Critical Pedagogy Perspective of Education - Essay Example

? Critical Pedagogy Perspective of Education Lecturer: In my own understanding, critical pedagogy approach to learning is the form of schooling in which the learner freely chose what is best for him or her. Critical Pedagogy approach of learning combines the twin effect of what the learner is taught and what he or she learns. “Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliches, 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"(Wink 2011, p. 128). This is an implication that in critical pedagogy approach of schooling the learner is not mandated to conform to the conventional schooling system. The paper access the appropriateness of critical pedagogy of schooling and its key elements. Paulo Freire was the first person to describe critical pedagogy approach of schooling. His initial interest was to address adult literacy, “…Paulo Freire, writing originally within the specific context of promoting adult literacy within Latin American peasant communities, but whose work has taken on an increasingly international interest and appeal in the past three decades”(Macrine 2009, p. 67). Freire in his work refers to such schools as Democratic or Free schools and gives an example of Summerhill school which was founded by A.S Neil in the year 1921 (Freire 1996). “Summerhill is based on the idea that children learn best when they are in control of their own learning” (Parker & Fournier 2007, p. 275). Other source indicates that there are a number of Democratic or Free schools and especially in United Kingdom. “…there are a number of free or democratic schools across the world, many linked together in decentralized network in order to share skills and knowledge” (Kanpol 1999, p. 35). However, such schools are not eligible to receive government funding. “Free schools seek to operate independently of state education controls and are often self-funded…” (Malott 2010, p.67). According to Giroux, (1984, 1988) critical pedagogy approach of schooling is concerned with the relationship that should exist between, school and the socio- political aspects of living. In his explanation, Stanley (1992) indicates that Freire’s critical pedagogy is based on critical consciousness. Stanley (1992, p. 56) continues to deduce that according to Freire, “Freedom, for Freire, begins with the recognition of a system of oppressive relations, and one’s own place in that system. The task of Critical Pedagogy is to bring members of an oppressed group to a critical consciousness of their situation as a beginning point of their liberatory praxis.” This is an implication that the learner should be the centre of schooling not schooling being the centre of learning. Purmensky (2009, p. 96) states that, “Freire goes further than arguing that educators must constantly discover and rediscover ways to help the learner view knowledge as problematic.” Arguably, an implication that teachers should employ a learning approach that enables the learner to learn and unlearn. The idea behind critical pedagogy approach of education is attributed to neo-Marxian literature concerning Critical Theory. Critical theorist argued that the Frankfurt school, whose founder was Marxism, had underrated the significant role played by media and cultural influences in addressing issues pertaining capitalism (Malott 2010; Sleeter 1995). critical pedagogy generally refers to the effort that is need to work in an educational institution as well in other aspects of life such as the media and have the audacity to question any form of power inequality that results to groups as well as individuals abandoning what is meaningful and will value to their lives. To install such crucial virtues, learners’ in school need to be prepared right from the beginning to be assertive and act according in their attempt to address any form of power inequality (Kahn 2010; Kincheloe 2008). In critical pedagogy terms, a critical individual is the one who upon being empowered, has the temerity of seeking justice and as well as emancipation (Christensen 2013). Such a person is not only supposed to recognize and identify injustice malpractices, but as per the critical pedagogy, he or she is supposed to demonstrate the ability to rectify the situation. Actually, the emphasis of critical pedagogy in this argument is change and the collective accomplishment to attain change. “…the endeavor to teach others to think critically is less a matter of fostering individual skills and dispositions, and more a consequence of the pedagogical relations, between teachers and students and among students, which promote it; furthermore, the object of thinking critically is not only against demonstrably false beliefs, but also those that are misleading, partisan, or implicated in the preservation of an unjust status quo"(Kanpol 142). Of crucial important to note here is the teacher student relationship in the learning process. The language of possibility and the language of critique as identified by Toohey (2003) are important aspects of seeking social justice, which is one of the considerations or actually the aim of critical pedagogy teachings(Duncan & Morrell 2008). The ability of the learner to develop or actually acquire the virtues of language possibility is part of what makes an individual critical. The critical ability of a person is the crucial virtue that enables an individual to recognize or actually to identify social injustices or other form of