Pedagogy Of Hope Research Articles

Evaluations of Social Work Education: A Critical Review

Since the introduction in England of the social work degree in 2002, there have been a number of significant changes to social work education culminating with the implementation of the Social Work Reform Board's innovations in 2013. This article critically explores the role of evaluations of changes in social work education and their implications for social work pedagogy. Evaluations can be linked to wider trends in society such as modernity, reflexive modernity, and the audit society. These wider influences affect the use of evaluations. A way forward for social work is proposed. Social work education needs to develop a critical pedagogy of hope to transform the profession's relationship not only to evaluations but to practise as well. The key message of this article is that evaluation studies of social work education mirror the underlying tensions of late modernity. Therefore, social work education needs to adopt a critical pedagogic approach to the use of evaluation research.

Explorations of the structure-agency dialectic as a tool for framing equity in science education

Explorations of the structure-agency dialectic as a tool for framing equity in science education

Bozalek, Vivienne, Leibowitz, Brenda, Carolissen, Ronelle & Boler, Megan (Eds.) (2013). Discerning Critical Hope in Educational Practices. London and New York: Routledge

Paulo Freire, regarded as one of the most influential educators of the 20th century, proclaimed in Pedagogy of Hope that hope is an ontological need, which “demands an anchoring in practice” (Freire, 1994, p. 2). The kind of hope that Freire was referring to was not a naive hope that is “subjectively idealistic” (Freire, 1970, p. 129), but rather, critical hope fostered through a radical pedagogy combining “hope, critical reflection and collective struggle” (Giroux, 1985, p. xvii). Similarly, Giroux (2003) spoke of “educated hope”, noting the need to combine the discourse of critique and hope in ways that lead to critical activity, and opens up the possibility for social change. Freire’s pedagogy of hope is thus a transformative pedagogy, one that challenges didactic styles of instruction that relegate the student to a passive vessel to be filled with content (what Freire referred to as the “banking concept of education”, 1970, p. 74) and seeks to awaken students’ critical consciousness and awareness of power relations through a dialogic relationship with the teacher. Such a transformative pedagogy involves more than simply empowering students. Through their collaborative roles as “co-investigators in dialogue” (Freire, 1970, p. 81), both teachers and students are transformed. Feminist scholar and social activist Bell Hooks refers to such a transformative approach as an “engaged pedagogy”, one in which teachers transform their curriculum and their teaching practices to sites of resistance that challenge the biases and systems of domination that perpetuate inequalities and oppression in a neo-liberal society (Hooks, 1994). Discerning critical hope in educational practices builds on the work of these revolutionary scholars through an edited collection, responding to Freire’s call for a pedagogy of hope: the type of educated hope referred to by Giroux and the transformative teaching practice advocated by Hooks. The edited collection achieves this ambitious goal through the skilful synthesis of theory, critique and praxis interwoven in a four-part volume addressing critical hope in education, a critique of neoliberalism, postcolonial perspectives on critical hope, and a historical account of the emancipatory potential of critical hope. As Michael Apple in his foreword to the book argues, the individual chapters in Discerning critical hope in educational practices build upon each other in a way that exposes the “multiple relations of

Towards a new theory of practice for community health psychology

The article sets out the value of theorizing collective action from a social science perspective that engages with the messy actuality of practice. It argues that community health psychology relies on an abstract version of Paulo Freire's earlier writing, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which provides scholar-activists with a 'map' approach to collective action. The article revisits Freire's later work, the Pedagogy of Hope, and argues for the importance of developing a 'journey' approach to collective action. Theories of practice are discussed for their value in theorizing such journeys, and in bringing maps (intentions) and journeys (actuality) closer together.

Real World

As the neoliberal nozzle continues to tighten its grip on education that is public, accessible, critical, inclusive, and liberatory, we hold an even fiercer belief that dogma-free intellectuals, here used according to Edward Said’s definition, can serve as one of its most effective oppositional figures. While our decolonizing critique of neoliberalism is as wide as its imperial project, we focus our attention here on how we attempt to examine, challenge, and resist neoliberal dehumanizing narratives of the Other in our classrooms. Humans are natural born learners who, for the most part, tend to be protective of those perceived to be part of Us. We have an opportunity to use the classroom to deconstruct the neoliberal narratives of the Other, such as the post-9/11 “dangerous and deranged Muslim,” used to justify military violence against entire nations and regions defined as the Evil Axis, as Them. We are guided in this journey by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of Hope.

