Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts

The article, “Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts,” by Peter McLaren was very thought provoking. Much like Freire’s, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” this article was a little difficult to read. I appreciated that McLaren broke down the vocabulary he was presenting.

I thought it was interesting that he described schools as being both dominating and liberating. Teachers, at times, help continue the cycle of homogony through what or how they teach. McLaren encourages teachers to empower students by engaging in and understanding the world around them, to ask questions and think critically not only about school work, but about life in general.

As teachers, we will have students from all walks of life. By only teaching or encouraging dominant culture ideas, we aren’t encouraging our students to think for themselves. Like McLaren pointed out, schools and teachers should have a bigger goal than churning out workers.

I appreciated this article because it helped me think about my own pedagogy and I agree with many of McLaren’s ideas. Schools should be encouraging students to think for themselves and become contributing citizens of the world. If students are taught to question and think for themselves, then they can rise above the “oppression” of the dominant culture. But if knowledge and information is just being deposited into our students (banking education), then they will continue the cycle of homogony.

While I agree with the idea of helping students rise above by encouraging them to think critically and question, I’m not sure that I agree that schools and educators are intentionally teaching the dominant culture’s ideals and trying to suppress the subordinate or subcultures. I’m not sure a culture or society exists where everyone is equal.

As a future teacher, I’d like to empower my students and have them think for themselves. I understand that school is about more than just content. I think CCSS is a good starting place for this. By not dictating exactly what teachers need to teach and only setting benchmarks, there is wiggle room for selecting materials that will benefit the diversity of a classroom.