Articulating Contact in the Classroom: Towards a Constitutive Focus in Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

In this paper we call into question the ontological assumptions within prominent, foundational critical pedagogy literature – particularly the work of Paulo Freire. We suggest that these ontological assumptions may limit critical educational efforts within multicultural communities, because they tacitly reduce our complex, contested classroom interactions to preparatory or subsidiary events within transformative pedagogy. We contend that ongoing classroom communication can itself become an important locus of transformation, if we approach such communication from the perspective of what John Stewart labels a 'one-world,' rather than a 'two-worlds', ontology.