CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

Critical Pedagogy – A Conceptual Analysis
T. C. Thankachan M.A. (Pol.), M.A. (Socio.), M. Ed, M. Phil
(Secretary, All Kerala Training College Teachers Association (AKTCTA) & Lecturer, St. Thomas College of Teacher Education, Pala.)

Critical Pedagogy is also called as ‘conscientization’ or ‘education for critical thinking’. The term was coined by Brazilian educator, activist, and theorist Paulo Friere in his work Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Paulo Reglus Nevus Freire was born on September 19th, 1921 in Brazil. He took a vow at the age of eleven to dedicate his life to the struggle against hunger so that other children would not have to face the agony he was then experiencing, has made a profound impact not only in the overall struggle for development in the Third world countries but also in the field of education. Friere worked in close association with a number of groups engaged in new experiments in education. He acted as a consultant at Harward University’s school of education. His most popular work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is dedicated to the poor and deprived people of this world, and to those who identify with and fight for the impoverished.
In education critical pedagogy aims to - facilitate radical transformation of the social structure, development of critical consciousness, to discover and implement liberating alternatives through social interaction and transformation via conscientization – process by which people achieve a deepened awareness , both of socio-cultural reality that shapes their lives and of their capacity to transform that reality. Criticism and dialogue are the two activities in critical pedagogy.
Background of Critical Pedagogy
Critical pedagogy was heavily influenced by the works of Paulo Freire, arguably the most celebrated critical educator. According to his writings, Freire heavily endorses students’ ability to think critically about their education situation; this way of thinking allows them to "recognize connections between their individual problems and experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded." Realizing one’s consciousness ("conscientization") is a needed first step of "praxis," which is defined as the power and know-how to take action against oppression while stressing the importance of liberating education. "Praxis involves engaging in a cycle of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory. Social transformation is the product of praxis at the collective level."
Postmodern, anti-racist, feminist, and postcolonial theories all play a role in further explaining Freire’s ideas of critical pedagogy, shifting its main focus on social class to include issues pertaining to religion, military identification, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and age. Many contemporary critical pedagogues have embraced postmodern, anti-essentialist perspectives of the individual, of language, and of power, "while at the same time retaining the Freirean emphasis on critique, disrupting oppressive regimes of power/knowledge, and social change." Critical pedagogy considers how education can provide individuals with the tools to better themselves and strengthen democracy, to create a more egalitarian and just society, and thus to deploy education in a process of progressive social change.
In his book, Critical Pedagogy (2008, second edition), Joe L. Kincheloe helps explains the central dynamics of critical pedagogy: "Advocates of critical pedagogy are aware that every minute of every hour that teachers teach, they are faced with complex decisions concerning justice, democracy, and competing ethical claims. While they have to make individual determinations of what to do in these particular circumstances, they must concurrently deal with the surrounding institutional morality. A central tenet of critical pedagogy maintains that the classroom, curriculum, school structures, teachers etc, are not neutral sites waiting to be shaped by educational professionals. While such professionals do possess agency, this prerogative is not completely free and independent of decisions made previously by people operating with different values and shaped by the ideologies and cultural assumptions of their historical contexts. These contexts are shaped in the same way language and knowledge are constructed, as historical power makes particular practices seem natural—as if they could have been constructed in no other way." Kincheloe lists the basic concerns of critical pedagogy:
• all education is inherently political and all pedagogy must be aware of this condition
• a social and educational vision of justice and equality should ground all education
• issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and physical ability are all important domains of oppression and critical anti-hegemonic action.
• the alleviation of oppression and human suffering is a key dimension of educational purpose
• schools must not hurt students--good schools don't blame students for their failures or strip students of the knowledges they bring to the classroom
• all positions including critical pedagogy itself must be problematized and questioned
• the professionalism of teachers must be respected and part of the role of any educator involves becoming a scholar and a researcher
• education must both promote emancipatory change and the cultivation of the intellect--these goals should never be in conflict, they should be synergistic
• the politics of knowledge and issues of epistemology are central to understanding the way power operates in educational institutions to perpetuate privilege and to subjugate the marginalized--"validated" scientific knowledge can often be used as a basis of oppression as it is produced without an appreciation of how dominant power and culture shape it.
• education often reflects the interests and needs of new modes of colonialism and empire. Such dynamics must be exposed, understood, and acted upon as part of critical transformative praxis.
