Joe L. Kincheloe

CriticalPedagogy

PRI M ER

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Kincheloe, Joe L.C

ritical pedagogy primer /Joe L. Kincheloe.

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1. Critical pedagogy. i. Title.

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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

CH

APTER TW

OThe Foundations of Critical Pedagogy

45

CHAPTER THREE

Critical Pedagogy in School97

CHAPTER FOUR

Critical Pedagogy and C

ognition115

References and Resources

139

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CHA

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NE

Introduction

Educators walk m

inefields of educational contradictions in thecontemporary pedagogical

landscape, On som

e levels teachers andstudents discover that schools pursue dem

ocratic goals and edu-cation for a dem

ocratic society; on other levels they find thatschools are authoritarian and pursue antidem

ocratic goals ofsocial control for particular groups and individuals. Som

etimes

participants learn that schools are grounded on cooperative val-ues; in high-stakes test-driven curricula they find that a com

pet-itive ethic is dom

inai-t. At other junctures students and teachers

are told that the knowledge of schools is based on a diversity of

cultural and global sources; when the curriculum

is delineated,how

ever, they often find that school knowledge com

es primarily

from dom

inant culturaL, class, and gender groups (Apple, 1999;

Schubert, 1998).A

dvocates of critical pedagogy are aware that every m

inuteof every hour that teachers teach, they are faced w

ith complex

decisions concerning justice, democracy, and com

peting ethicalclaim

s, Although they have to m

ake individual determinations of

what to do in these particular circum

stances, they must concur-

~ Chapter One

agencyfsons' ability to shapeontral their ow

n lives,freeing self from

theoppression of pow

er.

ideologiestraditional definition

ves systems of beliefs.

In a critical theoreticalitext idealogy involvesm

eaning making that

Jrts form of dom

inantpow

er.

Introduction ~ 3rendy deal w

ith what John G

oodlad (1994) cals the surround-ing institutional m

orality, A central tenet of pedagogy m

aintainsthat the classroom, curricular, and school structures teachers

enter are not neutral sites waiting to be shaped by educational pro-

fessionals, Although such professionals do possess agency, this

prerogative is not completely free and independent of decisions

made previously by people operating w

ith different values andshaped by'the ideologies (see Chapter :3 for definition) and cul-tural assum

ptions of their historical contexts, These contexts areshaped in the sam

e ways language and know

ledge are construct-ed, as historical pow

er makes particular practices seem

natural-as if they could have been constructed in no other way

(Bartolome, 1998; Berry, 2000; Cochran-Sm

ith, 2000; Ferreiraand A

lexandre, 2000).Thus, proponents of critical pedagogy understand that every

dimension of schooling and every form

of educational practiceare politicaly contested spaces, Shaped by history and chalengedby a w

ide range of interest groups, educational practice is a fuzzyconcept as it takes place in num

erous settings, is shaped by aplethora of often-invisible forces, and can operate even in thenam

e of democracy and justice to be totalitarian and oppressive,

Many teacher education students have trouble w

ith this politicaldim

ension and the basic notion that schooling can be hurtful toparticular students, They em

brace the institution of education as"good" because in their ow

n experience it has been good to them,

Thus, the recognition of these political complications of school-

ing is a first step for critical pedagogy-influenced educators indeveloping a social activist teacher persona, A

s teachers gain theseinsights, they understand that culturaL, race, class, and genderforces have shaped all elem

ents of the pedagogical act, They alsodiscover that a central aspect of dem

ocratic education involvesaddressing these dynam

ics as they systematically m

anifest them-

selves (Crebbin, 2001; Gergen and G

ergen, 2000; Knobel, 1999;

Noone and C

artwright, 1996).

