A networked-hutong siwei of critiques for critical teacher education

Abstract

This paper offers a conceptual basis for refashioning the formulation of critical teacher education. It argues that current critical teacher education is uncritically constructed upon key theoretical departures from critical theories. Drawing on Boltanski’s critique of critical theories, the paper examines the ways these theoretical departures limit the structure of critique and therefore impede critical teacher education in its effort to empower educational actors, including students. Specifically, it analyses how critical theories’ justification of the goal of emancipation for educational actors hinges on intellectual inequality, the ignorance-knowledge continuum, and the hierarchical perception of social relations. This paper introduces networked-hutong siwei to reconceptualise critical teacher education that centres on developing teachers’ predispositions and skills to better mobilise and engage the critical capabilities of educational actors.