Critical Pedagogy
(CP) (Majore authors associated with CP include Paulo Freire, Wolfgang Klafki, Michale Apple, Peter McLaren, Ira Shor, and Henry Giroux.) Critical Pedagogy (CP) is an educational response to inequalities and oppressive power relations which exist in educational institutions. According to Kincheloe (2005), Critical Pedagogy (CP) is concerned with transforming relations of power which are oppressive and which lead to the oppression of people. It tries to humanize and empower learners. It is most associated with the Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire using the principals of critical theory of the Frankfurt school as its main source. The prominent members of this critical theory are Adorno, Marcuse, and Habermas. Critical theory is concerned with the idea of a just society in which people have political, economic, and cultural control of their lives. Thinkers of critical theory believe that these goals are satisfied only through emancipating oppressed people which empowers them and enables them to transform their life conditions. It is actually the starting point for critical pedagogy. The major concern of CP is with criticizing the schooling in capitalist societies. As Gor (2005) puts it, the major goals of CP are awareness raising and rejection of violation and discrimination against people. CP of Freire like critical theory tries to transform oppressed people and to save them from being objects of education to subjects of their own autonomy and emancipation. In this view, students should act in a way that enables them to transform their societies which is best achieved through emancipatory education. Through problem posing education and questioning the problematic issues in learners’ lives, students learn to think critically and develop a critical consciousness which help them to improve their life conditions and to take necessary actions to build a more just and equitable society. Thus, it can be said that CP challenges any form of domination, oppression and subordination with the goal of emancipating oppressed or marginalized people. . CP and the Educational Process The major goal of CP, is to emancipate and educate all people regardless of their gender, class, race, etc. Gadotti (1994) also notes that pedagogy is of major interest for Freire by which he seeks to change the structure of an oppressive society.
Critical pedagogy in Kanpol’s (1998) terms rests on the belief that every citizen deserves an education which involves understanding the schooling structure by the teacher that would not permit education to ensue. Banking education and Problem posing education Freire (1970) distinguishes between banking education and problem posing education. In the traditional view of education, Teachers are pillars of knowledge; they know everything and students know nothing. Teachers deposit knowledge in students and never ask them to question that knowledge. The teacher thinks, the students don’t. The teacher chooses the content, students comply with it. Teacher is authority and students are obedient to authority. Students in this model are receivers of knowledge. They receive, memorize and repeat. They are not asked to relate this knowledge to the current problems and injustices in society with the aim of improving the society. Accordingly, they get a passive role in this view. Freire (1970) refers metaphorically to the traditional view of education as banking model of education because it is like depositing of money in a bank. This model mirrors the structure of an oppressive society in which the oppressed and the oppressors are divided. It advocates fixation of reality. So it is a vehicle for continuing the political oppression and working against liberation or emancipation (Joldersma, 1999). This model is rejected because teachers should concern about society and to give human beings the opportunity to critically reflect and act on the position within society. Joldersma (1999) criticizes this model on the ground that here knowledge is too packaged, complete and objective and easily transferable into passive students and depicts the world as static and unchangeable. In this model, students believe that power, authority and activity are held by the teacher and students are viewed as objects rather than human. So in Joldersma’s (1999) term, this model is dehumanizing because it creates oppressive passivity in students. As an alternative to the banking model, Freire (1970) proposed a problem posing education which can lead to critical consciousness. According to Joldersma (1999), good teaching or problem posing pedagogy leads to the development of knowledge by the students themselves. Freire, in the 1960’, suggested that through a problem posing process literacy becomes immediately relevant and engaging by focusing on problematic issues in learners’ lives. Problem posing education, according to Freire (1970), involves uncovering of reality, striving for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality. This consciousness allows students to take the necessary actions to improve their life conditions (Freire, 1970). It is based on the realities of learners and their life situations. It shows people that they have the right to ask questions. In this process of problem posing, the teacher listens to students, then, he selects and brings known situations to students in codified forms, finally he asks a series of inductive questions regarding the discussion of the situation (Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan, 1999 respectively ;
Learner undergoes five steps of problem posingdescribing the content of discussion, defining the problem, personalizing the problem, discussing the problem, and discussing the alternatives of the problem. In problem posing model students are closely equal to their teachers regarding the problem under analysis and the developing knowledge. They exercise freedom and together with the teacher control the educational process. The teacher uncovers reality and creates knowledge of the world. Students in this view develop power to critically reflect on the way they exist in the world and they "come to see the world not as a static reality, but as reality in process, in transformation" (Freire, 1970, p. 71). Education in CP is thus a libratory process. It means that it raises students’ consciousness, it prepares students to engage in a larger struggle and it also helps students develop a more accurate perception of their experiences, and it empowers students to challenge oppressive social condition and to work toward a more just society (Foley, 2007). Education should make the students critically thinking citizens who can take their place in the conduct of democratic life. (Giroux, 1998) CP and Politics The most important theme in CP is the belief that education systems are political. Good teaching should aim at political transformation for the purpose of justice (Joldersma, 1999) CP is concerned with social justice and develops practices capable of transforming oppressive institutions or social relations largely through educational practices. Freire views education as political practice in the control of language and consciousness as a condition for the subjection of individuals and groups by the rulers. To him, education is an aspect of the relation between critique and domination. He refuses the ruling group’s claim that schools distribute knowledge in an objective and neutral manner. It is essential to make everyday experience problematic and critical by revealing its hidden political assumptions. This critical understanding by empowering students to develop the courage to participate in their self formation has a libratory purpose. He also asserts that higher education should engage in political education by “teaching students to take risk, challenge those with power, honor critical traditions, and be reflective about how authority is used in the classroom” Curriculum and CP Curriculum in CP is based on the idea that there is no one methodology that can work for all populations(Degener, 2001). there is no set curriculum or a program because all decisions related to curricular and material to be studied are based on the needs and interests of students the curricular is framed through the use of student experiences and realities of their lives. This curriculum is transformative, that is, it fosters students’ acquisition of the necessary strategies and skills that help them become social critics who are to make decisions which affect their social, political, and economic realities CP covers understanding curriculum as political text at the center of which, she believes, lies the social and political critics of everyday life. CP lesson plan should be based on authentic materials such as TV, commercials, video movie, etc. which are representative of the culture that are to be examined by the students and which serve as the basis for discussion and critical reflection of the culture.
4 The content should be immediate and meaningful to students in order to make them aware of both the reproductive nature and the possibility of resistance to problematic content. The authentic materials help students link their knowledge to existing problems in society and take necessary actions for its improvement. This transformation practices help students develop skill in reflection and action that allows them to recognize and work against oppressive conditions in society (Ares, 2006). in enabling transformative practice special attention is paid to students’ cultural heritage, practices, knowledge, and languages. It is also stressed that the aim of transformative practice is social transformation CP and the Role of Teacher and Student Teachers in this approach are viewed as problem posers. Learning through problem solving and practical application leads students to take a more active role in determining their experiences and positions within society. Teacher must empower his or her students by raising their awareness of reproducing process of an inequitable status quo in schooling and offer societal institutions. So teachers, are Transformative Intellectuals who have the knowledge and skill to critique and transform existing inequalities in society. The role of this transformative intellectual, is to learn from students, appreciate their viewpoints and to take part in the dialogical process. They also help students learn from each other and to theorize and understand how to question the authoritarian power of the classroom. According to Paulo Freire (1998), classroom experiences, with the help of the teachers, should become situations in which students are encouraged to act as active agents in their own education and to develop a critical consciousness that helps them evaluate the validity, fairness, and authority within their educational and living situations.