Critical pedagogy is a com

plex notion that asks much of the

practitioners who em

brace it, Teaching a critical pedagogy involvesm

ore than learning a few pedagogical techniques and the know

l-edge required by the curriculum

, the standards, or the textbook.Critical teachers m

ust understand not only a wide body of sub-

ject matter but also the political structure of the schooL. They

must also possess a w

ide range of education in the culture: TV,

radio, popular music, movies, the Internet, youth subcultures,

and so on; alternative bodies of knowledge produced by m

argin-alized or low

-status groups; the ways pow

er operates to con-struct identities and oppress particular groups; the m

odusoperandi (M

O) of the w

ays social regulation operates; the com-

plex processes of racism, gender bias, class bias, cultural bias, het-

erosexism, religious intolerance, and so on; the cultural experiences

of students; diverse teaching styles; the forces that shape the cur-riculum

; the often-conflicting purposes of education; and much

more, This introduction to critical pedagogy issues a chalenge to

teachers, to educational leaders, and to students to dive into thiscom

plex domain of critical pedagogy, M

any of us believe that therew

ards for both yourself and your students will far outw

eigh theliabilities.

Nothing is im

possible when w

e work in solidarity w

ith love,respect, and justice as our guiding lights. Indeed, the greatBraziliai critical educator Paulo Freire alw

ays maintained that edu-

cation had as much to do w

ith the teachable heart as it did with

the mind, Love is the basis of an education that seeks justice,

equality, and genius, If critical pedagogy is not injected with a

healthy dose of what Freire called "radical love," then it w

iloperate onlyas a shadow

of what it could be, Such a love is com

-passionate, erotic, creative, sensuaL, and inform

ed, Critical peda-gogy uses it to increase our capacity to love, to bring the pow

erof love to our everyday lives and social institutions, and to rethinkreason in a hum

ane and interconnected manner, K

nowledge in this

context takes on a form quite different from

its more accepted and

mainstream

versions, A critical know

ledge seeks to connect with

the corporeal and the emotional in a w

ay that understands at mul-

tiple levels and seeks to assuage human suffering,

The version of critical pedagogy offered here is infusedw

ith the impassioned spirit of Freire. I experience this spirit in

my life w

hen watching and listening to

. an A.M.E church choir from New Orleans singing gospel

songs. N

ative American w

omen m

aking tremolo at a Sioux college

graduation. a rock band in a groove that shakes an audience to its core

. a Spanish calypso singer squeezing out every last note as the

audience fills the air with heart-felt "olés"

. a dedicated and well-informed teacher bringing a group of

students to life with her know

ledge, passion for learning andher ability to engage them

in the process of teaching them-

selves and others,

power-inscribed w

orld in which dom

inant modes of exclusion are

continuously "naturalized" by power w

ielders' control of infor-m

ation, What does this have to do w

ith teacher education, crit-ics m

ay ask? We live in a dem

ocracy, they assert. Why do w

e haveto spend al this tim

e with such political issues? Isn't our focus

teaching and learning? But democracy is fragile, critical educators

maintain, and em

bedded in education are the very issues that make.

or break it, Are teachers m

erely managers of the predeterm

inedknow

ledge of dominant cultural pow

er? Is teacher educationm

erely the process of developing the most efficient w

ays foreducators to perform

this task? Do teachers operate as func-

tionaries who sim

ply do what they are told? Contrary to the

views of m

any, these questions of democracy and justice cannot

be separated from the m

ost fundamental features of teaching and

learning (Cochran-Smith, 2000; G

rimm

ett, 1999; Horton and

Freire, 1990; McLaren, 2000; Pow

ell, 200 I; Rodriguez andV

illaverde, 2000; Vavrus and A

rchibald, 1998),The follow

ing chapters of this book analyze and expandupon these them

es of critical pedagogy. Throughout the book Iw

ill focus on questions of democracy, justice, and quality in the

pedagogical context. There is no doubt that these issues are com-

plex and passionate feelings surround them, In this context, I w

illattem

pt to provide a fair picture of critical pedagogy but not aneutral one, As a political animal, I hold particular perspectives

about the purpose of schooling and the nature of a just society,These view

points shape what follow

s, The best I can do is toreflect on w

here such perspectives come from

and decide whether

or not I want to maintain my dedication to them, Be aware of

these biases and make sure you read w

hat I have to say criticallyand suspiciously, But be certain to read all texts in this sam

e way,

especially the ones that claim an objective and neutral truth, A

sI tell m

y students, whenever individuals tell m

e they are provid-ing m

e with the objective truth I guard m

y wallet, A

s critical ped-agogy m

aintains, little in the world and certainly little in the w

orldof education is neutral. Indeed, the im

passioned spirit is neverneutral.

