Critical teachers maintain that students should study the world around them, in
the process learning who they are and what has shaped them. In this context students
as odd as it might sound become epistemologically informed scholars. As
such, they are challenged to analyze and interpret data, conduct research, and
develop a love for scholarship that studies things that matter to the well being of the
people of the world. Critical middle school math teachers in this counter-hegemonic
context see their goals as cultivating a love for math, developing student interest in
discovering more and more uses for math in their lives, finding applications for
math that improve the lives of oppressed peoples, and producing a passion for
students to know more about the subject.
No discussion of an epistemologically informed, counter-hegemonic classroom
teaching would be complete without the insights of Paulo Freire the great Brazilian
educator. Freire (1970, 1985) and Ira Shor (1992) have studied curriculum development
in this context, employing the concept of “generative theme.” The generative
theme is topic taken from students’ knowledge of their own lived experiences that
is compelling and controversial enough to elicit their excitement and commitment.
Such themes are saturated with affect, emotion, and meaning because they
engage the fears, anxieties, hopes and dreams of both students and their teachers.
Generative themes arise at the point where the personal lives of students intersect
with the larger society and the globalized world.