Important Critical Pedagogues
Authors of critical pedagogy not only include Paulo Freire, as mentioned above, but also Michael Apple, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, Joe L. Kincheloe, Howard Zinn,Suresh Canagarajah,Alastair Pennycook, Graham Crookes and others. Educationists including Jonathan Kozol and Parker Palmer are sometimes included in this category. Other critical pedagogues more known for their anti-schooling, unschooling, or deschooling perspectives include Ivan Illich, John Holt, Ira Shor, John Taylor Gatto, and Matt Hern.
Constructivism
A philosophy that views learning as an active process in which learners construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through action and reflection. Constructivists argue that individuals generate rules and mental models as the result of their experiences with both other human subjects and their environments and in turn use these rules and models to make sense of new experiences.
Three important concepts emerge from this definition:
1. Knowledge is socially constructed. It is not something that exists outside of language and the social subjects who use it. Learning - obtaining knowledge and making meaning - is thus a social process rather than the work of the isolated individual mind; it cannot be divorced from learners' social context.
2. Learning is an active process. Students learn by doing rather than by passively absorbing information.
3. Knowledge is constructed from experience. Students bring prior knowledge into a learning situation, which in turn forms the basis for their construction of new knowledge. Upon encountering something new, learners must first reconcile it in some way with their previous ideas and experiences. This may mean changing what they believe, expanding their understanding, or disregarding the new information as irrelevant.
In this framework then, learning is not a process of transmission of information from teacher to student, a model which positions the student as a passive receptacle, but an active process of construction on the part of the learner that involves making meaning out of a multiplicity stimuli.
In practice, educators use active techniques (experiments, real-world examples, problem solving activities, dialogues) to introduce students to information and issues and then encourage students to reflect on and talk about what they did and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions and guides activities to address and build on them. Constructivism also often utilizes collaboration and peer criticism as a way of facilitating students' abilities to reach a new level of understanding.
Constructivism and Critical Pedagogy
Many of the characteristic tenets of critical pedagogy are consistent with a constructivist approach to education. Long before Paulo Freire (1921-1997) wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), which contains his famous critique of the "banking concept of education" (education that revolves around the actions of teachers who "deposit" knowledge into their passive students), John Dewey (1859-1952), generally considered the founder of "progressive" education and constructivist educational theory in the United States, rejected teaching practices that positioned students as passive receptacles, such as the rote learning of isolated facts, advocating instead for a pedagogical approach that involved students' active engagement with each other and with the world. Like Freire, who embraced both "problem posing" and dialogic educational practices, Dewey emphasized the importance of active social learning environments, rather than one-sided lectures, and argued that learning involves the active construction of knowledge through engagement with ideas in meaningful contexts, rather than the passive absorption of isolated bits of information. And just as Freire maintained that education must engage with the language and experiences of learners, drawing upon their thematic universes, Dewey had also argued that learning takes place within meaningful contexts that allow students to build upon the knowledge they already have. Both argue that educators need to understand the experiences and worldviews of their students in order to successfully further the learning process. Moreover, both associate learning with critical reflection, with actively seeking after truth and applying it to future problems. They also draw a connection between critical reflection and politics, with Freire linking critical reflection with the fight against oppressive social conditions and Dewey linking it to responsible and ethical democratic citizenship.
Problem Posing Education
It rejects banking education, or education as the process of transferring information, and embraces a view of education as consisting of acts of cognition that take place through dialogue. Students and teachers become critical co-investigators in dialogue with each other (Pedagogy of the Oppressed). According to Freire, with problem posing education, "no one teaches another, nor is anyone self-taught. Men teach each other, mediated by the world, by the cognizable objects which in banking education are 'owned' by the teacher". The Kerala Curriculum Framework (KCF) identifies certain issues related to Kerala society. Those issues are to be treated considering the aims of education. The aims of education are-
• Education for social justice
• Education for balanced development
• Education for citizenship development
• Education for development of national feeling
• Education based on rights of individuals
• Education for development of scientific and technology based outlook
• Education for the protection of cultural uniqueness
• Education for development of job skills
• Education for social and democratic values
• Education for self-sufficiency
• Education for resistance
• Education for construction and exchange of knowledge
• Education for developing a critical outlook
In education critical pedagogy aims to - facilitate radical transformation of the social structure, development of critical consciousness, to discover and implement liberating alternatives through social interaction and transformation via conscientization – process by which people achieve a deepened awareness , both of socio-cultural reality that shapes their lives and of their capacity to transform that reality. Criticism and dialogue are the two activities in critical pedagogy.
