Critical Theory/Pedagogy

This essay reconsiders Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed by interrogating his claim that the oppressed alone hold the potential for human liberation. Freire’s insight that the oppressed internalize the consciousness of their oppressors highlights the danger of reproducing cycles of domination, yet his framework neglects the corrupting influence of power and the possibility of transformation among oppressors themselves. Drawing on philosophical perspectives from Plato and Aristotle, sociological insights from Durkheim, and historical examples of social collapse such as Calhoun’s “Rat Utopia,” the essay critiques the assumption that suffering alone equips the oppressed for leadership. It argues instead for a universal pedagogy that emphasizes ethical transformation, self-mastery, and dialogue beyond binaries of oppressor and oppressed. Ultimately, the essay contends that liberation in education must move beyond structural change to cultivate moral character, reclaiming the shared humanity of all participants in the struggle for justice.

This paper examines the interdisciplinary work of Said M. Ahmed, whose community-engaged scholarship advances educational equity through three research-practice innovations. Mixed-methods analyses demonstrate impacts on leadership development, digital learning ecosystems, and participatory policy reform. The study highlights measurable outcomes in student achievement, institutional reform, and community empowerment, offering a model for culturally responsive educational leadership. Ahmed's research addresses three critical gaps: the underrepresentation of Somali Americans in academic leadership, the potential of digital tools in diaspora education, and the disconnect between institutional policies and community needs. Longitudinal data (N = 147) reveal that 68% of Somali American professionals engage in identity masking behaviors, while targeted interventions increased leadership pipeline retention by 41%. Digital learning experiments (N = 312) showed a 15% improvement in STEM test scores through WhatsApp study groups and a 28% increase in college application rates via curated Instagram communities. A three-year participatory budgeting experiment in Saint Paul Public Schools led to a 22% reduction in Somali student suspensions and a 40% increase in bilingual counseling access. The study contributes to the field by providing empirical evidence for culturally responsive, technology-enhanced, and community-driven approaches to educational equity. It offers a roadmap for educators and policymakers seeking to create more inclusive educational systems, emphasizing the importance of centering community voices in the design and implementation of interventions. Future research directions include exploring blockchain credentialing for refugee learners and developing AI-driven cultural competency assessments.

In this short piece, I try to shed some light on the broad question of architectural education by approaching it from a specific perspective. I suggest that, in addressing how to teach architecture, one should first question the growth-driven state of architecture. Amidst ongoing initiatives, I present a few I participated in which are equally engaged with re-orienting architecture from within, on to concluding that learning from degrowth – a movement that calls for a systemic rethinking of our growth-led, socio-economic system – could prove beneficial to architectural pedagogy and, consequently, architecture at large.

This short piece corresponds to the conference proceeding from the STOÀ Open Seminar that was held in Milan, Politecnico di Milano, in September 2023.

Sustainability is a complex and contestable field. The architectural design studio typically frames sustainable design as a technical, performance orientated exercise, often at the expense of contextualised responses which address the conflicting needs of a range of stakeholders. Sustainability is often viewed at odds with "design", in part driven by teaching structures which outsource sustainability to satellite units, elective modules or specialist consultants. This paper describes an action research project to enhance integration of sustainability into the architectural design studio. It took place over an academic semester on an MArch

As a part of pedagogical competence, the teachers' ability in constructing formative test needs to be investigated. This research is to analyze and classify EFL teachers' formative test from two Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTsN) in Bandung, Indonesia based on Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). This research employed qualitative study through the descriptive analysis of the formative test provided by the teachers. Two MTsN teachers were selected purposively based on their experiences in teaching. Moreover, document analysis, questionnaire and interview were used as the instruments to gain the data. After all of formative tests were analyzed, most items fall into category of revealing the students' LOTS: Remembering (C1), Understanding (C2), and Applying (C3). Meanwhile, the teachers also developed formative test that belong to HOTS level: Analyzing (C4), evaluating (C5) and creating (C6); however, the number is very limited. Data from questionnaire and interview show that the teachers had actually basic knowledge about LOTS and HOTS, but they lacked practices of using them in constructing formative tests. This study is significant in informing the policy makers regarding the importance of developing teachers' skill in constructing formative test which is based on LOTS and HOTS.

