Critical Pedagogy Research Articles

EMPOWERING EDUCATION: INTEGRATING CRITICAL PEDAGOGY INTO TRANSFORMATIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES

The objective of this study is to explore the implications and effectiveness of critical pedagogy in fostering social justice and empowering students in educational settings. This research adopts a qualitative approach, employing literature review to examine the implementation and outcomes of critical pedagogy in various educational contexts The study findings reveal that critical pedagogy serves as a powerful tool for challenging societal norms, empowering marginalized individuals, and promoting social justice within educational settings. Through student-centered learning, collaborative problem-solving, and the development of 21st-century skills, critical pedagogy equips students with the tools and mindset necessary to critically evaluate their surroundings and take action to address oppressive conditions in society. Furthermore, the research highlights the pivotal role of teachers in facilitating critical inquiry, fostering dialogue, and promoting social justice within the classroom. By engaging in self-reflection and transformative practice, educators can create inclusive learning environments that empower students to become active agents in their education and advocates for positive change in society. he contribution of the results of this research to the development of the scientific field lies in providing insights into the practical application of critical pedagogy in classrooms, highlighting its capacity to equip students with critical thinking skills and a sense of agency to address oppressive conditions, thereby advancing the discourse on transformative education practices and social justice within educational contexts.

Keep Your Joy!: Teaching Critical Pedagogies in Spaces of Intolerance and Resistance

Black female educators continue to face racism and discrimination in educational settings (Davis & Brown, 2017). Compounding these realities, Black female educators of multicultural and/or critical pedagogies can face resistance from their majority-white student populations in a number of ways. This autoethnographic study reflects on my experiences as a Black female instructor of a multicultural education course at a predominantly white institution (PWI). I reflect on and analyze the student opposition I experienced teaching an undergraduate course on critical pedagogies to pre-service teachers and provide much-needed respite and encouragement for other Black female teacher educators on how to maintain their joy when facing such resistance. Grounded in Black feminist thought (Collins, 2000), this article has implications for teacher education programs, higher education, and teachers of multicultural education.

The QAA's subject benchmarks and critical pedagogy: The example of ‘gateway to King's’

The <scp>QAA</scp>'s subject benchmarks and critical pedagogy: The example of ‘gateway to King's’

Design of a Social Justice Curriculum to Expand Critical Consciousness Among Resident Trainees.

Health equity curricula emphasizing critical pedagogy and centering perspectives of those with marginalized identities, both in curriculum design and execution, have yet to be described in interdisciplinary graduate medical education settings. The application of public health critical race praxis (PHCRP) in the redesign and evaluation of a social medicine immersion month (SMIM) curriculum. A mandatory, 4-week course within the Residency Program for Social Medicine in the Bronx, NY. First-year residents in internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and clinical psychology fellows between 2019 and 2020. Residents and faculty underrepresented in medicine employed PHCRP to ground SMIM in critical pedagogy and structural competency with the goals of increasing critical consciousness, sensitizing trainees to structural barriers faced by patients, and promoting meaningful engagement in advocacy. SMIM was evaluated pre- and post-curriculum using a validated critical consciousness and intersectionality survey, with additional questions to assess competency and behaviors. Participants also provided course feedback. Participants demonstrated significant increases across all domains of the measure (Racism + 1.62 (p < .01), Classism + 1.62 (p < .05), Heterosexism + 1.06 (p < .05)). Participant feedback was positive. PHCRP is a valuable model for designing health equity curriculum. SMIM provides insights for incorporating this framework into GME curricula.

Black African Postgraduate Students' Authorial Voice in Scholarship

In this theoretical paper we explore the authorial voice of black African postgraduate students in their writing and scholarship experience. This includes investigating the undergirding factors that need to be interrogated when it comes to the student–supervisor relationship. Some (if not most) black African postgraduate students experience challenges in respect of expressing or formulating that all-important authorial voice in their studies, possibly due to a failure to convey ideas, thoughts and arguments systematically. In addition, cultural identity and academic requirements may be hindrances, making it more difficult for them to write successfully, and to engage appropriately in their postgraduate research journeys. In the process of postgraduate students unearthing their authorial voice, a qualitative approach was adopted in this desktop study. In terms of the theoretical framework, the critical pedagogy of Freire was used to examine this phenomenon. Freire’s theory underscores the fact that supervisors cannot simply see themselves imposing their views on those who are less knowledgeable about authorial voice. The findings of this work lean towards highlighting that the student, to a large degree, are to be blamed for this oversight, because without giving students any agency in the supervision journey, supervisors tend to reproduce their experience.