I'm sure you sense this im

passioned spirit in your own spaces,

Critical pedagogy wants to connect education to that feeling, to

embolden teachers and students to act in w

ays that make a dif-

ference, and to push humans to new

levels of social and cogni-tive achievem

ent previously deemed im

possible, Critical pedagogyis an am

bitious entity that seeks nothing less than a form of edu-

cational adventurism that takes us w

here nobody's gone before.This im

passioned spirit moves critical teachers to study

power inscriptions and their often-pernicious effects, The actions

such teachers take to address them constitute one dim

ension ofputting a critical pedagogy into action, Critical teacher educatorsm

ust model this com

plex behavior for their education studentsin every dim

ension of professional education. This becomes

extremely im

portant when w

e understand the fear of the impas-

sioned spirit and the hostility of many teacher education pro-

grams tow

ard ideas that consider the effects of power on shaping

and misshaping the pedagogical act, There are still too m

anyteacher education program

s that assume schooling is unequivo-

caly a good-thing serving the best interests of individual students,m

arginalized groups of students, and the culture in general. Suchprogram

s assume that the curriculum

, institutional organiza-tions, hiring practices, and field placem

ents of the educationalw

orld are just and equitable and do not need examination on these

levels, Critical teacher educators possess the difficult task ofinducing students to chalenge the very practices and w

ays of see-ing they have been taught in their professional program

s. Do "best

practices:' critical students ask, help create a democratic con-

sciousness and modes of m

aking meaning that detect indoctrina-

tion and social regulation?

Such critical pedagogical ways of seeing help teacher educa-

tors and teachers reconstruct their work so it facilitates the

empow

erment to al students, In this context, critical educators

understand that such an effort takes place in an increasingly

The Central Characteristics of Critical PedagogyA

ll descriptions of critical pedagogy-like knowledge in

general-are shaped by those who devise them

and the values they

hold, The description offered here is no different, Many w

illagree w

ith it and sing its praises, while others w

ill be disappoint-ed-and even offended-by w

hat was included and w

hat was left

out, As w

ith any other description I would offer about any social

or cultural phenomenon, m

y delineation of the central character-istics of critical pedagogy is m

erely my "take" and reflects m

ybiases and perspectives.

ing as part of a larger set of human services and com

munity devel-

opment, A

ny viable vision of critical education has to be basedon larger social and cognitive visions, In this context, educatorsdeal not only w

ith questions of schooling, curriculum, and edu-

cational policy but also with social justice and hum

an possibili-

ty, Understanding these dynam

ics, critical educators devise newm

odes of making connections betw

een school and its context asw

ell as catalyzing comm

unity resources to help facilitate qualityeducation w

ith an impassioned spirit, W

ith this larger vision inm

ind and knowledge of these different contexts, educators are

empow

ered to identifY the insidious forces that subvert the suc-

cess of particular students, This ability is not generally found in

tyical educational practice. Without it, educators and school

leaders experience great difficulty in determining w

hat is impor-

tant knowledge in their particular school or school district,

Without it, such individuals cannot determ

ine why som

e policiesand pedagogies w

ork to accomplish som

e goals and not others

(Bamburg, 1994; M

ORe, 2002; W

ang and Kovach, 1996),

This stunting of potential takes place in the pedagogy of lowexpectations w

here concern with disciplining the incom

petentpoor to create a m

ore ordered and efficient society takes theplace of a dem

ocratic critical social vision. Historical accounts of

schools designed for these reguatory purposes alert us to the dan-gers of such educational structures (see Kincheloe, Slattery, andSteinberg, Chapter 5) for a discussion of this them

