Becoming a Critical Educator: Defining a Classroom Identity, Designing a Critical Pedagogy (Counterpoints

by Patricia H. Hinchey

Many American educators are all too familiar with disengaged students, disenfranchised teachers, sanitized and irrelevant curricula, inadequate support for the neediest schools and students, and the tyranny of standardizing testing. This text invites teachers and would-be teachers unhappy with such conditions to consider becoming critical educators – professionals dedicated to creating schools that genuinely provide equal opportunity for all children. Assuming little or no background in critical theory, chapters address several essential questions to help readers develop the understanding and resolve necessary to become change agents. Why do critical theorists say that education is always political? How do traditional and critical agendas for schools differ? Which agenda benefits whose children? What classroom and policy changes does critical practice require? What risks must change agents accept? Resources point readers toward opportunities to deepen their understanding beyond the limits of these pages.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2004

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title for this is a little misleading - it sounds fairly practical to me, while the book is much more theoretical in orientation.
If you're someone already engaged in critical pedagogy and looking for ideas for the classroom, this is probably not going to be very useful for you. But if you're someone who is involved in teaching and you don't know what critical pedagogy is, this might be a perfect introduction to why should be interested in it.

The first half of the book is an examination of the position of privilege held by most people who teach, in comparison to the position of most of the students who need to be taught, and discusses how to begin thinking through the meaning of whatever your particular situation of privilege might be.
The second half of the book takes a look at the ways in which various corporate and political interests are shaping both our public schools and our ideas about what education should be about. (And I think it's clear that the issues Hinchey discusses have much wider effects, penetrating into educational practices in private universities as well, for instance.)
And the final chapter moves towards thinking about steps that can be taken to make one's own pedagogic practice more critically informed, and the ethical reasons for doing so in a democratic society. (Lots of quoting from John Dewey.)

What I felt made this book worthwhile is that it doesn't simply engage in polemic against the educational system, but rather, works through quite a bit of empirical data to break down commonly accepted notions about what is allegedly 'wrong' with our schools. Similarly with questions of privilege, or the effects of corporatizing public education. At the same time, it doesn't make the move of trying to prove its argument simply by the overwhelming presentation of statistics, but instead offers more substantial (and non-jargony) argumentation.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, but nowhere near as much about 'defining a classroom identity, designing a critical pedagogy' as the subtitle suggests.