self-reflection enables teachers to make their classes student-centered by accepting unsuccessful educational ideas and oppressive forms in their own educational practices. Degener (2001) states that a critical educator helps students to understand the reasons behind the facts. This way, students through reflection can determine the necessary types of action that they should take to improve the life conditions of the oppressed groups. Students and teachers should engage in questioning knowledge but it is the teacher who helps the students to identify how to move forward critically in their practice. Teachers should challenge the current structure by rejecting long-standing cultural expectations and mores of their own and the system, additionally, they must give up much of the power which is given to them through their titles. Students, as Giroux (1997) puts it, are active participants in that together with the teacher they correct the curricula share their ideas, and learn to challenge assumptions.
According to Degener (2001), students contribute to curricular decisions and determine areas of study and the associated reading materials. Critical learners, as Moore and Parker (1986) maintain, are those who can accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim. They can also offer good reasons for their ideas and can correct their own and others’ procedures. They should engage in social criticism to create a public sphere in which citizens can exercise power over their own lives and learning. To help students engage in critical consciousness, educators should empower students to reflect on their own worlds, and to self-assess in fact.
Guthrie (2003) views both teachers and students as co-agents, that is, the teacher’s authority directs the class but this authority differs from that in traditional pedagogy. This is in line with what Freire (1970) proposed in that there is a fluid relationship between teachers and students, that is, teachers are learners and learners are teachers. Therefore, learners are not recipients of knowledge rather they become creators. Friere also confirms that no one teaches another, nor is anyone self-taught, men teach each other, mediated by the teacher. When students gain their lost voices and resist unjust reproduction, they become active agents for social change. Freire also points out that marginalized students should be able to reflect on their concrete situations to find out why things are the way they are. They should be aware of the factors that contribute to their position in society.
Commonly used Pedagogies
a) Praxis
“The purpose of the educator and
the educated, the leader and the followers in a dialogue between equal partners
are called praxis” (Gur-Ze'ev, 1998). It is defined as “the self-creative
activity through which we make the world. The requirements of praxis are theory
both relevant to the world and nurtured by actions in it, and an action
component in its own theorizing process that grows out of practical and
political grounding”(Buker, 1990, cited in Lather, 1991, pp.11-12). In
education, praxis intends at filling the gap between theory and transformational
action. That is, praxis connects education which is libratory with social
transformation (Boyce, 1996
b) Dialogism
Richard Paul says similarly that
"dialogical thinking" is inherent to Critical Thinking (Paul 1990).
Critical Pedagogy includes reading the world along with reading the words
(Freire & Macedo, 1987). Hence language is the first barrier that is to be
removed in critical pedagogy. Giroux (1997) maintains that with the help of critical, oppositional, and theoretical language, teachers can move toward a
discourse that is needed in educational criticism. Degener (2001) confirms
that even when the same language is spoken in the class, teachers should be
sensitive not to favor one kind of interaction over another. Because it is the
educator who decides whose voices will be heard and whose will be submerged in
the classroom (Giroux, 1997; Lankshear& McLaren, 1993). To Degener (2001),
language is important in two ways; first, language needs and curriculum should
be grounded in students’ language to actively involve students in
learning, and second, to be able to read the world and transform it, students
need a form of discourse. That is why for marginalized groups language is an
important refuge (Baynham, 2006). This is the power of language that enables
students to enlarge their scope of understanding (Dheram, 2007).
c) Questioning
The work of William Glasser, M.D.
(1990), provides insight into nurturing the critical thinking process through
the use of specific types of questions. In Glasser’s view quality school
approach uses the questioning process to encourage students to process
information analytically. By preparing a questioning strategy, teachers can
present information in a manner that is conducive to promoting intellectually
engaged thinking. This is not merely content-based questioning but rather beyond
content and contextual questioning. There are two phases to content learning.
The first phase occurs when learners, initially, construct in their minds the
basic ideas, principles, and theories that are inherent in content. This is a
process of internalization. The second phase occurs when learners effectively
use those ideas, principles, and theories as they become relevant in their
lives. This is a process of application. Good teachers cultivate critical
thinking at every stage of learning, by developing the questioning skill.
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