e), Throughouthistory, such schools have served to categorize, punish, restrict,and restrain those students w

ho failed to fit the proper demo-

graphic. Our critical vision of education enables us to see edu-

cation in a systemic context, In this context, we gain an

appreciation of the importance of the relationship betw

een edu-cation and other social dynam

ics (FAU

SSR, 1998), These inter-actions are com

plex, as al social, political, economic, cultural, and

educational decisions are interrelated, With such an understand-

ing, we can begin to reshape these relationships and the education-

al decisions we m

ake in relation to them in new

and previouslyunexplored ways,

In concrete terms, the im

plementation of this vision m

eansthat teachers can begin to develop distinct practices to help par-ticular students flourish in schools located in specific com

muni-

ties, In this context, critical teachers draw on their larger vision

~Chapter O

neIntroduction ~

Critical Pedagogy Is G

rounded on a Socialand Educational Vision of Justice and Equality

Educational reformers can discuss collaborative school cul-

tures and reflective practice all they want, but such concepts

mean very little outside a rigorous, inform

ed vision of the pur-pose of education, M

any educational leaders and school boardsare crippled by the absence of inform

ed discussion about educa-tional purpose. W

ithout this grounding their conversations aboutw

hat to do in schooling go around in circles with little direction

and less imagination, Clichés abound as w

heels are perpetuallyreinvented and old w

ine seeks new packaging, In the contem

po-rary era there are endless attem

pts at school reform w

ith littleim

provement to show

for the efforts, Without an educational

vision, most educational reform

s create little more benefit than

applying Aspercream

to ease the pain of a massive head w

ound,The educational vision, the purpose of schooling prom

oted here,dem

ands a fundamental rethinking, a deep reconceptualization of

. what human beings are capable of achieving

. the role of the sociaL, culturaL, and political in shaping

human identity

. the relationship between community and schooling

. ways that power operates to create purposes for schooling

that are not necessarily in the best interests of the childrenthat attend them

. how teachers and students might relate to knowledge

. the ways schooling affects the lives of students from margin-

alied groups

. the organization of schooling and the relationship between

teachers and learners.

A critical pedagogical vision grounded as it is in sociaL, culturaL,cognitive, econom

ic, and political contexts understands school-

to help them determine what tyes of human beings they want

to graduate from their schools, D

o we w

ant socially regulatedw

orkers with the proper attitudes for their respective rung on the

workplace ladder? O

r do we w

ant empow

ered, learned, highlyskilled dem

ocratic citizens who have the confidence and the savv

to improve their ow

n lives and to make their com

munities m

orevibrant places in w

hich to live, work, and play? If w

e are unableto articulate this,transform

ative, just, and egalitarian critical ped-agogical vision, then the job of schooling w

ill continue to involvetam

ing, controlling, and/or rescuing the least empow

ered of ourstudents. Such students do not need to be tam

ed, controlled,and/ or rescued; they need to be respected, viewed as experts in

their interest areas, and inspired with the im

passioned spirit to useeducation to do good things in the w

orld.

subvert the negative effects of the system but need help from

like-m

inded colleagues and organizations, Critical pedagogy works to

provide such assistance to teachers who w

ant to mitigate the

effects of power on their students, H

ere schools as political insti-tutions m

erge with critical pedagogy's concern w

ith creating asocial and educational vision to help teachers direct their ow

n pro-fessional practice, A

ny time teachers develop a pedagogy, they are

concurrently constructing a political vision, The two acts are

inseparable,M

any times, unfortuately, those w

ho develop pedagogies areunconscious of the political inscriptions em

bedded within them

.A

district supervisor who w

rites a curriculum in social studies, for

example, that demands the simple transference of a body of

established facts about the great men and great events of A

merican

history is also teaching a political lesson that upholds the statusquo (D

egener, 2002; Keesing-Styles, 2003; 21st Century Schools,

2003), There is no room for students or teachers in such a cur-

riculum to explore alternate sources, to com

pare diverse histori-cal interpretations, to do research of their ow

n and produceknow

ledge that may conflict w

ith prevailing interpretations, Suchacts of democratic citizenship may be viewed as subversive and

anti-American by the supervisor and the district education office.