Introducing new teaching strategies and methods into the classroom is known as Innovative Pedagogy. This proactive approach aims to improve academic outcomes and promote equitable learning by addressing real problems. Innovative Pedagogy involves studying the effects of innovative teaching practices on the learning processes. This new teaching paradigm is based on theories that can be practically applied in the classroom. Under this paradigm, students play an active role in constructing, discovering, adjusting, and extending their knowledge. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development underscores the need to incorporate the principles of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education. ESD is an integral part of quality education, and all educational institutions should foster the development of sustainability competencies. NEP 2020 strongly believes that education should be childcentric, with the holistic development of each learner as a primary objective. The MI theory-based pedagogical strategy and approach to teaching also emphasize the need for modern education systems and pedagogical processes to incorporate varied teaching methods that promote holistic and sustainable development in both scholastic and non-scholastic ways. This descriptive study based on secondary data sources justifies the need to develop 21st-century skills in learners and teachers by adopting various MIbased teaching and learning strategies and approaches.

This chapter will examine sociology before it became recognised as a distinct field of study. The work of the eminent fourteenth-century Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun will be discussed, as well as the claim that he was the founding father of sociology before it was properly developed in Europe during the nineteenth century. There will then be an examination of the emergence of modern European sociology focusing mainly on the work of Emile Durkheim, who is generally recognised as the first modern sociologist, and his sociology of education.

Artist and educator Kaitlin Pomerantz poses an interwoven critique of extractive material practices in the arts and arts education, and extractive labor practices and material conditions in the labor of art educators, and offers frameworks for more responsible, responsive, and care-full approaches to material and labor practices in the arts and higher ed arts education.

This essay is Chapter 9 of the book Turning Points: Responsive Pedagogies in Studio Art Education, featuring essays by Ernesto Pujol, Steven Henry Madoff, and more.

Jochum, Richard, et al. Turning Points: Responsive Pedagogies in Studio Art Education. Teachers College Press, 2023.

Toppling the statue of the slave merchant Edward Colston in Bristol, removing the monuments of King Leopold II from public places in Belgium, Black Lives Matter protests, and mass demonstrations targeting remembrance of certain chapters of the history of the Global North – these are some of the significant events that drew attention to the ongoing disputes around the legacy of colonialism during the summer of 2020. These developments form an integral part of the long-drawn-out process of decolonisation: decolonising the culture of the former mother countries. From museology through the natural sciences and linguistics to visual arts, vast areas of the academic, scientific, and cultural scene of the Global North are crucially affected by decolonizing tendencies, with the teaching of history arguably among the most disputed ones. This paper reviews the key decolonising aspirations of history teaching in the United Kingdom by studying the goals, messages, methods, and endeavours of thr...

In this study, we argue that the different curriculum reforms South Africa embarked on have not really helped break the existing socio-economic inequalities. Precisely, the various reforms (e.g., C2005, NCS, and CAPS) initiated by the South African government have been proved to be a flop and uninspiring considering that schools have remained spaces where inequalities, violence, vandalism, harassment, stratification, and various crimes continue to exist. Outside the schooling spaces, unemployment, poverty, xenophobia, robbery, GBVs, and different forms of crime have characterized South African society. Many educational researchers have also argued that these issues could symbolize a broken education system that is guided by shoddy policies. Accordingly, we sought to establish key issues that confront South African educational system to explain how these reproduce the apartheid-era-like inequalities. In the main, we established that neoliberal-minimalist policies have significantly influenced socio-economic inequalities in South Africa. We also established that educational researchers have failed to identify neoliberalism as the root cause of South Africa's inequalities. To achieve our goals, we utilized document analysis to explain and understand how various policies, practices, and powerful individuals have influenced these injustices. Theoretically, these debates have been guided by Paul Freire's “Critical Pedagogy” and Bourdieu's “Social-cultural Capital” mainly for their ability to illuminate power relations, exclusions, and inequalities through Symbolic Violence and depravations.

