Critical Pedagogy and Its Realization in Classroom Context

This paper concerns the personal evaluation of the characteristics of critical pedagogy. This system of teaching demands changes in the curriculum. The characteristics of this method of teaching are different from the Banking Education system. In many developed countries, this method is successfully practiced in the classroom. But developing countries like Bangladesh are still fully not able to practice this method in all educational settings. In Bangladesh, modernist and postmodernist methods are prevailing side by side in the curriculum. There are several facts because of which the characteristics of critical pedagogy are not followed or practiced by all educational institutions here. The facts are the existing political and religious irregularities, lack of self-consciousness among teachers, lack of teachers training, lack of inclusion of problem imposing materials in the curriculum, etc. Based on some findings, a personal evaluation has been written in this paper.

Critical pedagogy is understood (and misunderstood) in myriad ways. Most often associated with Paulo Freire’s (1970) problem-posing approach in opposition to the traditional banking method of education, it is also closely connected with neo-Marxist, critical theory–based analyses of education, schooling, and society. Despite popular perception, and the conceptualizations of critical pedagogy by some of its most well-known proponents, there is no single ideological perspective or particular social movement that defines critical pedagogy. The dominant conceptualizations of critical pedagogy are unnecessarily narrow, both politically and philosophically. As a result, a pedagogical approach that is undeniably powerful has been undermined and its impact blunted. Critical pedagogy has become less a process of students investigating the world and constructing personally meaningful understandings that aid them in the struggle to overcome oppression and achieve freedom and more akin to an a priori set of beliefs about the world presented as maps to be followed. In other words, critical pedagogy has met the enemy and he is us, or at least includes us. If critical pedagogy, as process of education, is to achieve its aims, it cannot exempt itself from the same uprooting and examination of its own underlying assumptions, pronouncements, clichés, and received wisdom.

Authentic education arises from active engagement with the world-its people, systems, and events. Viewed through the lens of Critical Pedagogy (CP), education becomes a means of bridging theory and practice. It involves critique, reflection, and reconstruction: questioning assumptions, re-evaluating methodologies, and rethinking foundational concepts.

Critical pedagogy is scary! In its simplest form it aligns with the imperative of engaged learning – figuring out ways to have teachers and students co-operatively to engage critically with the knowledge base, the pedagogies and curricula of their disciplines, and to share power in a mutual exploration of alternative understandings that intersect with issues of social, cultural and environmental equity and sustainability in a context of real social needs and community aspirations. Asking teachers who have had a lifetime of top-down, authority-based, teacher-centered, abstract, silo’d learning to abandon this and to instead relinquish or at least share their power to grade and judge, to work across disciplines and to risk vulnerability and all for the same salary is to ask a lot. Why would anyone want or choose to do this? The answer is, that, with support and a good methodology it is not difficult, and that it can be very rewarding. Apart from the fact that it can energize and animate students to achieve exceptional results, it can also revitalize teaching practices, enthusiasm for the material and insights into new levels of understanding, new, cross-disciplinary combinations and extensions and conceptualizations of material that had previously seemed old and stale. It can be challenging and demanding. But it can also be fun

International Research Journal of Education and Innovation

Critical teaching combines learning with reflective thinking. It allows students to understand the relationship between ideas, encourages questioning and challenges all forms of injustice and social disorientation. One principle of critical pedagogy is problem-solving education, which is an alternative to the banking model education in which the teacher is active, and the student is inactive in the learning process. Teachers in critical pedagogy are concerned about society and allow students to think critically and act within society. The present study examines critical teaching (CP) methods at the secondary school level. The aim of this study was to explore the perception of secondary school teachers about critical pedagogy, to examine the practices of critical pedagogy adopted by secondary school teachers. In the present study, mixed methods were adopted, which included both quantitative and qualitative methods. The design of this study was descriptive and survey type. The populat...

Introduction to Critical Pedagogy and its Problems

While there is a body of literature that considers the theory of critical pedagogy, there is significantly less literature that specifically addresses the ways in which professors attempt to apply this theory in practice. This paper presents the results from a study that was designed, in part, to address this gap. Seventeen self-identified critical pedagogues participated in this qualitative research study. Participants reported their use of the following classroom practices, including: dialogue; group work; co-construction of syllabus; and experiential activities. This paper critically examines the social justice-oriented nature of these critical classroom practices.

2020

This extensive Handbook will bring together different aspects of critical pedagogy with the aim of opening up a clear international conversation on the subject, as well as pushing the boundaries of current understanding by extending the notion of a pedagogy to multiple pedagogies and perspectives. Bringing together a group of contributing authors from around the globe, the chapters will provide a unique approach and insight to the discipline by crossing a range of disciplines and articulating both philosophical and social common themes. The chapters will be organised across three volumes and twelve core thematic sections. The SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies is planned to be an essential benchmark publication for advanced students, researchers and practitioners across a wide range of disciplines including education, health, sociology, anthropology and development studies.

RISE, 2021

Authors, teachers, students, family members, and other citizens from diverse cultures, gender options and countries have been and are developing critical pedagogy all over the world. However, there are authors of "critical pedagogy" who use this label for luxuries and egotism but who have never transformed nor supported the transformation of any school or educational project. This article presents four criteria to distinguish between the critical pedagogy that transforms reality and the "critical pedagogy" that only benefits those who use this label. The first criterion is the egalitarian dialogue that critical pedagogy authors use with very diverse citizens to achieve extensive and profound real transformations. The second one is the social impact of their work on society, especially on the oppressed, overcoming inequalities and improving their conditions of life. The third one is the equality of results of the oppressed in literacy as well as in sentiments and values, without segregating. The fourth one is the critical pedagogy style versus the Althusserian and market styles, highlighting the scientific and theoretical rigor of critical pedagogy authors opposed to the lack of theoretical basis of authors of "critical pedagogy".

Although critical pedagogy has been discussed in the Teaching Sociology literature for nearly twenty years, dialogues about the difficulties in practicing and implementing critical pedagogical strategies in everyday classroom life are less common. In this note, we discuss a predominant theme of our workshop: challenges and concerns that may arise when one attempts to do critical pedagogy. We focus on both challenges and potential solutions for learners, instructors, and institutions of higher education. Understanding what some of these obstacles are and how they manifest in institutions of higher learning goes a long way in devising strategies to assuage their deleterious effects.