Indeed, such personnel may be under pressure from

the statedepartm

ent of education to construct a history curriculum that

is inflexible, based on the status quo, unquestioning in itsapproach, "fact-based," and teacher-centered, D

ominant pow

eroperates in num

erous and often hidden ways,

Peter McLaren (2000) w

rites that this power dim

ension ofcritical pedagogy is central and that practitioners m

ust be aware

of efforts to dilute this power literacy, Today, critical pedagogy

has been associated with everything from

simply the rearrange-

ment of classroom

furniture to "feel-good" teaching ditected atim

proving students' self-esteem, Sim

ply caring about students,w

hile necessary, does not constitute a critical pedagogy, Thepow

er dimension m

ust be brought to bear in a way that discerns

and acts on correcting the ways particular students get hurt in the

everyday life of schools. When critical pedagogy em

braces mul-

ticulturalism, it focuses on the subtle w

orkings of racism, sexism

,class bias, cultural oppression, and hom

ophobia, It is not suffi-cient for a critical m

ulticulturalism (K

incheloe and Steinberg,

.. "',. 4.~- ' -

Chapter One

Introduction ~

Critical Pedagogy Is C

onstructed on the Belief thatEducation Is Inherently Political

Whether one is teaching in Bangladesh or Bensonhurst,

Senegal or Shreveport, East Timor or W

est New

York, education

is a political activity, Who is hired for the third grade position at

Scarsdale Elementary, the decision to adopt the Success for All

curriculum in D

istrict Nine in Brooklyn, the textbook chosen for

the eighth grade science class at Cedar Bluff Middle SchooL, the

language used to teach math at Coconut G

rove Elementary School

in Miam

i-these decisions al hold profound political implica-

tions, They refer to power and how

it is distributed and engagedin the w

orld of education and life in schools, For example, the

decisions made in the previous exam

ples will often privilege stu-

dents from dom

inant cultural backgrounds-upper middle class,

white, heterosexual, first language English, and Christian-w

hileat the sam

e time underm

ining the interests of those who fall out-

side these domains,

By utilizing IQ tests and developmental theories derived

from research on students from

dominant cultural backgrounds,

schools not only teflect social stratification but also extend it. Thisis an exam

ple of school as an institution designed for social ben-efit actually exerting hurtful influences. Teachers involved in theharm

ful processes most often do not intentionally hurt students;

they are merely following the dictates of their superiors and the

rules of the system, Countless good teachers w

ork every day to

--Chapter O

neIntroduction ~ 11

1997; Kincheloe, Steinberg, Rodriguez, and C

hennault, 1998) tobuild a program

around supposedly depoliticized taco days,falafels, and M

artin Luther King's birthday,

The ability to act on these political concerns is one of them

ost difficult tasks of critical pedag~gy, Over the decades m

anyconservative educators have participated in a Great Denial of

the political dimension of education, In this denial, curricula and

syllabi that fail to challenge the status quo are viewed as neutral

documents presenting essential data, Students w

ho want to

become teachers have oftentim

es encountered courses in politi-cal deniaL. Throughout elem

entary and secondary schools theyw

ere presented the facts unproblematically as if they w

ere true,In college their liberal arts and sciences courses m

any times sim

-ply delivered the facts in biology, physics, sociology, psychology,or literature, The idea that these courses presented only one nar-row

perspective on the field in question, that they left out com-

peting knowledges produced by scholars from

different schoolsof thought or from

different cultures, was never m

entioned, Thepolitical assum

ptions behind the curricula they encountered were

erased, To ask such students to start over, to relearn the arts andsciences in light of these political concerns, is adm

ittedly anam

bitious task. But this is exactly what critical pedagogy does,

And those of us in the field believe such an effort is w

orth thetim

e invested, A first-year teacher cannot accom

plish such a hugetask in the first year of his or her practice, but over a decade onecan, Critical pedagogy challenges you to take the leap,

