Critical Theory in Education Explained

Critical theory in education, often manifested as critical pedagogy, is a transformative educational philosophy rooted in the belief that schools are not neutral spaces, but rather arenas where societal power imbalances are often unintentionally perpetuated. This article provides an overview of critical theory in education, exploring its key concepts, historical roots, practical applications, and ongoing debates.

Introduction to Critical Pedagogy

Critical pedagogy is an educational theory based on the idea that schools typically serve the interests of those who have power in a society by, usually unintentionally, perpetuating unquestioned norms for relationships, expectations, and behaviors. This perspective suggests that educational institutions can inadvertently reinforce existing social inequalities through what is known as the "hidden curriculum," which encompasses implicit lessons regarding behavior, morality, patriotism, and other value judgments.

The Core Principles of Critical Pedagogy

At its heart, critical pedagogy is committed to the transformative power of education for individuals and society as a whole, with the ultimate goal of creating a more equitable and just society for everyone. In order to combat these taken-for-granted biases in schools, teachers and students must constantly question their world, both inside and outside the classroom. Critical pedagogy insists that issues of social justice and democracy are not distinct from acts of teaching and learning.

Critical Consciousness

One of the most important concepts stemming from Freire's work is critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is an awareness of the invisible oppression in society combined with a dedication to combating this oppression through education and activism. According to critical pedagogy, teachers must instill in their students critical consciousness-an awareness of these imbalances and a commitment to eradicating them in pursuit of social justice. For Freire, teaching students critical consciousness is the moral responsibility of the teacher and is necessary for positive social change to occur.

Banking Model vs. Liberatory Model

In another major contribution to the field, Freire describes a dichotomy between how most schools work-the banking model of education-and how schools should work-the liberatory model of education. In the banking model of education, the teacher is the source of all information and knowledge, while students are considered to be blank slates. Teachers in this model thus make 'deposits' of knowledge into students' mental 'banks.' For Freire, the banking model is destructive on a number of levels. Crucially, rather than encouraging critical consciousness, it works to reproduce the hegemony, or taken-for-granted power structures, of the school and society at large by devaluing inquiry, skepticism, and disagreement. In contrast, in the liberatory model of education advocated by Freire, knowledge is thought to be diffuse, coming from a variety of sources and rooted in a skepticism of traditional voices of authority. Teachers following this model value their students as people with unique experiences and knowledge of their own, and they work with students as partners in learning to set group goals and expectations.

Historical Roots and Influences

Critical Pedagogy is believed to have its roots in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, which was established in 1923. In the 1960s, the German pedagogical theorist Klaus Mollenhauer published Erziehung und Emanzipation (Education and Emancipation) which situated what he called emancipatory pedagogy in the tradition of the Frankfurt school, arguing that education should emancipate youth from structures that "delimit their rationality and concomitant social action". The theory is influenced by Karl Marx who believed that inequality is a result of socioeconomic differences and that all people need to work toward a socialized economy.

Critical pedagogy first gained popularity in the 1960s through the work of Brazilian educator Paolo Freire. Although trained as a lawyer, Freire worked as a young man teaching literacy to poor farm workers, and he later developed a system by which literacy could be taught in as few as forty-five days. A great motivation for his teaching the disadvantaged to read was in order to secure for them the right to vote, which at the time in Brazil was limited to those who were literate. Based in large part on these experiences working with the downtrodden, Freire began publishing his theories of education and social justice, the most renowned of which was Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970).

Key Figures in Critical Pedagogy

While prominent figures within Critical Pedagogy include Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, bell hooks, and others, it is important to note that their work on critical pedagogy varies in focus. The influential works of Freire made him arguably the most celebrated critical educator. He seldom used the term "critical pedagogy" himself when describing this philosophy. His initial focus targeted adult literacy projects in Brazil and later was adapted to deal with a wide range of social and educational issues. Freire's pedagogy revolved around an anti-authoritarian and interactive approach aimed to examine issues of relational power for students and workers.

Praxis and Conscientization

Freire endorses students' ability to think critically about their education situation; this method of thinking is thought by practitioners of critical pedagogy to allow them to "recognize connections between their individual problems and experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded". Realizing one's consciousness ("conscientization", "conscientização") is then a needed first step of "praxis", which is defined as the power and know-how to take action against oppression while stressing the importance of liberating education. "Praxis involves engaging in a cycle of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory.

Classroom Applications of Critical Pedagogy

Teachers can integrate critical pedagogy in their classrooms in a range of ways. Classroom applications of critical pedagogy include content analysis of the media, demystifying print, process drama, as well as the use multiple sources of knowledge, such as popular culture and everyday texts.

