Duncan-Andrade and Morrell “Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom”

“In order for critical pedagogy, dialogue, and thought to have real effects, they must advocate the message that all citizens, old and young, are equally entitled, if not equally empowered, to shape the society in which they live.” Henry Giroux

This article expounds on the notion that the ability to comprehend text is the most important goal of reading instruction, everything else builds upon this skill. Teachers want their “students to be able to present themselves powerfully and persuasively across multiple written genres as well as through formal and informal oral presentations” (4). Critical pedagogy theory means that we should teach students how to be aware of their own learning. We want them to recognize when someone is trying to dominate them through education. Teachers and students should be learning from one another and not just the “sage on the stage” mentality.

In 1971, Antonio Gramsci suggested that “the ultimate goal of a proletariat education is to help make students more critical consumers of all information that they encounter in their daily lives and to give them the skills to become more capable producers of counter-information” (7). I can’t think of anything more important to know how to do in life. This very skill can help in numerous arena’s, from a student’s own classroom, to their future job, to unfair practices at their child’s school. There are many instances that students will need to be able to think and act for themselves during their lifetime. It should be educators number one priority to help their students gain the life skills to change the world, or just their own situation. We live in a tough world, by making our students understand that there are injustices in the world, and that they can do something about those injustices, is a worthwhile purpose.

I appreciate the author’s sensitivity when deciding on literature to teach for their diverse classrooms. The teachers used “classroom units that coupled the study of film, newspapers, magazines, and music with the study of traditional novels, poems, and plays” (10). Opportunities were offered for students to study and incorporate their own every-day culture into classroom assignments. By doing this, these educators were displaying that they cared about what was important and relevant to these students lives. The result was that students were interested in learning.

Theory of critical pedagogy is mostly interested in asking questions that make students think deeper and more critically. School should be a place where teachers understand their students’ goals, passions and interests. If educators take the initiative and connect student interest to their teaching techniques, more students would be engaged.

Definition of Critical Pedagogy by Study.com

Critical pedagogy is based on the work by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, who was once imprisoned and then exiled as a traitor for his teaching methods which were used to teach illiterate adults. Critical pedagogy recognizes the influence that the lack of education has on the oppression of impoverished people. One of the primary goals of education is to help people develop critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is the ability to assess the political and social structures that exist and to empower people to question authority and speak out against injustices.

Critical Pedagogy at work thanks to:

 http://maljewari.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-does-critical-pedagogy-look-like-in.html 

Discourse

The teacher can either pose a question or an idea as students interact in conversation about the particular subject selected. A teacher can also pose a problem that exists in their community. The students learn about the idea as they interact in discourse with the teacher, members of community, and between students.

Guided by the Teacher

The teacher guides the students to the objective, that is what they are going to learn through the use of past events in history or current events that are occurring.   The activities selected by the teacher promote communication and allows the student to view other perspectives and incorporate real-word experiences.  However, the idea or concept they  learn is relevant in some way to the students. A possible event in history that impacted their community connected to a world event, similar to the video can be used in the lesson. 

Students' Create/Explore/Develop

The teacher allows the students to expand on the idea  or  point of view the teacher wants them to understand and reflect. This is similar to the exploration and evaluation of the 5 E model.  However, students do not use materials given by the teacher.  The  students input is based on what they think and particularly seeking the right or wrong answer is not the objective of the lesson.  Students should feel empowered in learning.  The outcome of the lesson depends on the students interest and effort

Here are four dimensions of critical pedagogy (Lewison,Flint, and Sluys, 2002) that can be applied in the classroom. 

1. Disrupting the commonplace
2. Interrogating multiple viewpoints
3. Focusing on social political issues
4. Taking action and promoting social justice

A Great Example of  incorporating Critical Pedagogy