An im

portant aspect of the Great D

enial is that politicsshould be kept out of education and that is w

hat mainstream

cur-ricula do, Critical pedagogy argues that such pronouncem

ents arenot grounded on an understanding of pow

er. The political dimen-

sions of education should be pointed out in all teaching andlearning-critical pedagogy included, W

Gst expose the hid-

den politics of what is labeled neut;y Such calls are often equat-

ed with a pedagogy of indoctrination, The critical educator

Henry G

iroux (1988) responds to such charges, contending thatsuch criticism

is flawed, G

iroux argues that it confuses the devel-opm

ent of a political vision with the pdagogy that is used in con-

junction with it. A

dvocates of critical pedagogy make their ow

ncom

mitm

ents clear as they construct forms of teaching consis-

tent with the dem

ocratic notion that students learn to make their

own choices of beliefs based on the diverse perspectives they

confront in school and society. Education simply can't be neutral,

When education pretends to be politically neutral like m

anychurches in N

azi Germ

any, it supports the dominant, existing

power structure, Recognition of these educational politics sug-

gests that teachers take a position and make it understandable to

their students, They do not, however; have the right to impose these positions

on their students, This is a central tenet of critical pedagogy,In this context it is not the advocates of critical pedagogy

who are m

ost often guilty of impositional teaching but m

any ofthe m

ainstream critics them

selves, When m

ainstream opponents

of critical pedagogy promote the notion that all

language andpolitical behavior that oppose the dom

inant ideology are forms

of indoctrination, they forget how experience is shaped by unequal

forms of pow

er, To refuse to name the forces that produce hum

ansuffering and exploitation is to take a position that supports

oppression and powers that perpetuate it, The argum

ent that anyposition opposing the actions of dom

inant power w

ielders rep-resents an im

position of one's views on som

ebody else is prob-lem

atic. It is tantamount to saying that one w

ho admits her

oppositional political sentiments and m

akes them know

n to stu-dents is guilty of indoctrination, w

hile one who hides her con-

sent to dominant pow

er and the status quo it has produced fromher students is operating in an objective and neutral manner,

Critical pedagogy w

ants to know w

ho's indoctrinating whom

.These political dynam

ics won't go aw

ay and teachers must deal

with them,

Critical Pedagogy Is Dedicated

to the Alleviation of H

uman Suffering

Know

ing and learning are not simply intellectual and schol-

arly activities but also practical and sensuous activities infused bythe im

passioned spirit, Critical pedagogy is dedicated to address-ing and em

bodying these affective, emotionaL, and lived dim

en-sions of everyday life in a w

ay that connects students to peoplein groups and as individuals, In this context, the advocates of crit-ical pedagogy are especialy concerned w

ith those groups and indi-viduals w

ho are suffering, whose lives are affected by the sting of

discrimination and poverty, A

cting on this concern critical edu-cators seek out the causes of such suffering in their understand-

.. .. of. · .I~

Chapter One

Introduction, ..

, - ._ ' _",.~ 13

ings of power w

ith its ideological, hegemonic (see Chapter 3), dis-

ciplinary, and regulatory dimensions,

Indeed, the very origins of critical pedagogy-the traditionthat lays the groundw

ork for critical pedagogy and is concernedw

ith power and its oppression of hum

an beings and reguationof the social order-are grounded on this concern w

ith human

suffering, Herbert M

arcuse, one of the founders of the FranrtSchool of Critical Theory w

ho wil be discussed in Chapter 2, and

Paulo Freire were profoundly m

oved by the suffering they respec-tively w

itnessed in post-World W

ar I Germ

any and BraziL.A

lthough I am com

mitted to a critical pedagogy that continues

to develop and operates to sophisticate its understandings of thew

orld and the educational act, this evolving critical pedagogy ineducation should never, never lose sight of its central concern w