Critical reading in reading comprehension has received much attention in recent years. Logically, reading with purpose exposes critical thinking skills in the given text, which makes learners read to analyze and reconstruct meaning based on their background knowledge. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms rely on developing critical thinking in both reading and writing, which leads learners to be well prepared for their undergraduate or graduate studies. In this paper, the focus will be on reading comprehension in the EAP classroom. This paper will illustrate the relationship between reading comprehension and critical thinking, which will be the answer to the first research question "How does focusing on critical pedagogy in reading comprehension in the EAP classroom affect students' learning development?" The second research question is "What are the strategies to be adopted for improving critical thinking in reading comprehension in an EAP classroom?

This is the PDF-PowerPoint which I used for my lecture at the Web Fest “Equality, Democracy & People's Enlightenment: Ideas of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar & Dr. Paulo Freire for the uplift of the underprivileged Community”, jointly organised by the UNIVERSITY OF KALYANI, WEST BENGAL, INDIA & UNESCO CHAIR, GLOBAL ADULT EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF MALTA on 24th May 2023. The title of my lecture was: “Self-transcendence in Paulo Freire”.

Resumo do livro-PAULO FREIRE "PEDAGOGIA DA AUTONOMIA" FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogia da autonomia: saberes necessários à prática educativa. 43. ed., São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 2011. A obra de Paulo Freire, intitulada Pedagogia da Autonomia, apresenta saberes que os professores necessitam ter para uma prática educativa libertadora, como devem ensinar seus alunos, contribuindo para formação do conhecimento crítico para vida, sendo essa a função do professor, que através de sua prática possa ajudar o aluno a ser melhor em todos os aspectos, numa contínua construção do ato de ensinar com ética e competência.

Sarroub and her award-winning research on how Arab Muslim refugee and immigrant youth navigate religion, gender, and literacy in school. Dr. Sarroub is a professor of literacy studies, education, and linguistics, and she serves as the graduate programs chair in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She was the recipient of the LRA Edward B. Fry Book Award for All American Yemeni Girls: Being Muslim in a Public School (2005), which examines Yemeni American girls' attempts to negotiate their identities across home and school contexts-spaces with vastly different cultural values, expectations, and traditions. As part of her professional service, Dr. Sarroub serves on the editorial board of Research in the Teaching of English. She has also served on the committee for the Alan C. Purves Award, which is "presented annually to the author(s) of the Research in the Teaching of English article from the previous year's volume judged as likely to have the greatest impact on educational practice" (https://ncte.org /awards/journal-article-awards/alan-cpurves-award/). This conversation was recorded on March 3, 2020, and has been edited for publication.

Creativity, promotion of creativity and destruction of creativity

In our analysis, we would like to expose some ideas on creativity, promotion of creativity and destruction of creativity. Our general intent is to show that creativity is not reserved for geniuses but, on the contrary, belongs to all individuals. Moreover, we aim to describe how creativity can be promoted in individuals in different ages of their life. Finally, we wish to expose that creativity is a disposition which always needs to be cultivated with all possible care: for creativity can be easily damaged or even destroyed because of a false education of the individuals or due to negatively organised work environments. For our investigation, we shall take elements from different sources: we shall analyse ideas expressed in the works of Teresa Amabile, we shall consider the criticism of traditional pedagogy exposed in the meditation of Paulo Freire, we shall propose some examples of the black – namely the poisonous – pedagogy contained in the work of Katharina Rutschky, we shall present Alice Miller’s criticism of determined models of education, and we shall the inquiry into the concept of innovation exposed in the research of Tina Seelig. The works of Teresa Amabile will show that creativity is a faculty which belongs to all individuals, not only to the most endowed ones. Amabile shows in her book different examples of the ways in which creativity and motivation are improved both in schools and in companies; she analyses how, on the contrary, creativity and motivation are damaged and destroyed in schools and in companies. With the help of Amabile’s inquiries, we shall show the importance of making progress in the work both in schools and in the work environments: people and their progress ought always to be supported in order that the disposition to creativity can function. People always need positive consideration in schools and in work environments. Rutschky’s analysis of the poisonous pedagogy will show us how certain methods of education lead to the destruction of any creativity whatsoever and of the whole personality of the individual. Alice Miller’s works will give further examples regarding the destruction of autonomy through traditional methods of education. Thanks to Paulo Freire’s meditation we shall see how creativity depends on the models of society: in particular, concepts like the bank account of education and internalisation can teach us how the individuals in the schools are transformed into a completely passive audience, thus losing any capacity whatsoever of proposing innovation in the work and in the society. The structure of society and the aims of society determine the models of schools operating in society. The works of Tina Seelig will finally give us the possibility of seeing the different components needed for the development of creativity: for instance, imagination, knowledge, resources, and culture will prove to be essential components of creativity.

Bibliography

Amabile, T., Growing Up Creative: Nurturing a Lifetime of Creativity, Crown Amabile, T.M. & Stubbs, M.L., 1989. Amabile, T., Creativity In Context: Update To The Social Psychology Of Creativity, Westview Press, Boulder, CO 1996. Amabile, T.M. & Kramer, S.J., The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, Harvard Business Review Press, Boston 2011. Freire, P., Pedagogia do Oprimido, Paz e Terra, Rio de Janeiro 1974. Freire, P., Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Myra Bergman Ramos, Trad.). (Original work published in 1970), The Continuum Publishing Company, New York 1992. Miller, A., Am Anfang war Erziehung. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1980. Miller, A., Du sollst nicht merken. Variationen über das Paradies-Thema. 1. Auflage. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1981. Rutschky K. (ed.), Schwarze Pädagogik. Quellen zur Naturgeschichte der bürgerlichen Erziehung, Ullstein, Berlin 1977; Neuausgabe ebd. 1997. Seelig, T., inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity. HarperCollins, 2012.

This is the PDF-PowerPoint of the lecture which I held for the Swadhyaya Sahachakra Chitta Ranjan Centenary Memorial Lecture Series on Wednesday, 8 December 2021.

The lecture was jointly organised by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Raffles University, Neemrana, and by the Vishwaneedam Centre for Asian Blossoming, Puducherry and Chennai.

The title of my lecture was:

'Creative Education and Cultural Works for Freedom, Social Change and Transformation of Consciousness: Chitta Ranjan Das, Paulo Freire and Alternative Planetary Futures'.

The lecture can be watched on the Facebook Page of the Vishwaneedam Centre for Asian Blossoming at the address:

https://www.facebook.com/Vishwaneedam-center-for-Asian-Blossoming-101137022150420,

and on YouTube at the address:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8pQzkYUONg

Events in the past year, such as the Paris riots, the Danish cartoon controversy, and immigration rallies across the United States, illustrate the explosive nature of immigration debates, placing a renewed sense of urgency on matters of immigration. In particular, the recent proliferation of "violent acts" by individuals with immigrant backgrounds (such as the July 2005 London bombings and the November 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands) has increased concern and suspicion about immigrants, resulting in a serious immigration backlash across Europe and the U.S. Though many of the debates arising from these incidents have been sociopolitical or economic in nature, the questions of how immigration affects education and how education affects immigrants are significant, and need to be addressed, both at the macro level by policymakers and educationalists, and at the micro level by teachers, families, and community leaders. Approaches to addressing the challenges fa...

In my study, I concentrate my attention on some aspects of Paulo Freire's thought on pedagogy. I analyse some aspects of Freire's opposition between his model of pedagogy and the banking model of education, i.e. the oppressor pedagogy: the bank education's goal is to establish and conserve a hierarchical society; the problem-posing education aims to establish an egalitarian society and eliminate oppression forms. The concepts of anthropology which underlie the two pedagogical systems are quite different from each other: bank education views individuals as complete entities, i.e., as entities whose essence is given once and for all, whereas problem-posing education sees individuals as self-transcending entities and thus as entities who develop and change in history. The text of Freire which I use for my investigation is Pedagogy of the oppressed.

Education is not a neutral process. It could be an act of liberation or an act of oppression (Freire, 1970). Certain dominant views are presupposed by the central idea or vested interest that guides the objectives and process of learning. These dominant views, whether included intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or subconsciously, influence the policies that govern the entire educational system.

In this article, four Canadian studies inform an examination of equity, diversity, and inclusion in Canadian elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions. The four studies focus on internationalization in higher education, the impact of standardized testing on racialized students in the early years, racism and racialization in school mathematics, and the experience of students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. From these studies, three themes are considered: diversity, complexity, and comparative perspectives. The article provides important insights on the performative and superficial ways in which Canadian educational institutions are engaging with equity and inclusion efforts and how this analysis may be instructive in comparative and international education.

В статье рассматривается концепция критической педагогики бразильского педагога П. Фрейре, возникшая в условиях кризисов и классовой борьбы 60-х годов XX века и не потерявшая сегодня своей актуальности. Выделяются основные положения данного направления, их актуальность в контексте построения современного общества. Анализируется роль освободительного образования как культурной деятельности, имеющей своей целью перестройку мышления ученика, связь обучения с практической деятельностью.
The article examines the concept of critical pedagogy of the Brazilian educator P. Freire, which arose in the conditions of crises and class struggle of the 60s of the XX century and has not lost its relevance today. The main provisions of this direction are highlighted, their relevance in the context of building a modern society. The article analyzes the role of liberation education as a cultural activity aimed at restructuring the student's thinking, the connection of learning with practical activity.

In the tradition of critical pedagogy, which invites students to critique and challenge systems of power and oppression, this chapter describes the first author’s attempt to develop a pedagogy based on restorative justice principles. The integration of restorative principles into pedagogy (rather than just course content) is posited to create a more congruent learning environment and give students an opportunity to experience and navigate the principles first-hand. The authors write in the tradition of auto-hermeneutics, a phenomenological approach to inquiry that focuses on an individual’s lived experiences. As such, rather than writing in a single voice, they intentionally preserve the distinct perspectives of both individual students and the instructor in an upper-level, undergraduate restorative justice course at a state university. Because there is no definitive list, ten restorative principles (e.g., using “power with” rather than “power over”, considering conflicts as belonging to the community) are identified and then described in regard to how they are operationalized and engaged in the classroom from both the instructor’s and students’ points of view. These restorative principles, like critical pedagogy, are designed to be subversive to established systems and protocols and, like peace psychology, are intended to provide a viable alternative to the structural and institutional violence that characterizes many aspects of higher education.

The paper criticizes on the mis-interpretation of the divine definition of Architecture. The question may be asked
Is Architecture really the science & Art of building?
Is it the container we are talking about or the value contained within (that we call the intangible and ignore completely in education and in practice)?
To make the question clearer,
What is it that makes a Chair a Chair? What is the difference between a signified table and a signified chair?
What is it that makes a drawer a drawer? What is the difference between a good drawer and a bad drawer?
What makes a window a real window?
Are we going in the right direction? Our schools are focusing on the container of Architecture and not the Architecture itself which is essentially the in-tangible aspect similarly as a chair, a table and a window.
The paper will also question Architectural texts which portray the non-architectural elements as architecture. This is the reason why we always fail to define the essence of architecture. This is why we have failed to tame technology and Architecture has become a slave. This is why we often confuse construction with architecture. This is why we are putting extra costs on sustainable solutions. The essence, the signified is lost somewhere and the Signifier is being talked about.
Architects should be trained so as to deal with the intangible first and the role of the tangible must be to highlight the intangible - that which is contained. I foresee a reform in architectural education and a creative flare.
According to Lebbeus Woods
“One looks for principles, but we are better off if we control them, not the other way around. Principles can become tyrants, foreclosing on our ability to learn. When they do, they, too, must be resisted”

ABSTRACT The colonial miseducation oppressed people have historically gotten in the United States keeps dispossessed people alienated from resources, belief systems, and ways of being that are inherently theirs. Pro-people, anti-colonial, and abolitionist social movements provide important insights for educational researchers and teacher educators to consider in their scholarship and preparation of classroom practitioners. This article, thus, advocates for research that understands the educational experiences and insights, and advances and celebrates the aspirations of multiply marginalized and colonized people in the United States, namely Black, Indigenous, and other children and youth of Color.

Yapılan bu araştırma halk eğitim merkezinde çalışan öğretmenlerin iş doyumu ile yabancılaşma düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkinin belirlenmesine yöneliktir. İstanbul ilindeki Halk Eğitim Merkezlerinde çalışan kadrolu öğretmenler araştırmanın evrenini oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanın örneklemini, yirmi bir halk eğitim merkezindeki 183 öğretmen oluşturmaktadır. Aykırı durum örnekleme yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Öğretmenlere bir adet kişisel bilgi formu ile birlikte Minnesota İş Tatmini Ölçeği ve yabancılaşma düzeyini belirlemek için de Yabancılaşma Ölçeği uygulanmıştır. Verilerin analizi için, iki bağımsız grubun ortalamaları arasındaki farkı belirlemek için “Bağımsız Gruplar -t- testi” kullanılmıştır. İkiden çok bağımsız grubun ortalamalarının arasındaki farkın analizi için de Tek Yönlü ANOVA Testi kullanılmıştır. Yabancılaşma ölçeği alt boyut (güçsüzlük, anlamsızlık, yalıtılmışlık, okula yabancılaşma) ve toplam puanları ile iş doyumu ölçeği alt boyut (içsel ve dışsal doyum) ve toplam puanları arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemek amacıyla Pearson Korelasyon analizi yapılmıştır. Araştırma modelindeki değişkenlerin birbirlerini ne düzeyde açıkladığını ve yordadığını test etmek için ise çoklu doğrusal (linear) regresyon analizi yapılmıştır. İş doyumu ile okula yabancılaşma alt boyutları arasında pozitif yönlü orta düzeyde korelasyon olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Regresyon analizi sonuçlarına göre yabancılaşma alt boyutlarının tümü iş doyumunu yordayabilmektedir. Yabancılaşma toplam puanları, yaş ve mesleki kıdem değişkenlerine göre iş doyumunun yordanmasına ilişkin regresyon analizi sonuçlarında, yabancılaşma toplam puanları ile iş doyum arasında negatif yönlü ve yüksek düzeyde bir ilişkinin olduğu, görülmüştür.

Nearly two years ago online teaching became a necessity, the only point of student-teacher synchronous engagement. Teaching through Microsoft TEAMS, Zoom, Slack, or any other platform has for the majority meant appealing to student learners, though their own computer, and through the wonders of technology appearing on multiple screens in multiple countries; each screen leading to an individual learner. However, what if this assumption of projection onto multiple screens was removed, and instead the educator were to be projected onto an individual screen to multiple class-based student learners?
This presentation will therefore seek to explore the challenge of online teaching when it is focused on multiple learners who are seated in one classroom by a projection screen in which there is limited access a computer. This will therefore draw from contemporary experience, where adaption and motivation have the potential to lead to a fantastic student focused outcome. In doing so, this presentation will thus consider current pedagogies particularly focussing on scaffolding techniques and Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) can mesh with a challenging and novel single screen framework (SSF).
SSF, a projection runs the risk of educator becoming a reader who conflates ‘saying’ and ‘reading’ with ‘learner engagement’. Divided into theoretical and practical we shall see the navigation of this with the synthesis of digital tools and approaches.

We began planning for this special issue in May 2020. An upcoming book, Counternarratives of Pain and Suffering as Critical Pedagogy: Disrupting Oppression in Educational Contexts, co-edited also with Dr Andrew Campbell and published by Routledge, will supplement this special issue. What has compelled us to assemble and produce this special issue and the upcoming book? There were several personal and collective incidents that contributed to our motivation to produce this special issue. Dr Ardavan Eizadirad is a racialized scholar who identifies as Muslim and whose scholarly work examines equity and social justice in educational contexts. Dr Steve Sider is white and identifies as Christian whose scholarship is informed by his lived experience growing up in India, and whose research examines the intersections of school leadership and disability in international contexts including Canada, Ghana, Haiti, and Egypt. Despite our different histories, identities, and lived experiences, we both have experienced the "systemic wounds of oppression in education" but in different ways, ranging from racism and linguistic oppression to microaggressions and violence. We also have experienced and enacted the "pedagogy of engaging with pain and suffering" as a way to be liberated from the wounds and past traumas we have experienced. Part of this pedagogy has been our own conversations about these experiences, and how they have framed, defined, freed, bounded, and located us. Thus, this special issue is a reflection of our own lived experiences and journeys, but it is also part of the larger goal of disrupting normalized practices in publication that can be exclusionary. As Matias (2013) points out, it is important to acknowledge and invest in the causation of our tears to find a way "to wipe them away" (p. 187). Engaging with pain and suffering can be emotionally exhausting by triggering past traumas and ongoing fears and anxieties, yet it can also be a productive force which facilitates revolutionizing our soul and spirits for different purposes, ranging from survival and mourning to healing, and in some cases mobilization toward collective-action for personal and systemic change (Ennser-Kananen, 2016; Freire, 1970; Reyes, 2019; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015). Although the personal would suffice as an opportunity to invite others to consider how we visibilize systemic wounds of oppression in education via a pedagogy of engaging with pain and suffering, we recognize there are systemic issues and collective incidents which also compel us to consider this topic. When we began planning the special issue in May 2020, many tragic events had received national attention worldwide. These included, among many others, the brutal attack by a police officer on George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Christian Cooper incident in Central Park, New York, and the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, while geopolitical and religious violence continued such as with the Israel-Palestine conflict and with the Rohingya in Myanmar. These issues have been compounded by events in 2021, including the discovery of 215 Indigenous children in an unmarked grave near Kamloops, British Columbia, hate crimes against Black, Asian, and Indigenous peoples around the world, and the murder of a Muslim family by a car in London, Ontario. This special issue incorporates multiple articles with a wide breadth of methodologies, alternative writing approaches, geo-spatial connections, and from a wide CONTACT Ardavan Eizadirad

Este artículo adopta una perspectiva política y económica para explorar la evolución de las representaciones del mundo laboral en los libros de texto del español como lengua extranjera (ELE) desde mediados de los setenta hasta la actualidad. Utilizando

The article focuses on eco-pedagogy in the ELT classroom -- getting students and teachers concerned about, active in confronting climate change, many ideas for discussion and numerous hyperlinks. A paper for nurturing critical eco-awareness and eco-activism at a range of levels in ELT classrooms and beyond This is a revised version of an article originally published in the BETA E-Newsletter in Bulgaria, May-June 2019.

In this paper I think  about the possibilities of resisting the flows of financialised capitalism and finding time for pleasurable affects in teaching and learning. Why pleasure? Because, as bell hooks reminds us, ‘the pleasure of teaching is an act of resistance countering the overwhelming boredom, uninterest, and apathy that so often characterize the way professors and students feel’ (hooks 1994, p. 10). Diffracting the critical theory of Nancy Fraser with the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I investigate ways to engender vitalism – jouissance – in higher education.

For better or worse, English continues to expand as the commonly shared lingua franca throughout the world. With an increasing movement of transnational students—armed with English and flowing across borders—three university professors discuss their pedagogies and ways of knowing as they engage transnational students inside Mexican university classrooms for future teachers of English. Situated at an interior Mexican public university, each of them explores their unique positioning and the ways they taught transnational students. One is a transnational Mexican-American instructor; another is a researcher of transnationalism historically based in the U.S., and the other co-author is a Mexican national who learned English as a second language and has witnessed the rapidly changing population of students in the interior of Mexico. Toward the aim of improving the way transnationals access and experience formal education, they provide recommendations for improving pedagogy and expanding research.

