Critical pedagogy
Dewey explicitly argued that progressive education should not be entirely “child-centered” but needed to address social problems in the child’s world. Many of Dewey’s more overtly political followers have therefore emphasized the importance of “social reconstruction” or “social responsibility” as primary goals of education. In the 1970s, after the publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by the radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, the term “critical pedagogy” came into use and many progressive theorists now use it to mean a deliberate effort to educate for social responsibility.
They believe that the main purpose of education is not to transmit knowledge and preserve social traditions but to transform society by helping students develop a perceptive and inquisitive consciousness of the conditions of their culture. This literature speaks about freedom and liberation, but it is important to note that these educators do not hold an individualistic view of freedom. They are concerned with changing cultural, economic, and political institutions and believe that a functioning democracy requires purposeful collective action, not simply personal choice.
Proponents of critical pedagogy tend to be strong supporters of the public school ideal (though they certainly want to change the actual conditions in most schools) and generally view privatization of education as being elitist or a retreat from social responsibility. So homeschoolers and independent alternative educators generally do not find many enthusiastic allies among this group. Yet critical pedagogy represents an important segment of the alternative education map, for it raises basic questions about the very purpose of education.
In a world suffering from excessive violence and exploitation, racism and class division, and the devastating effects of globalization and corporate expansion, teachers and parents simply cannot afford to treat knowledge and academic skills from a morally neutral, disengaged perspective, as they often do. In the context of an unequal and often unfair society, say the advocates of critical pedagogy, students’ personal interests and desires cannot be the only measure of educational value. In a democracy, if we want to educate young people to become active, engaged citizens, can we truly do so by “getting out of their way,” as some of the freedom-based educators explicitly say, or is it necessary to provoke their learning deliberately, following a clear moral and ethical vision?
According to critical pedagogy theory, these are essential issues for every educator to ponder. Even “alternative” educators need to consider whether their approach is overly “child-centered” in a troubled world, because, they assert, being neutral or indifferent to the moral condition of the world into which we are educating children ultimately amounts to an endorsement of the transmission model; it is to say, in effect, that learning is an objective process and that the purpose of education is to transmit “knowledge” into young minds, even if the form of transmission doesn’t look as harsh or artificial as it does in conventional schooling.
Critical pedagogy Dewey explicitly argued that progressive education should not be entirely “child-centered” but needed to address social problems in the child’s world. Many of Dewey’s more overtly political followers have therefore emphasized the importance of “social reconstruction” or “social responsibility” as primary goals of education. In the 1970s, after the publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by the radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, the term “critical pedagogy” came into use and many progressive theorists now use it to mean a deliberate effort to educate for social responsibility. They believe that the main purpose of education is not to transmit knowledge and preserve social traditions but to transform society by helping students develop a perceptive and inquisitive consciousness of the conditions of their culture. This literature speaks about freedom and liberation, but it is important to note that these educators do not hold an individualistic view of freedom. They are concerned with changing cultural, economic, and political institutions and believe that a functioning democracy requires purposeful collective action, not simply personal choice. Proponents of critical pedagogy tend to be strong supporters of the public school ideal (though they certainly want to change the actual conditions in most schools) and generally view privatization of education as being elitist or a retreat from social responsibility. So homeschoolers and independent alternative educators generally do not find many enthusiastic allies among this group. Yet critical pedagogy represents an important segment of the alternative education map, for it raises basic questions about the very purpose of education. In a world suffering from excessive violence and exploitation, racism and class division, and the devastating effects of globalization and corporate expansion, teachers and parents simply cannot afford to treat knowledge and academic skills from a morally neutral, disengaged perspective, as they often do. In the context of an unequal and often unfair society, say the advocates of critical pedagogy, students’ personal interests and desires cannot be the only measure of educational value. In a democracy, if we want to educate young people to become active, engaged citizens, can we truly do so by “getting out of their way,” as some of the freedom-based educators explicitly say, or is it necessary to provoke their learning deliberately, following a clear moral and ethical vision? According to critical pedagogy theory, these are essential issues for every educator to ponder. Even “alternative” educators need to consider whether their approach is overly “child-centered” in a troubled world, because, they assert, being neutral or indifferent to the moral condition of the world into which we are educating children ultimately amounts to an endorsement of the transmission model; it is to say, in effect, that learning is an objective process and that the purpose of education is to transmit “knowledge” into young minds, even if the form of transmission doesn’t look as harsh or artificial as it does in conventional schooling.
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