Pedagogies of Hope

Hoping is an integral part of what it is to be human, and its significance for education has been widely noted. Hope is, however, a contested category of human experience and getting to grips with its characteristics and dynamics is a difficult task. The paper argues that hope is not a singular undifferentiated experience and is best understood as a socially mediated human capacity with varying affective, cognitive and behavioural dimensions. Drawing on the philosophy, theology and psychology of hope, five modes of hoping are outlined: patient, critical, sound, resolute and transformative. The key aim of the paper is to illustrate how different modes of hoping are associated with different pedagogical strategies. Phrased differently, the paper seeks to delineate a range of pedagogies of hope. The phrase ‘pedagogy of hope’ is very much associated with critical theory—one thinks instantly of, for example, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux or bell hooks. There are many pedagogies of hope, however, and an explicitly conservative text such as William Bennett’s Book of Virtues has as strong a claim to the title as Freire’s radical and utopian ideas. A broader argument, therefore, is that there is nothing inherently radical or subversive about a pedagogy of hope. Pedagogies of hope can serve to reproduce social relations as well as to transform them.

Esperança de vida e educação permanente na terceira idade

In this work we attempt to demonstrate the distance that exists between the concepts of life expectancy and life hope, which are taken as synonyms by IBGE, the media and gerontology researchers. The conceptual delimitation is based on the book The Principle of Hope by philosopher Ernst Bloch and on the pedagogical thinking of Paulo Freire. In Bloch, hope gives life a projective direction which is guided by anticipatory conscience. The latter is made of the alliance of dream and reality, without losing oneself in the oneiric realm but also without allowing reality to set its limits. Freire brings us the pedagogy of hope, which can be a valuable tool in intensional and systematic educational action towards elderly people in higher learning institutions. The progressive educator has the challenge of provoking in their students the desire of change, of transformation of the social and political conditions that are imposed by a system which offends human dignity. The change will require the continuous learning of scientific contents that enlarge and deepen comprehension of the world. The incompleteness of human beings makes them ever search new knowledge that will help them advance beyond common sense, which is constructed from day-to-day experiences. Old age, when fueled by life hope, brings the energy that is necessary to the effort required in engaging the transformation of the world.

Pedagogies of Hope (with Feathers)

At the heart of Issue 1 Volume 28 is pedagogy and hope. It is a reminder of Paulo Freire's ‘Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. As Freire eloquently articulates: Without hope, we are hopeless and cannot begin the struggle to change. To attempt to do without hope, which is based on the need for truth as an ethical quality of the struggle, is tantamount to denying that struggle one of its mainstays. (p. 8) Emilia Fägerstam commences this issue with a study about environmental education centre officers' and teachers' observations and perceptions of urban children and young people's experiences with/of/in nature. The study was situated in New South Wales, Australia, revealing some of the unique challenges in the Australian natural environment. Consistent with existing research and commentary, Fägerstam identifies that teachers perceive urban children and young people as having limited experience in nature, often mediated by fear and agitation. She echoes the increasingly identified need for nature to be readily and authentically experienced by children and young people at school and in their everyday lives, alongside a call for teacher education to incorporate outdoor education.

Obama and the ‘Arab Spring’: desire, hope and the manufacture of disappointment. Implications for a transformative pedagogy

For a period, in the run up to the election (2007–2008) and the months after the election, the name ‘Obama’ signified hope for millions, not just in America but across the world. As the hope turned to disappointment, the financial crisis deepened and the Arab Spring renewed a call for a ‘humanity’ that could transcend the differences of nations and faiths. What can be learnt from such events about the pedagogies of hope, disappointment and public action? Are there lessons for a transformative pedagogy, an education that could underpin and continuously create the conditions for a politics of freedom and social justice? A range of print, broadcast and digital/Internet news media is analysed to explore the political/rhetorical/pedagogical strategies already set into play that ‘manufacture disappointment’ in order to undermine and negate the transformative, transgressive symbolic significance of ‘Obama’ and thus manage the theme of change to reassert the same.