“Hope is being stirred up”: Critical consciousness in gender-based violence interventions

Gender-based violence (GBV) research in public health has historically paid close attention to gender as a system of oppression, with less attention paid to the intersections between gender and other oppressive systems such as colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism. In 2019, we adapted and pilot-tested an individual-level evidence-based sexual violence resistance intervention for university-attending women in Eswatini. We conducted a qualitative assessment of our adapted intervention's acceptability and feasibility using a critical pedagogy lens to explore how power operated in delivering an empowerment intervention, using in-depth interviews with intervention participants and facilitators. We analyzed interview transcripts thematically guided by a critical pedagogy framework and organized emergent themes into a concept map with two primary axes: participant-researcher-driven power and proximal-distal determinants. We located participant experiences with the intervention within three quadrants defined by these axes: 1) “Prescriptive,” in which the researcher or facilitator primarily controls the content and delivery, with a principal focus on proximal risk reduction strategies; 2) “Solidarity,” which emphasizes fostering critical consciousness among facilitators and intervention participants through dialogue, building collective power through participant-driven discussions of individual experiences; and 3) “Liberation,” in which participants critically examined the power structures that underpinned their lived experiences, and expressed a desire to transform these in ways the intervention was not designed to address. These three quadrants suggest the existence of a fourth quadrant, “paternalistic,” - in which the interventionist seeks to didactically educate participants about structural drivers of their own experience. Our analysis highlights a fundamental tension in the epistemology of GBV research: While there is a clear consensus that ‘empowerment’ is a necessary component of successful GBV interventions, “liberatory” approaches that cede power to participants are inherently antithetical to the scripted approach typically required for consistent replication in randomized control trials or other ‘gold-standard’ approaches for post-positivist evidence generation.

Decentering Food Pedagogies

In this collaborative essay, five gastrofeminists from various disciplines, mainly literature, anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies, and diverse locations of Global South and Global North, share four collaborative experiments built around two axioms: to integrate experiences of students as gendered and racialized subjects in their experiential learning irrespective of disciplinary boundaries, and to integrate critical feminist scholarship that destabilizes ethnocentric notions around consumption, production, and distribution of food. Through the four collaborative experiments: students’ food voice, autobiographies, collective kusina, and food walks, the pedagogues bring embodied lived experience in conversation with critical pedagogy, expanding some of the foundational ideas of feminist pedagogy, especially of not treating theory, research, and experience as independent silos. Each of these collaborative experiments calls for a need to create dialogic space through a collaborative co-learning process and offers a decolonial reading of texts through recognizing the difference and diversity of our classrooms.

Adopting a pedagogy of connection for medical education.

In this article, we propose developing a "pedagogy of connection" based on the history and evolution of medical education in Brazil. This pedagogy emerged from the intersection of the healthcare and higher educational systems, both dedicated to the principles of social justice and universal access, in response to the country's efforts to address the enduring impacts of slavery and social inequality. Following the "Sanitary Reformation" movement-a foundational moment for Brazil's healthcare and medical education systems-Brazil established the Unified Public Healthcare System (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS). SUS is founded on principles of universality, integrality, equity, community participation, political and administrative decentralisation, hierarchisation and regionalisation. Aligned with these core principles and inspired by critical pedagogy, Brazilian medical education has evolved with a profound commitment to social justice, critical consciousness, professional presence and compassion. This evolution has given rise to a "pedagogy of connection," which imbues medical education with a sense of purpose and joy, preparing future medical professionals to address the challenges of our ever-evolving society and healthcare systems. The connections fostered by this pedagogy occur in complementary dimensions: (a) healthcare system and society, (b) community, (c) profession, (d) patients, and (e) ourselves. This innovative pedagogy enhances medical education discourse and practice by emphasising the development of a professional identity grounded in social justice and patient-centred care, which remain challenges for current medical education systems. As the global medical education community embraces decolonisation, this pedagogy offers a framework that can be adapted and enriched in various contexts worldwide, fostering opportunities for mutual learning from diverse educational systems in a dialogical and democratic manner.