The selected eight issues that are rooted in Kerala culture has to be analyzed with the help of the curriculum is the need of the hour according to KCF. These eight issues are;-
• Absence of vision as a universal citizen
• Lack of work competency development
• Lack of understanding on uniqueness of out culture and its independent development
• Absence of considering Agriculture as a culture
• Lack of scientific attitude on health and public health
• Lack of concern for the marginalized sections of the society
• Lack of scientific land – water management and
• Lack of eco-friendly industrial and urban development
Critical Pedagogy –Steps
Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach which attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate. In other words, it is a theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness. Critical pedagogue Ira Shor defines critical pedagogy as, "Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional clichés, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse." Critical Pedagogy has the following steps;
Context – Students come from different context or background. The educators must know the family, social, political, economical religious context or background of each student.
Vocabulary- The educators observe the students in order to ‘tune in’ to the universe of their vocabulariy. For example, even within one state or country people use different vocabulary. For example, the vacabulary ‘Kappa’ is pronounced slightly different by a true Keralite than a non-Keralatie living in Kerala. Both may abe born in Kerala yet there will be difference in pronunciation.
Codification- There is codification of culture or context in vocabularies or words. Teachers should know the culture or context of students codified in their vocabulary. For example, vocabularies or words differ from place to place. Some vocabularies or words used in Pala may not be used in Trivandrum or Thrissur or may have different meanings.
Decodification- Words and themes are generated by a ‘culture cycle’. For example, vocabularies or words differ from place to place. By listening to the vacabulary or words we can say whether the person is from Pala or Trivandrum, whether the person is Hindu, Muslim, Christian, whether person is educated or not, whether the person is from viallage or town etc..
Codification of these words into visual images, which stimulated people submerged in the culture of silence (not conscious) to emerge as conscious makers of their own culture. For example , student in a group says a vocabulary ‘slum’, the teacher should ask the studens to see the ‘slum’ in imagination or in visual images; they see small huts, no proper drinking water, no electricity, etc. When the students see the vocabulary ‘slum’ in images they become aware of their conditions, they become conscious.
Dialogue – The teacher should lead the students to dialogue. The dialogical approach to learning abandons the lecture format and the banking approach to education in favor of dialogue and open communication among students and teachers. According to Paulo Freire, in this method, all teach and all learn. The dialogical approach contrasts with the anti-dialogical method, which positions the teacher as the transmitter of knowledge, a hierarchical framework that leads to domination and oppression through the silencing of students' knowledge and experiences. For example, after visualizing the condition of a ‘slum’ the students become aware of their conditions. They will have dialogue, they talk among themselves on what can they do and how can they make the slum better.
Dialogical method is based on the dialogue between persons. In the dialogical relations, no one teaches another, nor is any one self-taught. People teach each other. In the dialogical system, students are co-investigators in the dialogue with the teacher. In the dialogical relations, arguments based on authority are no longer valid. Authority is on the ‘side’ of freedom, not ‘against’ it.
Praxis (Action) – The dialogue leads to action. Those who were formerly illiterate or not conscious of their conditions now begin to reject the role as mere ‘objects’ in nature and social theory. They undertake to become ‘subjects’ of their own destiny. Those who were formerly illiterate or not conscious of their condition now begin to oppose against exploitation, oppression, injustice and bring justice and social transformation.
Critical Pedagogy advocates dialogical method in teaching. A variety of multi sensory-stimulation techniques such as graphic and audio-visual aids including charts, diagrams, maps, pictures, slides etc, are advocated to educate the people and conscientise them. The substance or the content should be defined by the people. This is possible if the leaders employ the dialogical method. Dialogue with the people is the first step into education. People should describe the world and reality around them, create values rather than receive them and thus develop their understandings and commitments for action. Their understandings, needs only to be recognized interpreted, discussed and refined. These are the steps in teaching in Critical Pedagogy.
Friere’s ideas are of a rebel and as such they are too revolutionary. Theoretically they appear to be quite sound but functionally they are ‘Utopian’ in nature. Friere has not clearly provided any framework of a workable formal system of education. Of course, his methodology of education can be used with some modifications.

"The future isn't something hidden in a corner. The future is something we build in the present."--Paulo Freire

References
Aronowitz, S. (2003). How class works: Power and social movement. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Friere, P.(2002), Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmonds worth, Penguin.
Grande, S. (2004). Red pedagogy: Native American social and political thought. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield.
Kincheloe, J. (2008). Critical pedagogy. 2nd edition. NY: Peter Lang.
Monchinski, T. (2007). The politics of education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
NCERT (2006), National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2005, New Delhi.
SCERT (2008) Kerala Curriculum Framework, Thiruvananthapuram.
SCERT (2008) Kerala Curriculum Framework - Teachers Manual, Thiruvananthapuram
Shor, I. (1992). Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.