Teaching Outside The Book

I feel much more positive about critical pedagogy after our class discussion; much more likely to consider incorporating its ideas and themes in an actual writing classroom. I had the same reaction to the Guide’s description of cultural pedagogy as I did to its treatment of critical pedagogy: the goals of the pedagogies were appropriate, interesting and possibly effective methods were presented, and both ideas would seem to lead to a broadening of awareness for students. But the terminology of both critical and cultural got in my way—that’s why my reaction improved once I understood critical pedagogy as discussed and applied in our class.

Much of the development of critical pedagogy seems to have risen from educators reacting to external political situations instead of being spurred on by the opportunities of meeting unique and evolving challenges of modern classrooms. George mentions that when proponents of critical pedagogy reinvented the roles of teachers and students they did so “as radical educators responded to a host of conservative reports on education… (95)” I wonder if the increase in home school educators in the mid to late 90’s was then a reaction to the influence of critical pedagogy during the 80’s? Critiquing the home school movement would take too long (and, from my perspective, would include both positive and negative aspects) but anytime the classroom is politicized by educators on any end of the cultural spectrum, students’ learning languishes in a kind of tit-for-tat escalation: pedagogies are created and reinvented to prove a point, to “stick it” to the other side, to counteract perceived and far-reaching conspiracies.

Giroux criticizes the “…subtle but powerful ways schools construct students’ and teachers’ knowledge and behavior, validating positivism and competitiveness over other forms of knowing or behaving (96).” But in proposing cultural production rather than reproduction, he insists that schools should be “arenas characterized by struggle between competing ideologies, discourses, and behaviors and which, thus, include spaces for resistance and agency (96).” What he seems to be saying (and I am sure that I am, to some degree, simplifying his statements) is that it is acceptable for schools to be competitive as long as the right ideas—in this case, the ideas accepted by radical educations—are victorious.

So, while I would disagree with much of the political background to critical pedagogy I do find a lot to like in its democratic backgrounds. Giroux and McLaren argue that schools should be places where students are encouraged to take part in a “democratic dialogue about lived experiences, including the content and conduct of their own education (97).” I can agree with that, as long as the experiences (not opinions, necessarily, but experiences) of all students are validated—even those who have experienced a middle-class upbringing, or those with a European family history, or those with conservative religious beliefs.

While I find it troubling that Freire needed to identify some individuals of any group as an “oppressed” culture, I do appreciate his position that on critical consciousness: “…the ability to define, to analyze, to problematize the economic, political, and cultural forces that shape but … do not completely determine their lives.” As in my thoughts on cultural studies from last week, it is important to always remember the shifting nature of identity, culture and history of modern students. Granted, there are genuinely oppressed individuals in our world but to divide all students into either/or groups of “oppressed” or “oppressor” is condescending at best, belittling—“small making”—at worst. I appreciate Freire’s conclusion that the focus of problem-posing education is student experience but his insistence on the “reflection of the oppressed” and the “struggle for their liberation” leaves me—and, I would guess—students like me, in the dark. Perhaps if I expunged the punctuation of the oppressors from all emails that I send at work I would take a step towards liberating myself from my boss’s heavy hand. I would probably liberate myself from a job as well. But at least I would be at leisure to consider my sudden inclusion in the ranks of the oppressed.

I do like Shor’s description of students as “people fighting for their humanity without quite realizing how they might reclaim it” and not simply as complicet victims quietly aquicesing to the system (95). This is a great way to broaden the application of critical pedagogy to middle- and even upper-class students who could be described as being oppressed by marketing and ideologically manipulative forces. I also appreciated the point brought up in class on Tuesday that any education should give students what they need in the present but leave them wanting more. In other words, you teach students to want more than what they imagined they needed.

An aspect of liberating education that was not discussed in George's essay is the importance of teaching media awareness. It is stunning how few people understand how to critically comprehend and classify news media—it should be not surprise that the supposedly balanced blowhards on talk radio and television are playing such a large part in the current election. In writing on the laws of England in the 18th century, William Blackstone stated:

“The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every free man has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequences of his own temerity.”

Note that while Blackstone insists on the freedom of the press, he also calls for each member of the press to be responsible in his statements. With the increasing popularity of blogs and their seemingly cemented place in American culture, liberating educators have a fantastic opportunity to provide students with outlets to express themselves, in community, democratically.