Critical Pedagogy: Origins, Praxis, Classroom Roles, and Debates

All flashcards

What is critical pedagogy?

A philosophy of education and social movement that applies critical analysis to teaching, learning, culture, and power, with the aim of advancing freedom and social justice.

What is conscientização?

A Portuguese term associated with the awakening of critical consciousness: recognizing how social conditions and power shape experience and possibility.

What is emancipatory pedagogy?

An approach to education, associated with Klaus Mollenhauer, that seeks to free learners from structures limiting their reasoning and social action.

Why is Freire significant?

Paulo Freire developed influential dialogic and critical approaches to education, especially in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968), and helped bring critical pedagogy to international attention.

How has critical pedagogy broadened?

It has incorporated perspectives addressing racism, sexism, disability, Indigenous rights, colonialism, sexuality, human rights, and other dimensions of social power.

Quiz questions

1. In critical pedagogy, what does praxis mean?Answer: A continuing cycle joining theory, action, evaluation, and reflection.
2. What does Freire’s banking model of education describe?Answer: Knowledge treated as something teachers deposit into students.
3. In critical pedagogy, how should a teacher’s authority relate to student-centered learning?Answer: Teachers guide inquiry and retain responsibility while supporting student agency.
4. What does critical pedagogy of place examine?Answer: How local place shapes learning and how education affects that place.
5. In teacher education, what are implicit biases?Answer: Unconscious assumptions or stereotypes that can affect perceptions and decisions.