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Alternative Materials

A primary strategy is for teachers, rather than relying exclusively on traditional textbooks, to use multiple sources of knowledge, including online materials, comic books, current music, television, and film, as well as other forms of popular culture. The use of these kinds of alternative materials in the classroom is important to critical pedagogy for several reasons. First, popular culture occupies the interest and time of many students and thus constitutes a good deal of their body of knowledge. Respecting this prior knowledge is a central tenet of critical pedagogy and can be effective in linking new lessons with what students already know. Second, studying media depictions in the classroom can help students recognize pervasive but taken-for-granted stereotypes that abound. Third, the use of popular art forms, such as rap or street art, in the classroom can serve to overturn these stereotypic messages by giving voice to people who, due to their color, ethnicity, economic status, or gender, have not historically had an official voice in places like school textbooks. Students themselves can be encouraged to create their own popular art as a means of self-expression and as a possible means of creating social change. Finally, many teachers feel like they have undergone a gradual deskilling, or loss of control of the educational process, as the result of the curriculum and materials being dictated by others. Incorporating multiple sources of knowledge can be empowering to teachers by giving them ownership of their own curriculum and classroom.

Content Analysis of Media

Content analysis of media can be used to help students become aware of the stereotypes which surround them. For example, students can watch a popular sitcom and make note of a wide variety of representations. In particular, they can pay attention to the intersections of attributes: What kinds of jobs do the women hold in the show? Is there a difference in the ways in which people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds speak? How is humor, intelligence, or education mapped onto the show's diversity? Crucially, even 'neutral' news depictions are often replete with stereotypic representations. By watching segments of the nightly news, or by looking at the print media, students can compare and contrast the treatment of different topics or individuals. As with many strategies used in critical pedagogy, a crucial component is turning the in-class experience into a means of creating social justice outside of school. With this goal in mind, following a media analysis and discussion, students might be given the opportunity to write to television and film producers, actors, or newspaper editors, with concerns they have regarding specific depictions within a particular program or publication. Or they could be encouraged to make a short documentary to share with their school regarding their discoveries.

Demystifying Print

A term coined by Klein, 'demystifying print' refers to the process by which educators teach their students to read with a critical eye. Teachers can regularly emphasize to students that much of what is written, even if presented as fact, is an argument stemming from a particular point of view. By regularly asking questions such as 'Do you believe/agree with the author?' and 'Do you see any flaws in the author's argument?' teachers can encourage students to read critically both in school texts as well as other written materials they encounter in their daily lives. History class is particularly well-suited to activities aimed at demystifying the written word. To illustrate this idea, the history teacher can explain, for example, that textbooks in Great Britain teach the American Revolution as a rebellion rather than as a noble fight for freedom. Omissions also are part of an argument, and teachers can challenge students to ask whose histories are missing from textbook coverage of a particular topic. For example, why are so few women discussed during the coverage of the Civil War? What does their omission mean, for our understanding of history, for our understanding of the hegemony of knowledge, and for the formation of future generations of leaders?

Everyday Texts

Everyday texts are spoken or written materials that we are surrounded by in our day-to-day lives, and they include news pieces, popular movies and books, food and toy packaging, and advertisements of all kinds. Everyday texts are so pervasive that we often take them, and their hidden assumptions, for granted. Teachers can effectively incorporate everyday texts into the classroom for many purposes, including by challenging students to become aware of the stereotypes and entrenched power structures that exist in our culture. Vazquez and co-authors give an example of an impromptu analysis of a particular everyday text-a poster advertising the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), or Mounties,' with her kindergarteners. One student noticed that there were no females depicted on the poster, and the teacher allowed students to have an open conversation on their beliefs about the occupational differences (or lack thereof) between women and men. One student in particular found the issue compelling and decided to write a letter to the RCMP, asking 'Could you please change the poster because there are girls in the Mounties.' A father of one of the kindergartners, himself a Mountie, assured the class that the letter had been received and that if the media in charge of the poster did not take the initiative to change it, then the female Mounties would certainly see that it happened. This example illustrates not only the pervasiveness of stereotypes and the usefulness of deconstructing everyday texts, it also shows the power of the individual and the teacher to create a better world, one of the basic tenets of critical pedagogy.

Process Drama

The use of drama as a cross-curriculum methodological tool has been supported by many educational theorists-for its ability to integrate creativity with content, to reach students who typically are not engaged in the traditional classroom, to tap into the talents of underperforming children, and to encourage interaction among students who might not otherwise communicate with one another. Process drama, a teaching tool which involves unscripted, imaginary scenes acted out by both students and teacher, is beneficial for these same reasons, but also encourages students to engage critically with classroom materials and the world around them. In process drama, students act in response to a reading they have been working on, or to a topic that concerns or interests them. A student is typically given the director's chair and charged with casting and elaborating upon the plot. Teachers participate as well, according to the students' direction. Often, scenes are re-enacted multiple times, using different actors or endings. The value of process drama for critical pedagogy is that in allowing students to guide the form and content of the drama, they are able to explore actively the problems and ideas they encounter in the classroom and make them relevant to their lives. It also pushes students to consider multiple points of view by enacting a range of roles and outcomes. Process drama also encourages problem solving by working through a scenario multiple times from a variety of perspectives.

