Monday, 8 September 2014

English Seminar Paper - "CRITICAL PEDAGOGY"


INTRODUCTION

 

Pedagogy (/ˈpɛdəɡɒdʒi/ or /ˈpɛdəɡoʊdʒi/) is the science and art of education. Its aims range from the full development of the human being to skills acquisition. For example, Paulo Freire referred to his method of teaching people as "critical pedagogy".

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of Critical Pedagogy to the classroom teacher - the person who literally spends his or her life and energies in direct interactions and relationship with the students in the public schools - and to offer examples of Critical Pedagogy itself as implemented in the classroom.

 

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

 

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 to 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."

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 (Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practiced, embodied, or realized) "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." Among its leading figures are Michael Apple, bell hooks, Joe L. Kincheloe, Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux, and Patti Lather.

Critical pedagogy includes relationships between teaching and learning. Its proponents claim that it is a continuous process of what they call "unlearning", "learning", and "relearning", "reflection", "evaluation", and the impact 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".

Ira Shor identifies principal goals of Critical Pedagogy: “when pedagogy and curricular policy reflect egalitarian goals, they do what education can do:

 

I.                    Oppose socialization with de-socialization

II.                  Choose critical consciousness over commercial consciousness

III.                Transformation of society over reproduction of inequality

IV.                Promote democracy by practicing it and by studying authoritarianism

V.                  Challenge student withdrawal through participatory courses

VI.                Illuminate the myths supporting the elite hierarchy of society

VII.              Interfere with the scholastic disabling of students through a critical literacy program

VIII.            Raise awareness about the thought and language expressed in daily life

IX.                Distribute research skills and censored information useful for investigating power and policy in society

X.                  Invite students to reflect socially on their conditions, to consider overcoming limits. . . .

 

               Critical pedagogy considers how education can provide individuals with the tools to better themselves and strengthen democracy, to create a more egalitarian and just society, and thus to deploy education in a process of progressive social change.  Media literacy involves teaching the skills that will empower citizens and students to become sensitive to the politics of representations of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and other cultural differences in order to foster critical thinking and enhance democratization.  Critical media literacy aims to make viewers and readers more critical and discriminating readers and producers of texts.

Critical media pedagogy provides students and citizens with the tools to analyze critically how texts are constructed and in turn construct and position viewers and readers.  It provides tools so that individuals can dissect the instruments of cultural domination; transform themselves from objects to subjects, from passive to active.  Thus critical media literacy is empowering, enabling students to become critical producers of meanings and texts, able to resist manipulation and domination.

CRITICISMS OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

Criticisms:

 

1. Ignores Virtues of Dominant Culture - Critical Pedagogy disregards the values implicit within social structures. For example, in its criticism of American Imperialism, critical pedagogy ignores the virtues of America. They miss the fact that our foreign intervention has liberated people and stopped genocide, even if it has also killed civilians and created totalitarian governments.

2. Critical Pedagogy Indoctrinates – Because they do not believe that education can be neutral, there is a subtle temptation to indoctrinate students. Critical theorists point out that the current system already indoctrinates and that critical theory at least allows students to develop their own convictions. However, critics of Critical Pedagogy feel that this undermines the work of parents, churches, family and other social institutions in instilling values among their children.

3. Limited in Scope – Critical theory makes sense in language arts and in social sciences. However, it is difficult to see how it can apply to math or science. Though there is some validity there, critical pedagogy could be applied in certain circumstances to math and science. For example, critical pedagogy encourages students to challenge assumptions, create hypothesis and test it with action.

 

CONCLUSION

 

                                Simply put, to remain a teacher who relies on schooling is the despair that we all can fall into. School structures - be they time, bureaucracy, hierarchy, curriculum - have a way of deskilling the teacher and robbing her/him of the enthusiasm to proceed with their job creatively. One point I tell prospective and in-service teachers. To begin the "critical" project is to simultaneously be reflective on how one is personally schooling themselves and their clientele, while also attempting to move out of the schooling mentality, both theoretically and practically. Therein lies the hope for teachers in the trenches. We can indeed educate our students if we choose when and where it is appropriate to resist schooling structures. Hope lies in asking and answering this following question, and then, subsequently, taking action. To what end do I teach? When I can truly answer that question, the critical pedagogue will realize that teaching is more than about transmitting the basics of schooling, but really about the vitality of educating for citizenship, democracy and the hope that this can be passed on to future generations. Clearly, teachers, there is a lot of work to be done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCE

 






 

 

 

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