Growing Up the Future: Children's Stories and Aboriginal Ecology

Growing Up the Future: Children's Stories and Aboriginal Ecology

Ecology, Ontology, and Pedagogy at Camp Coorong

Ecology, Ontology, and Pedagogy at Camp Coorong

Is experimenting on an Immanent Level possible in RECE (Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education)?

A professor’s experience of attending the 17th annual Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE) Conference on pedagogies of hope demonstrates her desire to experiment on an immanent plane. As she looks back on her past experiences of depression, working in a revolutionary psychiatric clinic, experiencing a near catatonic state, and an action research study of women in early childhood education at the precipice of an immanent plane, the reader is led on their own journey to consider deeply the differences between transcendence and immanence. In the end, the author’s story of returning from a catatonic state through bodily movements and triumph in human relationships and connections demonstrates how one moves out of his or her own disconnection between mind and body. Further, the meaning in the experiences of the action research project - the phenomenon - occurs when a misrepresented group of early childhood workers discovers their own power and voice in overcoming transcended expertise. They rise in immanence like the Humpty Dumpties that needed to exchange and word their new agency, connecting in a worldwide rhizome (image of thought). Finally, the reconceptualists in early childhood education are asked to take in these experiences and play with them in order to resist transcendence and to determine their own outcome as an organization.

Pedagogies of Hope: Counter Narratives and Anti-Disciplinary Tactics

An intervention in the media's construction of race is an intervention in the ideological terrain of struggle. —Stuart Hall (1990, 8) In his influential chapter on “Making Do” in The Consumer Socie...

Collaboration: Hope for the future

I recently attended a colloquium at Stellenbosch University about the Pedagogies of Hope, a project launched by the Vice-chancellor, Russel Botman, based on the writings of Freire.1-3 At this colloquium I was struck by the openness and directness of the discussion. There was no hiding behind double entendres and subtleties that could be misunderstood. The language was strong, candid and challenging.

The Power of Metaphor

Friday, May 20, Champaign, IL. It’s my first time back to the place I called home for the past nine years. Weird . . . I’m a professor now. Or at least, I have a job at UMass that says so. Just the driving from Chicago to Champaign-Urbana was special. My partner Dani and I could recollect our first drive almost ten years ago. How we could not speak the language or even read the traffic signs. The anxiety of the first road toll where we had no idea how much it would cost . . . then getting lost and not being able to communicate with the state police. We laughed, and quite at the same time our eyes went together to the backseats to look at our children. It’s different now. So, it’s Friday morning and I am walking from the hotel to the English building at U of I. My family is still asleep in our room. To add to this emotional week, I am going to see a panel in metaphor with two special friends. Hari, who happens to be my first grad student and Nelson, a friend from my teens in my hometown Uberlandia, who happens to be a sociology professor in Brazil. I have not seen Nelson since my wedding day ten years ago. It was just so fitting that we meet each other here in Champaign. Last night, when I talked to them about this panel I said it is a must see event. Nelson and Hari were both excited about it. The event provides both of them the opportunity to see in person some of the authors they have read. Walking now, I want them to experience not only the theoretical richness these kinds of meetings present but also, the vibes, the sense of belonging to a greater movement . . . that have made QI so important to me during these past years. I remember telling Hari and Nelson, that this is the kind of event that as soon as you are out of the room you want to write . . . that you feel floated by Paulo Freire’s hope not only that change is possible but also, it is happening right now . . . that is not the “usual” performance you see by top scholars but a performance of generosity where bodies get together to promote a pedagogy of hope, care, and love. I get a little late in the room. I sit behind the presenters. The classroom is full. I move my body until I find a place from where I can see both Hari and Nelson. I am

Justice for All or Justice for Just Us? Toward a Critical Race Pedagogy of Hope Through Brown in Urban Education

This article uses critical theoretical methods to reconsider the potential of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in urban education. It finds Brown as a potentially useful tool for coconstructing critical race pedagogy of hope that involves (a) Socratic questioning of the endemic nature of racism and power dynamics of public education and the political discursive innovations of Brown; (b) a commitment to justice in urban education for all stakeholders, including stakeholders representing injustices linking race to class and gender; and (c) tragicomic hope—locating, critiquing, and ultimately engaging the action of hope to sustain participation in the struggle for distributive justice in public education.

