Critical Pedagogy: A Journey from Its Origins to Critical Pedagogy in Colombian Education

Abstract

A great revolution in the way teachers and educators see language teaching and learning, and its scope has started to gain weight in the last decades, all brought about by the extraordinary emerging research and theories to change this traditional view. Language teaching and learning have moved from the classroom settings, where the focus was just on what happens in the classroom, to more pressing matters, and now they aim to develop more than language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing, and the like). Instead, they intent to develop critical thinking, critical and political consciousness, and social justice awareness through what some educators have called Critical Pedagogy (CP hereafter), which leads to the transformation of the individual, the learning environment, and society (Freire, 1970). What follows is by no means definite about Critical Pedagogy but an attempt to introduce and conceptualize the origin, definition, principles, view of teachers and learners, and the current situation of CP in Colombia and end it with our understanding of what has been presented throughout this paper, along with some general conclusions.