A Critical Pedagogy Analysis of Literature Teachers’ Perspectives on The Integration of Multicultural Literature in Higher Education

This qualitative study investigates the integration of multicultural literature within higher education classrooms, examining experiences, challenges, necessary support, and perceived impacts on students. Framed within critical pedagogy theory, the research aimed to uncover insights into the transformative potential of diverse narratives. Guided by qualitative research principles, specially descriptive phenomenology, the study employs semi-structured interviews with literature instructors selected through purposive sampling. Data collection involved multiple online platforms to facilitate candid discussions, ensuring a diverse representation of perspectives. The interview guide was rigorously developed and validated through pre-testing and expert consultation, ensuring relevance to the research objectives. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis, a methodical approach to identifying patterns and themes within the data. Inductive reasoning guided the analysis process, allowing for theory formulation from observed patterns. Intercoder reliability checks and member-checking techniques were employed to enhance data validity and credibility. The analysis of participant responses revealed multifaceted teaching strategies, emphasizing the significance of cultural representation, innovative approaches, and fostering cross-cultural understanding. Teachers adapt their methods to accommodate diverse student voices while leveraging technology and cultural sensitivity. This study emphasises that institutions, educators, and students collectively contribute to fostering a culturally enriched learning environment. It also contributes to inclusivity and diversity in education, cultivating cultural intelligence and a broader understanding of global perspectives. The study highlights the necessity for literature teachers to have access to diverse resources, professional development opportunities, and collaboration for effective integration. Moreover, higher education institutions are crucial in supporting this integration through curriculum enhancements, resource allocation, and adequate preparation time. Despite challenges such as limited institutional support, the personal dedication and commitment of teachers and students play a pivotal role in successfully integrating multicultural literature into educational settings. These findings provide nuanced insights into the complexities of integrating multicultural literature in higher education, contributing to educational theory, policy development, and pedagogical practices.

Open is not enough: design considerations for a networked data commons

Recently, researchers within the Networked Learning (NL) community have tried to (re)claim NL’s roots in critical pedagogy and (re)assert its commitment to social justice (Networked Learning Editorial Collective, 2021; 2021a). However, despite these avowed intentions, NL has also been criticised from within for “fail[ing] to take account of emancipatory struggles and political imperatives in society more broadly” (Networked Learning Editorial Collective, 2021a, p. 328). The suggestion is made to put NL “to work … to allow the concept of NL itself to become ‘networked’: to make connections, to interrelate, to transform, mutate, and hybridise in response to the pressing issues of our time” (Networked Learning Editorial Collective, 2021a, p. 359). In this paper, we take concepts from NL and put them “to work” in relation to the design of an informal digital learning environment – that is, a digital environment that lies outside of formal education provision, but that is intended to be a place where knowledge can be shared and circulated and where people encounter knowledge in ways that enable them to think, understand or act differently. The work was carried out in the context of a project aiming to develop design principles for an internet-based platform through people would be able to openly access, learn about and share publicly available data, using Scotland’s waste and re-use data as a case study. In this context, we plug NL into a theoretical and methodological design assemblage that connects concepts of openness, data literacy, (de)coloniality, and participatory design into new formations that we hope will allow these concepts to mutate and hybridise into something closer to the social justice ideals that NL claims.

We are not an army of orcs: rethinking youth activism through a critical pedagogy of place

ABSTRACT The authors examine youth activism in Poland, focusing on the University of Gdańsk occupation, the Youth Climate Strike, and Stop Bzdurom’s direct actions. Using critical pedagogy of place, they analyse how youth activists drive social change and reclaim public spaces. The study highlights reinhabitation and decolonisation of public spaces as arenas for the common good and marginalised communities’ rights. It also explores the influence of radicalism and activism on society, particularly amid an ageing population and political polarisation. Detailed case analyses contribute to understanding youth roles in social movements and change, emphasising youth activism’s significance in shaping society’s future.

