Critical Pedagogy 101

Critical pedagogy is a form of education that is grounded in critical theory, is student centered, democratic, liberatory, and seeks to challenge systems of domination and oppression. Critical educators empower their students to question traditional forms of knowledge, academia, social systems, and dominant paradigms through the process of problematizing knowledge and educational inquiries. Critical educators incorporate these objectives into any and all subject matter their students study as well as in their personal role in the classroom and the overall learning culture of the learning community. In a democratic classroom that implements critical pedagogy, the students and the teachers are both learners and co-creators of the curriculum, and rather than an environment of hierarchy, the classroom is a space of dialogic discovery where everyone, teacher and students, are participants. Critical pedagogy requires a dedication to personal reflection, not only from the students but also from the teacher. No matter where an individual is in their journey to become critically conscious, all forms of knowledge are susceptible to ideological contamination, one must be committed to a critical praxis that problematizes every level of our realities. Critical pedagogists demonstrate a willingness to constantly reevaluate ones own work to ensure it continues to be student-centered, student-engaging, honest, critical and liberatory.

Critical pedagogy has its roots in the Frankfurt School and has been most notably used and theorized by Paulo Freire. Critical pedagogy has always been a methodology whose purpose is to liberate on both an intellectual level and a truly physical level, as one cannot implement critical pedagogy without incorporating action into the learning process. What I find most compelling about critical pedagogy is that it demands educators to restructure their classrooms in ways that are in direct resistance to oppressive systems. With critical pedagogy one can deconstruct very radical topics with their students or use it to address some of the more traditional canons of academia like math or science, but because critical pedagogy is more than content or curriculum, one can explore science with their students and simultaneously teach them to operate in society in truly democratic ways that reject the subversive patriarchal, white supremacist, hierarchy of modern day society. Educators can talk to their students about democracy, equality, respect, and compassion throughout all the lessons they teach, but in my opinion, radical change will never happen if our teaching doesn’t model for our students ways to behave that demonstrate democracy, equality, respect, and compassion.

For example, when teaching a class about deconstructing patriarchy and it’s relationship to capitalism; if the class is taught utilizing the “banking method,” as Paulo Freire would say, then the students may be downloading new knowledge into their minds, but the teacher is not teaching them to utilize it to seek their own liberation, or even to incorporate it into a new way of viewing and behaving in the world. However, if the same class is taught using critical pedagogy, then students are learning to engage in a process of critical praxis, where suddenly the new knowledge they have been exploring informs their every action in a way that examines their role and relationship to oppression. The same can be said for math, science, history, English, etc.

There are many ways that educators can use critical pedagogy in the classroom. Future posts will focus on different tools and tactics that can be used in the classroom.