Critical pedagogy in uncertain times: hope and possibilities

Foreword S.Aronowitz Introduction S.Macrine Dialogue with Ira Shor S.Macrne The Attack on Higher Education and the Necessity of Critical Pedagogy H.Giroux Teaching as Possibility: A Light in Dark Times M.Greene Imagining Justice in a Culture of Terror: Pedagogy, Politics, and Dissent A.Darder Critical Pedagogy and Politics of Class Struggle P.McLaren & N.E.Jaramillo Re-imaging Freire Beyond Methods D.Macedo Critical Pedagogy/Socialist Ed. in Britain D.Hill Corporatization of Education K.J.Saltman Toward a Critical Pedagogy of the Global N.De Lissovoy A Critical Pedagogy of Hope in Times of Despair R.Farahmandpur Afterword G.Fischman

The Theories of Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire and Environmental Education: Re-thinking from the Standpoint of Adult and Community Education

Adult and Community Education is the practice to support and organize the activities of self-directed education for widening and deepening cultural reasons based on real life. It is composed of enjoying human culture and learning of living/environment, act/cooperation, production/distribution, and self-governing/policy. Environmental Education is to promote living/environment learning as learning to be, and to form Environmental Reason, through realizing the mutual relationship between human individuals and their environment. Environmental Education has to be based on the theory of ‘Conscientization’ proposed by Paulo Freire, and ‘Learning Network’ proposed by Ivan Illich. It is real as Community Development Education that needs Illich's ideas of Conviviality, Subsistence and Commons, and Freire's Ideas for ‘Pedagogy of Hope’ However, if we are to regenerate those theories and ideas in Environmental Education, we must critically analyze them and clarify their meanings and limits. The article will discuss, firstly, Illich's criticism against modern technique and institution, and Freire's understandings of human praxis, secondly, Freire's pedagogy towards environmental education, thirdly, Illich's idea of Learning Network towards Education for Sustainable Community Development Education (ESCD). Lastly, it will propose Community Environmental Education (CEE) to structurize the learnings (1) to conscientize nature, (2) to self-conscientize one's own life, (3) to realize the relationship between nature and human being, and (4) to empower the people by themselves for regenerating the environment.

Teachers as theorists

This paper addresses the tensions that exist between policy-makers and practitioners about what learning and teaching should really be about. It adds to the collective reflection on what learning is about and how we should never stop engaging in reflection about it in an active, revolving and changing manner. Similarities between second language learning and generic learning intersperse the reflective account as the author looks through the lenses of her own disciplines of Linguistics and English as a Second Language. The reflection digs deep into the emotions of a critical pedagogue and is finally channelled into a ‘pedagogy of hope’ for a better future.

Present Nightmares and Realizable Futures

The article reflects on the work of Henry Giroux, focusing on his latest book Youth in a Suspect Society. It attempts to capture the experience of reading Giroux and what Giroux's critical engagements across a wide array of cultural and pedagogical formations provide in terms of assisting us in articulating substantive criticisms of and insights into current crises, burdens and challenges. Additionally, it examines the force of Giroux's insistence on pedagogies of hope and possibility that offer tools for meaningfully intervening in the world in order to awaken and develop our critical individual and social agency directed toward modes of transformation necessary in this time of creeping neoliberal cynicism and pessimism, a prowling global fatalism, and a growing contentment with the malaise. In reading Giroux we will be disturbed; it is this creative disturbance, roiling indignation and enlivened action of an awakened public that will provide us grounds for hope that new modes of resistance emergent with humanizing forms of pedagogy, struggles for internationalist solidarity and global justice, and announcements of a dignified world meriting human habitation will open up the pathways to transformation we so urgently require if we are going to save rather than lose the future.