Conceptualizing Critical Education and Anthropological Assessment to Expand the Scale of Higher Design Education in India

Conceptualizing Critical Education and Anthropological Assessment to Expand the Scale of Higher Design Education in India

Critically unlearning about madness and distress: Reflections on social work education and activism in Ireland

This article draws from my involvement in critical social work education and my position as an aspiring ally of the Mad movement in the Irish context. I use a reflexive auto-critique as a methodology to consider a significant shift in my engagement with Mad matters which has led to new ways of (un)learning critically about madness and distress in education and activism. This is a shift from celebrating criticality and inclusion strategies, and in particular service-user involvement in education, to problematising criticality and its potential to perpetuate power inequalities within mental health and education systems. It is a shift from viewing critical education as a process of knowing about distress and Mad people to a process of knowing with and from Mad people, service-users, and survivors. The emerging field of Mad Studies provides a conceptual framework to inquire about knowledge and knowers, to consider issues of co-option and epistemic injustice, to focus on pedagogies for unlearning, to ask questions about representational politics and the complexities of being an engaged academic and Mad positive ally. Guided by Mad Studies as a mode of analysis, I recognise that inclusion of madness in university curricula can work in ways that continue to pathologise and subjugate Mad people. This is an unsettling recognition that leads to an interrogation of my own praxis as an academic and an aspiring ally of the Mad moment. I propose that prefigurative politics are central in these considerations as genuine engagements with mental health matters need to model the changes we aim to achieve. Engaging with the tensions of inclusion politics, the complexities of madness, and the unsettledness this engagement generates, can be a source of knowing through epistemic humility and a resource for networks of solidarity.

Moving Beyond Thai-Centrism: Theorizing “Asia as Method” in Decolonial Education

Grounded in Chen’s idea, Asia as method, the author conceptualizes his theorizing with Winichakul’s signified meaning of Asia as a home for understanding how the author encounters educational phenomenon and having the authority to reconstitute Thai-centrism discourse in education. The notion of “home” signifies Thailand is part of Asia, which is used to move beyond the debate over “us vs. them”, which is non-productive and leads to other shortcomings. Asia as method as a frame of reference can be used to conceptualize how knowledge, culture, power, and discourse intersect in education. Given that the field of education is a cultural praxis in which diverse discourses, positionalities, and pedagogies deserve its place, education needs to be reconceptualized by moving beyond the legacy of western modernity-coloniality episteme and any forms of epistemic internal colonization, a legacy that continues to occur at the deep-rooted socio-cultural and psychological level and plays essential roles in constructing our subjectivity about educational ideals for cognitive and social justice. Thus, to move forward with decolonial and critical education projects, it is essential to explore multi-epistemology and methodology for nuanced understandings of education in the socio-cultural, political, historical, and environmental contexts. The relationship between Asia as method and decolonial and critical education projects need to be a point of departure for democratic deliberations against epistemicide and demonstration of how education as a form of cultural praxis works to internalize particular knowledge production for constructing a specific notion of citizenship in Thailand, Southeast Asia and beyond.

A performative critical management studies: Developing a critical management pedagogy as intellectual activism praxis

In this paper, I take Contu’s call for a performative turn in critical management studies into my teaching as a form of intellectual activism praxis. I problematise management learning and education in regard to perpetuating inequalities, and offer a critical management pedagogy as a form of intellectual activism praxis to help infuse management education with a critical and socially conscience awareness. This paper is a reflexive account of the development of my critical management pedagogy and an analytical discussion weaving together the practice of a critical management education with intellectual activism. I argue that business schools need to question the relationship between neoliberal capitalism and our global epoch of crisis and uncertainty, and that as management educators we must consider how we might inform this relationship. In our teaching, we are often complicit in practices and institutions that reproduce economic and environmental exploitation, white supremacy, heteronormativity and colonial and patriarchal relations. Inspired by Freire’s critical pedagogy, I developed a critical management module to try engage students’ critical and social conscience by providing them with a space to think critically about the social, political and economic phenomena that shape individuals and societies, and the tools to engage in new ways of thinking to challenge systematic inequalities. This paper contributes insight into the context and praxis of developing and delivering this module.

