Critical pedagogy: Where Are We Now? Book Review (original) (raw)

Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times: Hope and Possibilities, edited by Sheila L. Macrine

Policy Futures in Education, 2016

Shelia L Macrine's edited volume, Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times: Hope and Possibilities, presents itself as an intervention into the current phase of neoliberal capitalism, where critical pedagogy is often conceived of as a force for a more humanistic and democratic future and as an instrument for unveiling the oppressive nature of capitalism. Incidentally, this volume also serves as a celebration, marking 40 years since the landmark publication of Paulo Freire's seminal text, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Macrine brings together ten chapters in two sections, many of which are by some of the most esteemed scholars and activists in critical pedagogy, as well as a foreword by Stanley Aronowitz, and an afterword by Gustavo E. Fischman. The foreword by Stanley Aronowitz outlines a framework of critical pedagogy based on three goals for what he calls ''radical democratic humanism'' (p. ix). The first and second goals are self-reflection and being critical as undergirding elements of human consciousness-these goals are covered in the book's first section. In the book's second section, the overall goal is concerned with agency and the role of critical pedagogy for reinstating ''education as a public good'' (p. 6). In the book's first section, Chapter 1 begins with Henry Giroux, who reinvigorates Noam Chomsky's call for the responsibility of intellectuals. Within the neoliberal context, Giroux argues that subjects in higher education have gained importance ''almost exclusively through their exchange value on the market'' (p. 16), where higher education has subsidized corporate training while enslaving students with debt. Giroux's response is for intellectuals to connect their labor to social problems in order to defend the public sphere. In Chapter 2, Kenneth Saltman outlines the disaster impulses of neoliberalism through a back door privatization framework. Back door privatization, according to Saltman, has occurred through disaster, illustrated by No Child Left Behind of 2001, Renaissance 2010 in Chicago, IL, rebuilding education in Iraq after the US invasion, and rebuilding education in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Saltman's chapter leads to Chapter 3, where Peter McLaren and Nathalia Jaramillo articulate a revolutionary critical pedagogy situated within a critique of political economy, in which a Marxist humanist approach can help one break through the boundaries of capitalism. McLaren and Jaramillio read this Marxist humanistic approach into Latina/o education, where students serve capital through a perfidious binary in the US education system between Americanism and un-Americanism. In Chapter 4, Donaldo Macedo works to unmask the illusions associated with prepackaged Western democracy spread through the instrument of US foreign policy. The

Reclaiming the Revolutionary Power of Critical Pedagogy

Encyclopedia of Teacher Education, 2019

Critical pedagogy situates teaching and learning within a sociohistorical, political context as a prodemocratic and emancipatory project. Originating with the writings of Paulo Freire, critical pedagogy is rooted in the struggles for liberation of oppressed communities in Latin America. In the critical surge of the 1980s, the work of Freire was analyzed and adapted in North America to form the core writings of critical pedagogy. Drawing on the work of Freire, praxis philosophers (Marx, Lukács) and the Frankfurt School, critical educators refined the categories of ideology, power, hegemony, and discourse to contextualize the struggle against capitalist schooling in the United States. Hope conjugated with struggle is the through-line in critical pedagogy that sustains revolutionary power against the forces of neoliberal attacks on education as the practice of freedom. As noted by McLaren (2016b), our sense of struggle must be informed by the tangible effects of capitalism on the impoverished masses. Among the key architects of critical pedagogy, Peter McLaren has articulated a critical vision of Marx and Liberation Theology that makes critical pedagogy more relevant than ever by engaging with decolonization, that is, with popular In response to the structural crisis of capitalism of 2008, transnational capitalists have invested

Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times

On Critical Pedagogy, 2020

Across the globe, the forces of neoliberalism, or what might be called the latest stage of predatory capitalism, are on the march dismantling the historically guaranteed social provisions provided by the welfare state. This is all the more reason for educators and others to address important social issues and to defend public and higher education as democratic public spheres; educators need a new political and pedagogical language for addressing the changing contexts and issues developing forms of critical pedagogy capable of challenging neoliberalism and other antidemocratic traditions. This paper presents the notion of teachers as public intellectuals, pedagogy and the project of insurrectional democracy, pedagogy and the politics of responsibility, and finally, pedagogy as a form of resistance and educated hope. Educated hope provides the basis for dignifying our labor as intellectuals; it offers up critical knowledge linked to democratic social change, it is rooted in shared responsibilities, and allows teachers and students to recognize ambivalence and uncertainty as fundamental dimensions of learning. Such hope offers the possibility of thinking beyond the given-and lays open a pedagogical terrain in which teachers and students can engage in critique, dialogue, and a struggle for social justice.

Critical Pedagogy: Future and Hope

Journal of Transformative Praxis

Critical pedagogy is a pedagogical philosophy and social movement founded on the notion of critical social theories and paradigms. Critical pedagogy encompasses a wide range of topics, including future and hope. Whilst developing educational programs, implementing pedagogies, and responding to humanitarian crises, critical pedagogy becomes a basis for examining deep-seated values, beliefs and assumptions that might otherwise challenge empowering, equitable and socially just educational and social systems (Luitel & Dahal, 2020). Such a process is, without doubt, an important component of renewing education and culture. Politics is at the heart of critical pedagogy (McLaren & Leonard, 1993). Hence, in this editorial, we attempt to highlight critical pedagogy: future and hope of the Freirean concepts of critical pedagogy (1921-1997). Education as “Banking”, liberatory pedagogy, education is political, critical pedagogy is not Eidos, pedagogy of hope, critical reflection as/for conscien...

Broadening the Circle of Critical Pedagogy

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.

Humanizing critical pedagogy: What kind of teachers? What kind of citizenship? What kind of future?

Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, 2018

Critical pedagogy is understood in myriad ways. Most often associated with Freire’s 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, 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. 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. The aim of this paper is to broaden the conception of critical pedagogy and thereby increase its uptake by teachers and its effects on individuals, schools, and society by adopting a less orthodox conception of what it means to practice critical pedagogy.

And Critical Pedagogy

2016

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