Viewpoints and Critiques of Critical Pedagogy

Critical pedagogy has been critiqued for a wide variety of reasons. One of the most significant critiques contends that critical pedagogy is really just the banking model of teaching in disguise. Opponents argue that critical pedagogues lead students to take the teacher's own, progressive or even radical, viewpoint as the uncontested 'truth.' In doing so, they deny legitimacy to students who hold different, especially more socially conservative, points of view, even when those students have arrived at their opinion through in-depth and careful inquiry. In response to this critique, Freire & Macedo (1995) clarify the position of critical pedagogy, stating that it is the job of the educator to make their positionality, or non-neutrality, clear to students. Rather than pushing a single point of view, Freire & Macedo state that a teacher must "debate various views without imposing any," and furthermore, that it is "an ethical duty for educators to intervene in challenging students to criti…

Student Resistance to Critical Pedagogy

Students sometimes resist critical pedagogy. Student resistance to critical pedagogy can be attributed to a variety of reasons. Student objections may be due to ideological reasons, religious or moral convictions, fear of criticism, or discomfort with controversial issues. The rapidly changing demographics of the classroom in the United States has resulted in an unprecedented amount of linguistic and cultural diversity. In order to respond to these changes, advocates of critical pedagogy call into question the focus on practical skills of teacher credential programs. Advocates of critical pedagogy insist that teachers, then, must become learners alongside their students, as well as students of their students.

Critical Theory and Contemporary Issues

Critical pedagogy has several other strands and foundations. Postmodern, anti-racist, feminist, postcolonial, queer, and environmental theories all play a role in further expanding and enriching Freire's original ideas about a critical pedagogy, shifting its main focus on social class to include issues pertaining to religion, military identification, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and age. Much of the work also draws on anarchism, György Lukács, Wilhelm Reich, postcolonialism, and the discourse theories of Edward Said, Antonio Gramsci, Gilles Deleuze (rhizomatic learning) and Michel Foucault.

Critical Race Theory

Of equal importance in critical analysis of higher education is the factor of race. According to Critical Race Theory, “Whiteness” is considered a privilege and a property. Whether we acknowledge it or not, race and racism exist in our society and influence our educational practices. Scholars discuss race extensively but shy away from discussions of racism. Darder and Torres assert that “if race is real, it is so only because it has been rendered meaningful by the actions and beliefs of the powerful, who retain the myth in order to protect their own political-economic interests”. The term “race” can sometimes be applied to mean ethnicity, but racism is often more tied to political agendas than to cultural differences. Promoting multiculturalism or cultural diversity by educators in higher education should be a strategy that embodies respect and tolerance for the different others in race, language, ethnicity and gender.

Social Justice and Empowerment

Critical Theory aims to empower students from disadvantaged backgrounds and inspire them for change. According to critical theorists, the purpose of education is to make marginal students aware of their positions in society as they belong to a specific class, race, ethnicity, or gender group. This awareness is the initial stage that leads to empowerment. Because schools reinforce class relations and bias, class origins can determine the educational outcome of college students.

The Role of the Teacher in Critical Pedagogy

Teachers, however, do not simply abdicate their authority in a student-centered classroom. Critical teachers, therefore, must admit that they are in a position of authority and then demonstrate that authority in their actions in supports of students… [A]s teachers relinquish the authority of truth providers, they assume the mature authority of facilitators of student inquiry and problem-solving. And due to the student-centeredness that critical pedagogy insists upon, there are inherent conflicts associated with the "large collections of top-down content standards in their disciplines". Critical pedagogy advocates insist that teachers themselves are vital to the discussion about Standards-based education reform in the United States because a pedagogy that requires a student to learn or a teacher to teach externally imposed information exemplifies the banking model of education outlined by Freire where the structures of knowledge are left unexamined. Joe L. Teachers must be aware of themselves as practitioners and as human beings if they wish to teach students in a non-threatening, anti-discriminatory way.

Teaching as an Act of Love

Finally, a profound concept that should be emphasized as we critically look at pedagogy in higher education in general and in community colleges in particular is that teaching should be regarded as an act of love. Teaching, according to Friere (2009), requires that those who teach are in love with the very act of teaching. Friere invites educators to rethink their practices through the concept of love for their profession and contends that tolerance, expressed in terms of respect, discipline and ethical responsibility, is inevitable to achieve democracy (Darder, 2009).

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