ithhum

an suffering. One does not have to go too far to find suffer-

ing, In the United States; suffering is often w

ell hidden, but a tripto inner cities, rural A

ppalachia, or Native A

merican reserva-

tions will reveal its existence, O

utside of the United States, w

e cango to alost any region of the world and see tragic expressions

of human m

isery, Advocates of critical pedagogy believe such suf-

fering is a humanly constructed phenom

enon and does not haveto exist, Steps can be taken to eradicate such suffering if the peo-ple of the planet and their leaders had the collective w

il to do so,In recent years, how

ever, market-driven, globalized econom

ic sys-tem

s pushed on the world by the U

nited States and other indus-trialized nations via the W

orld Trade Organization (W

TO) and

the International Monetary Fund (IM

F) have exacerbated pover-ty and its attendant suffering,

Understanding at the theoretical level both how

diverseinfluences insidiously shape w

hat we perceive and dont perceive

about the world and how

we can better cultivate the intellect is

central dimension of a critical pedagogy, But m

ust always be

connecting to the reality of human suffering and the effort to

eradicate it, Sometim

es scholarship and teaching operating exclu-sively on the theoretical level rem

ove us from and anesthetize us

to human pain and suffering, This insensitivity is unacceptable to

the critical educator. In critical pedagogy the theoretical domain

always interacts w

ith the lived domain, producing a synergy that

elevates both scholarship and transformative action, Indeed, the

very definition of a critical consciousness involves the develop-

ment of new

forms of understanding that connect us m

oredirectly to understanding, em

pathizing with, and acting to alle-

viate suffering. Sophisticated understandings and engagement in

the struggle against inequality characterize a critical consciousness,Such a struggle engages the lived suffering that com

es out ofoppression w

hile it studies its consequences in the realm of

knowledge production (Barone, 2000; Giroux, 1997; Hicks, 1997;

Madison, 1988; M

cLaren, 2000; 21st Century Schools, 2003),

Pedagogy That Prevents Students from Being H

urtCritical Pedagogy m

andates that schools don't hurt stu-dents-good schools don't blam

e students for their failures orstrip students of the know

ledges they bring to the classroom, In

a recent book I coedited with Alberto Bursztyn and Shirley

Steinberg (2004), I began the introductory essay with the procla-

mation that "I don't trust schools:'W

hat I was trying to get across

involved the understanding that those of us concerned with crit-

ical pedagogy have to be very wary of the goals schools em

braceand the w

ays they engage particular individuals and groups. Toexem

plifY m

y concern, I often ask students in my classes and audi-

ence mem

bers in my speeches if any of them

have ever studied atany point during their schooling the story of the European col-onization of A

frica and the effects of the slave trade, The slavetrade kiled at the very least tens of m

illions of Africans; som

escholars say tw

o hundred million-estim

ates vary,I often find that no one in a classroom or audience has

encountered this human tragedy in any system

atic detail in theirschooling, In this context I typically point out that I sim

plycould not trust an institution that routinely ignored such infor-m

ation, The very idea that these millions of unnecessary deaths

would not rate as one of the m

ost important events of the last

millennium

is hard to understand, An institution that w

ould notengage students in w

restling with the m

oral responsibilitiesaccom

panying acquaintance with such know

ledge is both intel-lectually and ethically im

paired, Something is w

rong here, In now

ay do advocates of critical pedagogy blame teachers for this fail-

ure. They, too, have been victimized by the sam

e social systems

that have produced this situation. Indeed, their job is hard enoughand so little respected that they don't need flack from

this domain,

The arts and sciences programs in colleges and universities that

¡- --~

Chapter One

I ntrod uction

were responsible for this aspect of teacher education failed them

,U

nderstanding that education is always political as it sup-

ports the needs of the dominant culture w

hile subverting theinterests of m

arginalized cultures, critical pedagogy does notalow

such omissions in the curricula it develops, In this context

advocates of critical pedagogy work to m

ake sure schools don'tcontinue to be hurtful places, The sam

e institutions that don'tteach about the m

ass kilings in Europe's African slave trade-andscores of other atrocities that could be listed here-also blam

