Critical Pedagogy

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Critical Pedagogy is an imprecise, yet important, term referring to "an amalgam of educational philosophies" (Giroux, p. 149) often associated with the work of Paulo Freire, Pierre Bourdieu, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Henry A. Giroux, and Peter McLaren. Central to the analysis of these diverse 'conflict theorists' is a "belief in the centrality of education in determining political and social relations" in society and the notion that schools act as sites of potential "social reproduction," a process in which schools "reproduce the social relations necessary for maintaining a market economy"-in short, schools act to reproduce social inequality (p. 149-151). For critical pedagogues, this process must be challenged by an analysis of how schools, and teachers, systematically bring about this reproduction, and then by a consideration of how schools, and teachers, might foster a more democratic, equitable social order.

This analysis is based to greater or lesser degrees in a Marxist social theory, particularly as seen in critical theory, and is often stridently critical of capitalist society. But other significant themes that emerge in critical pedagogy are social justice, teachers as empowered intellectuals, youth culture, explicit and hidden curricula, multiculturalism, community, and democracy.

A couple of quotes might help us with this notion:

As a teacher, I want to be an agent of transformation, with my classroom as a center of equality and democracy-an ongoing, if small, critique of the repressive social relations of the larger society. (p. 276).
-- Teacher William Bigelow, editor of Rethinking Schools, in Tozer et al.

Central to such a challenge is providing students with the skills, knowledge, and authority they need to inquire and act upon what it means to live in a radical multicultural democracy, to recognize anti-democratic forms of power, and to fight deeply rooted injustices in a society and world founded on systemic economic, racial, gendered inequalities. (p. xxvii)
-- Henry A. Giroux, from Theory and Resistance in Education

To see some critical pedagogy applied to classroom teaching, go to: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/

 

References

Giroux, H. (2001). Theory and resistance in education: Towards a pedagogy for the opposition. Westport, CT: Bergin & Harvey.

Tozer, S.E., Violas, P.C., Senese, G. (2002). School and society: Historical and contemporary perspectives. New York: McGraw Hill.

 

Contributed by Jason Sparks