Integrative model of servant leadership style and critical pedagogy: Answers to school leadership of neoliberalism

This study aimed to analyse servant leadership's attributes in the theory and practice of critical pedagogy and find commonalities that produce an integrative model that will answer to the school leadership of neoliberalism. The study found an integrative model between servant leadership style and critical pedagogy that includes similar attributes of servant leadership and critical pedagogy related to the dimensions of transcendental spirituality, emotional healing and putting students first, creating value for the community, empowering students and helping students develop and succeed, demonstrating conceptual skills and behaving ethically. This integrative model is a constructive answer to the implementation of school leadership of neoliberalism.

Teaching Exams: HSI Candidates’ Use of an Adaptive Online Test Preparation Program

ABSTRACT Supporters of teaching exams say they create better outcomes, but teacher shortages, equity issues, and validity and reliability problems indicate more research is warranted. This quantitative study investigated how an adaptive online test preparation program influenced TExES EC-6 exam performance for teacher candidates at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). The framework was based on self-efficacy and critical pedagogy, and descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare performance. The institution where the study was performed includes a student population that is 93% Hispanic and 52.27% first-generation. The study began with 324 candidates’ but was eventually narrowed to 77 participants. The program was most effective for those using it for 10–19 hours, while those with baseline scores below 60% benefitted the most. Implications include providing instructional sessions about the program, asking students who have passed to serve as mentors, and researching the long-term retention of content knowledge.

Discursos de inclusión, diferencia y normalización: El concepto de inclusión en la construcción de las personas con discapacidad

This paper is part of the debate on educational inclusion in Ecuador. Under the theoretical and methodological perspective of critical pedagogy, a critical analysis of the discourse is made, which shows how the imaginary of people with disabilities develops new forms and technologies of exclusion from the definition of the concept of educational inclusion present in the ministerial agreement No. 0295-13. Finally, it is concluded that the concept of educational inclusion shows contradictions that result in the development of new forms of classification based on the imposition of a dominant culture seen from the perspective of non-disability.

Hip-hop and education: A literature review of experiences

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to describe educational initiatives that use hip-hop culture as a means of socio-educational action. To this end, the authors carried out a systematic review of relevant articles published over the last 10 years in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and written in English, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian. After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, 68 articles were analysed. This analysis revealed how most of the reported experiences refer to formal secondary education. Although a third of these experiences are linked to critical pedagogies, these were not derived from the critical use of hip-hop – which was largely instrumental. But by means of a thematic content analysis, the authors identify the main strengths and limitations of hip-hop culture as an educational medium. Among the strengths they highlight are its potential to build culturally relevant educational contexts for students traditionally excluded from the academic curriculum, its fostering of students’ political and social participation, and its facility to promote critical thinking. Among the challenges encountered in using hip-hop culture in educational spaces are some educators and families’ perceptions of hip-hop as anti-educational, the imposition by educators of a vision of hip-hop that is not shared by young people, and the lack of systematisation of experiences that can provide guidance on how to carry out this type of initiative.

Intercultural knowledges and practices in postgraduate game design and making education: insights from a UK-based degree

ABSTRACT In this paper, I explore my experience around teaching a digital game design and making postgraduate course in an intercultural setting in the UK Higher Education. I focus on how locality and disciplinary aspects create and mediate hierarchies of knowledges and practices that shape this kind of course, and how the intercultural setting studied here affords critical interrogations about the supposed universal nature of game design, as a field and as a practice. In particular, I examine an educational approach adopted in this course centred on the critical pedagogy notion of ‘cultural work’ and on philosophy of technology, rejecting mechanistic approaches to game design and making in favour of thinking with and through tools and processes. Through interviews with former students around their expectations about learning game design and making and their (changing) perspectives during this course, I explore how such an approach can create educational experiences for both students and game educators to build different (i.e. more critical and diverse) knowledge and practice foundations for those who will be working in/with games in the future as well as developing new vistas for understanding game design and making not as universal but as practices heavily informed by specific contexts.