estudents for their academ

ic problems, In m

any schools and espe-cialy those shaped by the G

eorge W Bush adm

inistration's "No

Child Left Behind" legislation in the early twenty-first century,

teachers are discouraged from taking into account the social, cul-

tural, and economic backgrounds of their students and the needs

and interests that emerge from

them,

The exclusion of the social, culturaL, and economicknow

l-edges from

the development of currictÙ

um otten holds tragic con-

sequences for students, Many educational

leaders influenced bypsychom

etrics (the discipline that measures intelligence) and

mainstream

versions of educational psychology construct schoolsaround the belief that intelligence and academ

ic ability are indi-vidual dynam

ics free from sociaL, culturaL, and econom

ic influ-ences, Since the tim

e of Plato, theories of intelligence have beenem

ployed to justify socioeconomic disparity and scholarly infe-

riority, The" dregs" at the bottom have alw

ays been said to be defi-cient and/or pathological, C

ritical educators feel that it is anoutrage to separate environm

ental factors from efforts to m

eas-ure ability or intelligence,

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to uncover the process thatoccurs w

hen a culturaly different and/or poor student encoun-ters the m

iddle-class, white-culture-grounded practice of school

and the intelligence-testing establishment, The m

iddle-class mind-

set often views poverty as a badge of failure, M

any educationalleaders and psychologists seem

to be unconcerned with the psy-

chic toll that declarations of failure inflict on marginalized chil-

dren and adolescents, Advocates of critical pedagogy understand

how hard it is to go day atter day toa school w

here you are viewed

as a failure in al aspects of your life, ShotÙd w

e be surprised when

such students express hostility and anger about having to be insuch schools or w

hen they reject the value of academic w

ork in

I ~

their lives? In many w

ays such responses are logical reactions; theyare strategies of self-protection in a hostile and hurtful environ-m

ent, When tracking policies are added to this m

ix, the hurtfulnature of schools is enhanced, O

perating on the simple-m

indedassumptions of psychometrics and achievement and standards

tests, students are deemed capable or incapable of academ

icw

ork, Those who score poorly are relegated to the "slow

" class-es that serve to further underm

ine their academic perform

ance

(Beck, 1991; Grubb et al" 1991; K

incheloe and Steinberg, 1997;Kincheloe, Steinberg, and G

resson, 1996; Oakes, 1985),

Critical pedagogy will not stand for these m

echanisms of

social and educational stratification that hurt socially, linguisti-cally, and econom

ically marginalized students so badly, The cul-

tural backgrounds of African American, N

ative American, poor

Appalachian, and Latino students are often deem

ed by middle-

class, white schools to be inferior to those of the dom

inant cul-ture, Because of such perspectives, students from such

backgrounds come to realize that success in school m

ay come only

with a rejèction of their ethnic and/or class backgrounds and the

cultural knowledges that accom

pany them. Lilia Bartolom

e

(1996) refers to this process as the robbing of students' "culture,language, history, and values" (p, 233), Criticàl teachers w

ork tofoil this robbery by helping students recall w

hat they alreadyknow

. Such teachers take student knowledge seriously and exam

-ine it as part of their curriculum

, Students who possess particu-

lar insight about a topic can become the teacher for a day and

share their knowledge w

ith other students in the class. Knowing

that they possess valuable knowledge, such students begin to

realize that they are capable of learning much m

ore, With this

realization, teachers work-w

ith students to delineate what else they

can learn and how it can be useful in their lives,

The Importance of G

enerative Themes

Critical pedagogy is enacted through the use of generativethem

es to read the word and the w

orld and the process of prob-lem

posing, Critical pedagogy applies PatÙo Freire's notion of gen-

erative themes used to help students read the w

ord and the world,

This reading of the word and the w

orld helped students connectw

hat they decoded on the printed page to an understanding of thew

orld around them, Thus, a synergistic relationship em

erged