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The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools
This book furthers the discussion concerning critical pedagogy and its practical applications for urban contexts. It addresses two looming, yet under-explored questions that have emerged with the ascendancy of critical pedagogy in the educational discourse: (1) What does critical pedagogy look like in work with urban youth? and (2) How can a systematic investigation of critical work enacted in urban contexts simultaneously draw upon and push the core tenets of critical pedagogy? Addressing the tensions inherent in enacting critical pedagogy - between working to disrupt and to successfully navigate oppressive institutionalized structures, and between the practice of critical pedagogy and the current standards-driven climate - The Art of Critical Pedagogy seeks to generate authentic internal and external dialogues among educators in search of texts that offer guidance for teaching for a more socially just world.
225 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2007
22 people are currently reading
394 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 26, 2024
- This book was recommended to me by a professor of social justice pedagogy. A transformative read; although I do not agree with many points in the book, the ideas challenged my previous assumptions.
- My biggest question after this reading is whether what we learn is more important than how we initially learn it
- The word “critical” now irks me as much as “impact”
- “The critical pedagogy is one that sees education as a tool for eliminating oppressive relationships and conditions.”
- “Privileged students are often downright unwilling to acknowledge that their minds have been colonized, that they have been learning how to be oppressors, how to dominate, or at least how to passively accept the domination of others.”
- “Critical discourse should seek to transform identities and empower previously oppressed students while promoting critical reading and writing skills… Critical educators should work to create curricula that illuminate the culture of power while also honoring the tradition of ethnic and cultural studies.”
- “Comprehension is an important prerequisite for critique.”
- As opposed to the banking model of teaching: “Freire advocated a pedagogical practice centered upon dialogue, inquiry (problem-posing), and the real exchange of ideas between teachers and students, who, he felt, had a great deal to offer one another.”
- “Our purpose as educators is not to replace one dominant ideology with another. Rather, the ultimate goal of a proletariat education is to help make students more critical consumers of all information that they encounter in their daily lives and to give them the skills to become more capable producers of counter-information. The goal is not to make them slaves to a different (and more politically correct) ideology, even if it happens to be one that we agree with.”
- “Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world.”
- “Discipline yourself so that no one else has to.”
- Emphasis on theories of Vygotsky and ZPD
- “Teachers and students should not be made to feel guilty or to consider themselves "sellouts" for working within the system, especially as this concerns imparting the skills students need to navigate the very system that their educators, by definition, have already successfully navigated.”
- “To engage in reading as a revolutionary act is not a simple task, and it would be foolish to believe that young women and men can develop the necessary skill sets or confidence in themselves without strong leadership and support from the adult teachers in their lives.”
- “When we consider the problems we face in urban education, this process serves a two-fold need. First, we need more engaging pedagogies that draw upon youth experiences and perspectives to develop literacies of power. Second, we also need to include the voices and lenses of youth to help us further understand and intervene in the structural and cultural causes of urban educational failure.”
- “Three major goals for critical pedagogy: academic achievement, empowered identity development, and action for social change.”
- “more than half of the teachers who graduate from teacher education programs feel as though they have not been adequately prepared.”
- “Far too many of these teachers, who may consider themselves to be well meaning, use democratic sensibilities and social justice leanings to defer to students on decisions that are the responsibility of the teacher. In so doing, they fail to establish themselves as a legitimate adult authority with a clear plan for the direction of their students. Inevitably, when the class has spiraled out of control and the teacher decides to hold the young people to some random rule of discipline, the requisite respect of the students is gone.”
- “There is no binary; you cannot have critical pedagogy without academic rigor, and you cannot be academically rigorous without drawing from critical pedagogy.”
- “A pedagogy that glosses over individual transformation in the cause of building larger collectives has missed the point. The only way that young people can become informed and empowered consumers of larger social collectives is if they are self-actualized and if they have begun the process of healing themselves.”
- My biggest question after this reading is whether what we learn is more important than how we initially learn it
- The word “critical” now irks me as much as “impact”
- “The critical pedagogy is one that sees education as a tool for eliminating oppressive relationships and conditions.”
- “Privileged students are often downright unwilling to acknowledge that their minds have been colonized, that they have been learning how to be oppressors, how to dominate, or at least how to passively accept the domination of others.”
- “Critical discourse should seek to transform identities and empower previously oppressed students while promoting critical reading and writing skills… Critical educators should work to create curricula that illuminate the culture of power while also honoring the tradition of ethnic and cultural studies.”
- “Comprehension is an important prerequisite for critique.”
- As opposed to the banking model of teaching: “Freire advocated a pedagogical practice centered upon dialogue, inquiry (problem-posing), and the real exchange of ideas between teachers and students, who, he felt, had a great deal to offer one another.”
- “Our purpose as educators is not to replace one dominant ideology with another. Rather, the ultimate goal of a proletariat education is to help make students more critical consumers of all information that they encounter in their daily lives and to give them the skills to become more capable producers of counter-information. The goal is not to make them slaves to a different (and more politically correct) ideology, even if it happens to be one that we agree with.”
- “Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world.”
- “Discipline yourself so that no one else has to.”
- Emphasis on theories of Vygotsky and ZPD
- “Teachers and students should not be made to feel guilty or to consider themselves "sellouts" for working within the system, especially as this concerns imparting the skills students need to navigate the very system that their educators, by definition, have already successfully navigated.”
- “To engage in reading as a revolutionary act is not a simple task, and it would be foolish to believe that young women and men can develop the necessary skill sets or confidence in themselves without strong leadership and support from the adult teachers in their lives.”
