1.2 Theory of critical pedagogy

Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo Freire picked up on the tradition of critical theory, further extended it to education and was hence one of the founders of 'critical pedagogy'. He initialized an extensive literacy program to help the poor become politically mature. For his radical believes and actions he was jailed by the Brazil military junta in 1964, then exiled. He returned to Brazil and shaped its politics after 1980 until his death in 1997 (Giroux 2010). According to Henry Giroux, Freire believed that education is political for it offered students the conditions for self-reflection and a self-managed life, to ask themselves what it means to be citizens and expending their participation in a substantive democracy (2010). Critical education should then be a basic element of progressive social change and radical democracy.

Critical thinking in education, Freire argues, allows students to recognize connections between their individual problems and the broader social contexts in which their experiences are embedded. He calls the process of realizing ones own consciousness 'conscientization' which is also the first step in becoming aware of ones own power, 'emancipation' to take action against oppression and to liberate education (Critical Pedagogy on the Web). The greatest barrier would be the believe in the inevitability of developing a critical consciousness and a necessity of the status quo. Freire's commitment in spreading literacy is due to the belief that illiteracy equals powerlessness and dependence. Through literacy training then a sense of individual and collective self-esteem and confidence can be achieved with a potential desire of changing oneself and one's social group (Burbules and Berk 1999). Another essential method of conscientization or cultural education for change is dialogue as Freire elaborates in his 1970 book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (1970a, 47). For the process of learning itself he suggests to read and write for oneself rather than monotonous learning by heart in order to learn critical, independent thinking and an objective viewpoint. Further the emphasis is on personal experience to challenge 'common sense' and intervene. As his Frankfurt School forerunners and coevals, Paulo Freire saw the main threat of democracy in the rise of extremist groups, in his case as critique of his era, the rise of the military-industrial-complex with the increased power of the warfare state (Giroux 2010).

Critical pedagogy then is specifically concerned with fostering a critical consciousness in citizens, overcoming ignorance and enable them to actively resist oppressive power effects and seeking social justice since the theory sees society as being fundamentally divided in relations of unequal power, as does critical theory (Burbules and Berk 1999). In his “Lessons from Paulo Freire”, Henry Giroux defines the education approach as an "educational movement, guided by passion and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take constructive action" (2010). It was Giroux who with his work in the 1970s and 80s shaped today’s concept of critical pedagogy by bringing together the work of the Frankfurt School, Freire and Pierre Bourdieu. For the necessity of critiquing culture as stated earlier, Giroux joined the field of Cultural Studies which combines different subjects such as feminist-, social-, political-, philosophical and literary theory among many others but concentrates on ideology, social class, gender etc. rather than anthropology. Giroux especially focuses on his concept of radical democracy in terms questions of justice, liberty and equality (The Freire Project).

According to critical pedagogues, ideology critique would eliminate 'false consciousness' and allow individuals to resist oppressive regimes of power (The Frankfurt School mingo). It thus attempted to eliminate inequalities on the basis of social class especially, later gender, race and sexual orientation were added. According to current critical theorist Peter McLaren, critical pedagogy was initially known for neo-Marxist cultural theory, now, however is often influenced by post-modernism, social-democratic or even liberal perspectives (McLaren 344-346). In general, however, critical pedagogy now and back then seek justice and emancipation by working within the educational institutions to challenge false myths of opportunity and bring together members of an oppressed group for critical consciousness of their situation as starting point of their liberation process (Burboles, Berk 1999). Emancipation in this context means the liberation of adolescents from conditions that limit their rationality and the with that associated societal action. This emancipatory pedagogy is supposed to contribute to the democratization and humanization of all aspects of life (Kritische Theorie).

Concrete examples of putting these ideas into practice would be a system of “power-sharing” in the education institution. Current critical pedagogy theorist Ira Shor suggests for instance a physical organization in the classroom where students and the teacher sit in a round circle and interact freely rather than having the teacher as authoritarian figure standing in front. Further, students could have an intake of how they would like to be evaluated (Critical Pedagogy: An Overview). In contrast to the past where many teachers were indoctrinating students to accept their personal viewpoint, in this new classroom setting pedagogues would encourage students to share their point of view, be critical of common conventions and norms.

In this sense all classroom members could develop a collective or form an identity to communally challenge their own viewpoints (Moisi 494). On a wider scale, teachers could make connections with the local community, especially progressive community organizations or local council meetings and establish links between the school and content of the classroom agenda and the surrounding social and cultural milieu, Moisi notes (497). This may bring together the civil society and the education system and thus encourage students to take part in civic actions as theorists Marcuse, Freire and Giroux have proposed (Moisi 498).

Modern critiques of this approach include feminist critiques as well as racial minorities who argued that most of the traditional propagators of critical theory and critical pedagogy were all white, male and of bourgeois origin. Further, others argue that there is a lack of other ethnic groups, that the authors are too rationalistic and exclusionary (Burboles, Berk 1999). Freire himself stated that critical pedagogy had been domesticated and reduced to a student-directed learning process devoid of social critique and Giroux later added that nowadays it was no longer a radical critique to enhance democracy as it was still in the 1970s and 80s but rather to improve student's self-image by bourgeois educators with a lack of critique of global capitalism (McLaren 346). Additionally, Tyson argues, that although there is substantial critique of advertising and media culture in critical pedagogy, fine art and aesthetic experience is missing out (38, 2010). A last substantial critique comes from observers as well as students who claim that although critical theorists Adorno and Freire advocate a constant self-critique, they never undertook one themselves (Tyson 38; Cho 89).