injustices within the society, for instance, injustices such as power inequalities and act positively in an assertive manner in addressing the malpractice in question (Leonardo 2005). Such competences are easily acquired or even instilled to learner when the learning process is such that the learner gets the chance to rethink and reevaluate what he or she is taught and hence comparing it with his or her general knowledge on other aspects of his or her life. In fact Giroux (1988, p. 177) puts it that, “the aim of the critical educator should be "to raise ambitions, desires, and real hope for those who wish to take seriously the issue of educational struggle and social justice.” Critical pedagogy approach of schooling is concerned with the way education equips the learner with competences that enables the learner to add value to his or her life and hence strengthening democracy. Through critical pedagogy approach of learning, a just and classless society is created. Of great concern is the deployment of education in a progressive social change process (Weiller & Mitchell 1992; Monchinski 2008). For instance, think of lessons to do with mass literacy. In such a scenario, the aim is to equip the students and the citizens with skills and competences that empower them in aspects such as class, cultural differences, and as well as on sexuality. Generally, the whole idea behind Critical pedagogy approach of schooling is to create an enabling environment for democratization through fostering critical thinking to learners. The aim of critical literacy, which is as a result of critical pedagogy approach of learning is to enable the learner to criticize the learning texts in a critical manner (Rossatto et al 2006). Critical pedagogy learning equips the learners with competencies that allow them to critically analyze learning texts depending on its context and eventually take their own stand or position as per what they perceive. It provides the learner with competencies that enable him or her scrutinize cultural and social aspects of life and hence transforming the learner to be the subject rather than being the object (Leonardo 2005; Koncheloe et al 2011). The assumption here is that the learner is the citizen and hence the implication that the citizens in a democratic nation should not allow themselves to be treated like objects, rather they should be the subject. This is the ability to think critically and recognize or identify injustices and inequalities within the society and hence act accordingly to address the injustices and the inequalities identified in an assertive manner. This is an implication that the aim of critical pedagogy approach of schooling is empowerment (Kincheloe &Mclaren 2007). Critical pedagogy schooling empowers the students to acquire knowledge and use it critically in analyzing aspects of their daily living. Such analyses enable students and citizens to be initiators and resist any form of domination and manipulation in the society (Freire 1996; 2004). In critical pedagogy schooling, the primary obligation of the teacher is empowering those deemed powerless and hence transforming the circumstances that bring about inequity and injustices in the society. This concurs with Paulo Freire fulfillment of what he refers as our vocation “to be truly humanized social agents in the world” (Groenke & Hatch 2009). This is an implication that the major elements or components of critical pedagogy approach of schooling is to critique, challenge, and expose the impact of schooling to the cultural and political life of the learners (Hardin 2001). In critical pedagogy approach to schooling, the educators or teacher for that case is mandated with task of recognizing and identifying the ways in which the schools connect power and knowledge and how the functionality of the two impact the development of critical thinking and the social life of the learner (Monchinski 2010). The perception of the critical pedagogy approach to schooling is different from the conventional perspective of schooling. The conventional schooling approach of teaching is apolitical and neutral. Of importance to note is that in conventional schooling approach the students or actually, the learner is perceived as the object not the subject. In critical pedagogy approach of schooling the learning comprises of aspects dealing with culture, history, politics, as well as power. Arguably, this form of schooling is similar to what happens in a democratic leadership (Malott & Porfilio). Owing to this perception, critical pedagogy approach of schooling is such that it operates with ongoing struggles due to its legitimate pursuit culture and knowledge. Due to this aspect of critical pedagogy schooling, the learning is organized in such a way that it addresses “… the concept of cultural politics both legitimizing and challenging cultural experiences that comprise the histories and social realities that in turn comprise the forms and boundaries that give meaning to students lives” (Darder & Torres 2009,p.77). Critical pedagogy learning as discussed entails an approach of learning where the learner has control of learning what he or she views as important. The learner has the control of learning and unlearning what s/he is taught. It is an approach of learning that focuses on knowledge acquisition and as well as on the applicability of that knowledge in terms of cultural and political consideration. 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