This paper examines public discourse on race, whiteness and Muslims through
an in-depth exploration of an online media controversy following the 2013
Boston Marathon bombings. On 16 April, the day after the attacks, the liberal
magazine Salon.com published David Sirota’s article, ‘Let’s Hope the Boston
Marathon Bomber is a White American’. A firestorm of commentary followed,
with conservatives defending the profiling of Muslims, and accusing Sirota of
anti-white racism. Anchored in questions of race, racism and Muslims and
marked by a sharp partisan polarisation, these discussions intensified after 18
April, when the Tsarnaev brothers were identified as the perpetrators. The
ensuing debate surrounding the racial identity of the Tsarnaevs displays how
Muslim racialisation occurs and operates within a conservative discourse
strongly committed to a colour-blind ideology. Our paper moves beyond
this affirmation of literature on Muslim racialisation and sets this process
within a relationally constructed and performative white racial identity

We write from a public university in Mexico’s interior, as 2 language professors from countries with fraught, yet intertwined, sets of histories—Mexico and the United States. Having lived in 2 countries with dramatic increases in nationalist policies, we reflect on having lived abroad through the increases in nationalism in our lived experiences. We also explore our understandings of retornados, the transnational returnees to Mexico, and how these students impact us and our teaching in Mexico in an English teacher education program. We conclude with implications for educators, as well as tempered senses of hope in these fraught political times.

We illustrate how culture jam practitioners and pedagogues are responding to increasing commercial incorporation by using participatory communication strategies to bring the act of jamming back into the realm of relocating culture. We analyze the past decade’s evolution of one of YouTube’s first viral videos, “Where the hell is Matt?,” and connect this case to ways university pedagogy might integrate culture jams as artifacts and assignments to empower students to use communication frameworks not only to critique the status quo but also to collaboratively generate transformation. Throughout, we elucidate culture jam processes as creative and cooperative performances of staying on one’s toes in the perpetual renegotiation of hegemony.

Critical epistemology deems that the relationship between concept, object, signifier, and signified is never fixed and is often mediated by the social relations of capitalist production and consumption. (Carspecken, 2013 p.9)  The symbolic representations of events are always absolutely core to any social research project, are never just a matter of symbols corresponding to objective rarity because social relations involving forms of power are always entailed in any representation; therefore, critical epistemology must include a theory of symbolic representation, its relationship to what we call “reality,” and its relationship to power (Carspecken, 2013).  Traditional critical ethnographic methods of meaning reconstruction which go beyond hermeneutics consider the ritual and symbolic.  Symbolic action and interaction is considered in terms of ritual performance, ritual critique, resistance, participatory action research, and other forms that push the liminal spaces from critique towards emancipatory action.
If we are to consider the symbolic to be a germane component of critical ethnographic research, then considerations should be given to participant observation.  What factors should a ‘researcher as participant’ consider when engaging physically in observation as a component of inquiry?

We would like to thank Luis Urrieta, Jr., for his sound advice and insight in the development of certain themes in this essay. And of course, we appreciate the countless immigrant students and families whom we have met throughout our personal and professional trajectories; their stories and courage ground the work we do. The authors can be reached at patricia.sanchez@utsa.edu and

For many sociologists (especially followers of functionalism) and educational theorists, education is concerned with the transmission of culture. As noted many years ago by Lawrence Stenhouse: "Sociologists commonly conceive the function of education as the transmission of culture from generation to generation … Can such a theory, founded upon the idea of cultural transmission, illuminate the practice of the primary school and catch the essence of the traditional theory of secondary education? … [And] we shall have to arrive at a clear idea of what is meant by culture and we shall have to understand how culture is transmitted" (1967, p.1).

Despite the extraordinary amount of attention critical thinking has received in the last few decades, the teaching and fostering of critical thinking in higher education is largely failing, and critical thinking has become an empty buzzword. However, given its importance as an aim of education, it needs to be “refilled”, but that is possible only after identifying the causes of the current failure, i.e. the obstacles to fostering critical thinking. Three such obstacles are identified in this paper, two actual and one hypothetical: (1) the lack of clarity and agreement about what critical thinking is, (2) current teaching practice, and (3) social resistance to (fostering) critical thinking. Based on a critical analysis of these obstacles, this paper suggests to remove or avoid them by refocusing critical thinking “instruction” in higher education on the idea that critical thinking is aiming for truth.