Critical Pedagogy

In 1970 Paulo Freire published Pedagogy of the Oppressed in response to the antiquated notion of education as filling empty vessels, where an oracular educator lectures ignorant learners, arguing instead for a change in the power balance in the classroom so instead of authoritarian teachers choosing the path of learning, a collaboration of teacher-students and student-teachers would form to make learning bespoke through critical dialogue and critical assessment of the knowledge is being, and in the process, change the world around them.

Half a century on, and top-down curricula are the norm and assessment by memory tests continue to dominate.

In this #UKEdChat we will discuss how the critical pedagogy method could be adopted in your own classroom, advantages, disadvantages, and barriers to its implementation, and which elements of critical pedagogy you already use in your classroom.

Questions:

1. In what way do learners shape what they are being taught currently in your classroom?
2. How bespoke is the learning path of students within your classroom and how could this improve?
3. How is dialogue used in your classroom and do the learners have the opportunity to discuss the process of learning?
4. Do you use situated pedagogy which is adapted to the culture and social experience of your learners? How can we ensure that we are not making assumptions from our own (perhaps different) backgrounds?
5. Is narrative ‘banking’ methods of teacher and learning by rote ever justified?
6. What are your best strategies for posing questions which elicit prior knowledge from learners?
7. How can learners voice there critique of knowledge they encounter in school and how can we help them seek alternative views?
8. In the modern world, what is the value of
   critiquing knowledge that is presented to us?

View the discussion archive here.

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