In-Service EFL Teachers' Perceptions Towards the Application of Critical Pedagogy Principles in Palestinian Public Schools

Abstract

This paper aimed to explore in-service English language teachers� perceptions towards the classroom applications of critical pedagogy (CP) principles in Palestine. It also focused on the possible relationships between categorical variables such as gender, years of experience, major, classes taught per week, educational degree and teachers� perceptions of using a mixed-methods approach. Ninety-six teachers participated in this study, 64 females and 32 males. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated that the participants had positive perceptions towards the application of CP principles in the FL classroom. Particularly, qualitative results revealed teachers� lack of awareness of CP and lack of emphasis on the importance of integrating CP principles in the English curricula taught at public schools, shedding light on the difficulty of applying these principles because of the subtleties of the situation in Palestine. The overall results suggested that CP principles can and should be applied to public schools in the Palestinian context.