- “When we consider the problems we face in urban education, this process serves a two-fold need. First, we need more engaging pedagogies that draw upon youth experiences and perspectives to develop literacies of power. Second, we also need to include the voices and lenses of youth to help us further understand and intervene in the structural and cultural causes of urban educational failure.”
- “Three major goals for critical pedagogy: academic achievement, empowered identity development, and action for social change.”
- “more than half of the teachers who graduate from teacher education programs feel as though they have not been adequately prepared.”
- “Far too many of these teachers, who may consider themselves to be well meaning, use democratic sensibilities and social justice leanings to defer to students on decisions that are the responsibility of the teacher. In so doing, they fail to establish themselves as a legitimate adult authority with a clear plan for the direction of their students. Inevitably, when the class has spiraled out of control and the teacher decides to hold the young people to some random rule of discipline, the requisite respect of the students is gone.”
- “There is no binary; you cannot have critical pedagogy without academic rigor, and you cannot be academically rigorous without drawing from critical pedagogy.”
- “A pedagogy that glosses over individual transformation in the cause of building larger collectives has missed the point. The only way that young people can become informed and empowered consumers of larger social collectives is if they are self-actualized and if they have begun the process of healing themselves.”
May 15, 2013
As I listened to Jeffrey speak, I thought to myself He is the type of teacher I aspire to be. After I shook his hand and gave him a copy of some of my recently published poems to read on his flight back to Oakland, I went to the book table and bought this book with the intention of making my quiet aspiration an appreciable reality.
Anyone who wants to be a better teacher, or a better person for that matter, should check this guy out. I know that I plan on giving him my full attention at some point in the near future.
Anyone who wants to be a better teacher, or a better person for that matter, should check this guy out. I know that I plan on giving him my full attention at some point in the near future.
September 19, 2017
Great primer for understanding critical pedagogy. If you are looking for a quick "how to become a critical educator" primer this is not the book for you. The focus is more on the thought process behind how and why the researchers did what they did. I think I would've benefitted from this book more while in undergrad or during my teacher ed program. In reading it as a relatively experienced teacher it did re-energize me a bit in thinking about what my teaching is missing. It's also a good reminder that the key to critical pedagogy is its most difficult part, praxis. The authors do reflect critically on the applicability of the book, especially regarding the participatory action research they conducted in LA and the Bay Area. Is critical pedagogy more about the pedagogy or the pedagogues? Finally, while the focus of the book is on making students critical pedagogues, an unanswered question is to what degree can you develop teachers who are critical pedagogues in today's educational landscape (which has probably gotten worse since they wrote their book)?
September 19, 2017
"We know how to educate poor children. We have the knowledge and capacity. We lack the courage."
I found the first and last chapters of this book more compelling than the actual research component. The middle of the book felt like a hurried, incomplete literature review; I'd rather spend my time reading the sources the authors cited than the inadequate summation of them in this book. I also had many unanswered questions regarding the authors' research and its feasibility in today's urban American classrooms. The authors' intention was to marry theoretical principles with realistic examples, but I'm not sure they were successful. Instead, this book felt caught in an in-between-ness, where it did neither theory nor practice very well.
I found the first and last chapters of this book more compelling than the actual research component. The middle of the book felt like a hurried, incomplete literature review; I'd rather spend my time reading the sources the authors cited than the inadequate summation of them in this book. I also had many unanswered questions regarding the authors' research and its feasibility in today's urban American classrooms. The authors' intention was to marry theoretical principles with realistic examples, but I'm not sure they were successful. Instead, this book felt caught in an in-between-ness, where it did neither theory nor practice very well.
April 29, 2023
I’m glad I read this book. While it was a book about urban education it was encouraging to me about the way I see the world. It was challenging in trying to think through the labyrinth of challenges and policies and practices that exist in school systems and in the world. Jason Malmberg recommended this book to me.
November 15, 2020
**Did not finish**
Very dense material that goes over theories and strategies I've already picked up through my post secondary classes. Definitely a class textbook. Worth a read for newer teachers and educator majors
Very dense material that goes over theories and strategies I've already picked up through my post secondary classes. Definitely a class textbook. Worth a read for newer teachers and educator majors
January 12, 2017
The book ends with a discussion of "revolutionary love" and this book itself is a beautiful act of revolutionary love. The authors do an incredible job of linking theory and practice - moving from theory to practice and returning to theory. In exploring the key elements and practices of critical pedagogy, the authors take the readers through incredibly humanizing and hopeful stories of the implementation of critical pedagogy and the theories that frames these stories. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone, especially to fellow pre-service teachers seeking concrete discussions of critical pedagogy and an extremely helpful introduction/outlining of the theories that informed the work done by these critical educators.
October 31, 2014
Deeply researched and well thought out book. The authors reveal several first hand examples of putting the ideas presented to use and their success. An eye opening read for those interested in the history of modern education from the viewpoint of underprivileged youth. With a glimpse at the future of education once the current system is proven obsolete.
December 29, 2008
For my teacher friends, you'll love this one. Jeff Duncan Andrade spoke at the T4SJ conference year before last and was incredible.
April 24, 2010
Great book--breaks down critical pedagogy in an accessible way.
March 20, 2016
I read this for a class in my grad program and really enjoyed it. Each chapter is an example of Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy in action in schools in Oakland and Los Angeles.
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May 11, 2018370.115 D9111 2008
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews