Critical Pedagogy and Social Change

Critical Analysis on the Language of Possibility

Seehwa Cho

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136813757
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

At its core, the main goal of critical pedagogy is deceptively simple—to construct schools and education as agents of change. While noble and ambitious, it is not always realistic in a climate of increased commodification, privatization of schooling, and canned curriculum. By assuming rather than articulating its own possibilities, critical pedagogy literature itself is often its own worst enemy in its call for transformation. With such challenges from both within and without, is the idea of liberatory pedagogy for social change out of reach or can critical educators really achieve the rather high call for social change? What alternative visions of schooling does critical pedagogy truly offer against the mainstream pedagogy? In short, what are the political projects of critical pedagogy?

This powerful and accessible text breaks with tradition by teasing out mere assumptions, and provides a concrete illustration and critique of today's critical pedagogy. Veteran teacher educator Seehwa Cho begins the book with an engaging overview of the history of critical pedagogy and a clear, concise breakdown of key concepts and terms. Not content to hide behind rhetoric, Cho forces herself and the reader to question the most basic assumptions of critical pedagogy, such as what a vision of social change really means. After a thoughtful and pithy analysis of the politics, possibilities and agendas of mainstream critical pedagogy, Cho takes the provocative step of arguing that these dominant discourses are ultimately what stifle the possibility for true social change. Without focusing on micro-level approaches to alternatives, Cho concludes by laying out some basic principles and future directions for critical pedagogy.

Both accessible and provocative, Critical Pedagogy and Social Change is a significant contribution to the debates over critical pedagogy and a fresh, much-needed examination of teaching and learning for social justice in the classroom and community beyond.

1

INTRODUCTION

The Questions and Goals of the Book

Critical pedagogy emerged in the 1980s as a relatively new field within critical education, claiming to find a “language of possibility” (Giroux, 1997). The fundamental aim of critical pedagogy is to construct schools and education as “agents of change.” Through schools, critical pedagogy attempts to build more egalitarian power relations, to strengthen the voices of learners, and to inspire critical consciousness, in order to promote social change. These are noble goals. Yet, to think of it seriously, the idea (or ideal) of schools-for-social-change is quite an ambitious quest. It seems even out of touch with reality, especially given the neoliberal currents that have swept edu- cation in recent years. The talk today is about efficiency, accountability, competition, and standard testing. The idea of schools as change agents is not exactly the topic of the day. With such challenges from both within and without, can critical pedagogy really achieve this lofty call for social change?

This question is more pertinent to ask, as there have been serious critiques on critical pedagogy. For instance, Peter McLaren, once a chief proponent of critical pedagogy, has declared that critical pedagogy is no longer viable in insti- gating social change. McLaren claims that critical pedagogy “no longer serve[s] as an adequate social or pedagogical plat- form from which to mount a vigorous challenge to the current social division of labor and its effects on the socially reproductive function of schooling in late capitalist society” (McLaren, 1998: 448). This is a serious blow, since critical pedagogy was formu- lated precisely to pursue a “language of possibility.” So, why do we have such serious criticism, which challenges the very identity of critical pedagogy?

This book critically examines the “language of possibility” of critical pedagogy, and problematizes critical pedagogy’s claim to be the “language of possibility.” There are several reasons why we need a closer examination of the “language of possibility,” and the idea of school as a change agent. To begin with, almost three decades have passed since the emergence of critical pedagogy. So, it seems like the right time to ask ourselves how critical pedagogy has been doing in its search for the possi- bilities. What possibilities has critical pedagogy presented so far? How real and effective are the alternatives that critical pedagogy has presented? How many dents can they make in the social reality? In a way, this book is a reality and status check for critical pedagogy.

Also, the field of critical pedagogy, due to its interdiscip- linary and multidisciplinary nature, embodies a broad range of theoretical perspectives. As such, there are diverse (sometimes conflicting) ideas and approaches to the “language of possi- bility.” While we may say that we all pursue a pedagogy of possibility/hope/transformation, it is possible that we may be talking about different ideas. So, it is not at all clear what we imagine when we talk about a pedagogy of possibility/hope/ transformation, and what kind of society we imagine when we talk about social change. As I will show in later chapters, many varying pedagogies have been suggested as alternatives within critical pedagogy. In a sense, this number of positions can be problematic, because it can create confusion. Thus, I believe that there is a strong need to put together these various ideas and approaches to “possibilities.” By analyzing and synthesizing various ideas, this book intends to identify and critically examine different formulations for making schools agencies of social change.

Furthermore, contrary to critical pedagogy’s claim to present a “language of possibility,” I believe that the possibilities in critical pedagogy are not sufficiently articulated. The possibil- ities are often presented in broad and abstract terms, such as equality, social justice, democracy, care, and utopia. Needless to say, these ideas and principles are important to critical pedagogy, and it is certainly crucial to have an in-depth and critical understanding of these principles. However, very little is done to formulate these principles into more concrete forms of alternative education. Therefore, there is a need to identify or extract alternative projects from abstract ideas of critical peda- gogy, and more importantly, to critically examine them. How is the “language of possibility” conceptualized? What are the underlying politics of critical pedagogy? What alternative visions of schooling does critical pedagogy truly offer against main- stream education? Will the alternatives bring the social changes that critical pedagogy strives for? What does a vision of social change really mean? What kinds of social changes are we talking about? These are the questions this book addresses.

The goals of this book are two-fold. The first goal is to critically examine the “language of possibility” of critical peda- gogy. For this goal, the book first presents an analysis on the historical and theoretical contexts of critical pedagogy. This analysis is necessary in order to understand why critical pedagogy has pursued its “language of possibility” in certain directions and not others. Based on the analysis, this book synthesizes various ideas and approaches in critical pedagogy, and argues that there are four main alternative projects in critical pedagogy. These four alternative projects are then critically examined. For each project, the theoretical frameworks and political orienta- tions are investigated, the underlying assumptions are scrutin- ized, the key contentions and controversies are explored, and the limitations are analyzed. Based on this synthesis and analysis, this book argues that, although critical pedagogy claims to impact and change society, the inherent limitations present within the dominant discourses of critical pedagogy are what stifle the possibility of social change. For this reason, the book argues that critical pedagogy, as it is, will at best modernize, rather than change, the system. As this book argues that critical pedagogy is narrow and lopsided in its pursuit of the “language of possibility,” the second goal of the book is to explore how to overcome or compensate for these shortcomings of critical pedagogy. The second part of this book explores and presents “other” alternatives that have been missing or marginalized in the mainstream of critical pedagogy. For that, the book examines the recent critical education literature, particularly related to globalization.

Contributions to the Field

The literature in critical pedagogy can be classified into three categories: the theoretical, the pedagogical, and the political. The first category is theoretical studies. These studies focus on critical theories, which constitute the foundation of critical pedagogy. Many consider Paulo Freire as the founder of crit- ical pedagogy; however, critical pedagogy embodies various theories. Although there are some commonalities, different theoretical orientations sometimes generate different kinds or emphases of critical pedagogy. Much critical pedagogy literature introduces various core theories that underlie critical pedagogy, such as the Frankfurt critical theory, the respective theories of Gramsci, Althusser, and Freire, neo-Marxist theory, poststruc- tural theories, postmodern theories, feminist theories, and postcolonial theories (Ellsworth, 1988/1992; Lather, 1991; Luke & Gore, 1992; Zavarzadeh & Morton, 1994; McLaren, 1995; Morrow & Torres, 2002; Kincheloe, 2004; Gur-Ze’ev, 2007).

The second category is pedagogical studies. This literature focuses on the micro-level of pedagogy. The focus of this literature is how to use critical pedagogy in classrooms. The major areas of this work are what to teach and how to teach, with the aim to explore more democratic and critical forms of knowledge, and more democratic pedagogical arrangements and school cultures (Shor, 1992; hooks, 1994; Rethinking Schools, 1994; McLaren, 1997; Elenes, 2003; Wrigley, 2006). There are a wide range of studies in this category. There are studies that apply critical pedagogy to various subjects, not only to subjects that seem relevant (such as history and social studies), but also to subjects that seem not to be explicitly relevant (such as math and science) (Gilbert, 2011). These studies cover all levels of education, from kindergarten to college. In addition, studies are done to practice/apply critical pedagogy in various countries.

The third category is political studies. This literature is a critical analysis on issues and problems that influence the policies and practices of education. This covers a wide range of issues, such as global capitalism (Allman, 2001; Apple et al., 2005; Fischman et al., 2005; McLaren, 2005; Cote et al., 2007; Spring, 2007), neoliberalism (Apple, 2001; Giroux, 2004; McLaren & Jaramillo, 2007), race (Leonardo, 2002, 2005; Allen, 2004; Darder & Torres, 2004; Grande, 2004; Watkins, 2005; Bernal et al., 2006; Liou & Antrop-González, 2011; Orelus, 2011), gender and sexuality (Ellsworth, 1988/1992; Luke & Gore, 1992; Weiler & Mitchell, 1992; Macdonald & Sancher-Casal, 2002; Fine, 2003; Hickman, 2011), mass media, popular culture, and technology (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2007; Suoranta & Vadén, 2007; Carroll-Miranda, 2011; Kress & DeGennaro, 2011), high-stakes testing (Janesick, 2007), and urban schools (Anyon, 2005; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008).

This categorization is only a conceptual tool to help us grasp the boundaries and directions of critical pedagogy. In reality, many studies do not belong to just one category. In fact, most critical pedagogy literature usually includes theoretical foun- dations, even when the focus is on either the pedagogical or political dimension. There is, however, one more dimension that does not belong to the above three categories. It is what I call “meta-analysis” on the critical pedagogy as a field—on the goal and scope of critical pedagogy itself. What is the goal of critical pedagogy, or what should it be? What should critical pedagogy do, focus on, and strive for? In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were serious debates on the question of whether and how critical pedagogy could be power-free and genuinely empower- ing. These debates were basically back-and-forth exchanges between neo-Marxism and poststructuralism, in the form of feminist poststructuralists (Ellsworth, 1988/1992; Lather, 1992, 1998; Luke & Gore, 1992) criticizing the critical pedagogy theories that were dominated by male neo-Marxists (Giroux, 1988a; McLaren, 1988). In essence, this was a theoretical level of discussion focusing on which theory (neo-Marxism or poststructuralism) was a better theoretical framework for critical pedagogy.

Recently, though, there seems to be a growing movement to revisit the goals and scope of critical pedagogy. This time, the driving impetus is a different one—globalization. In the last decade or so, there has been a growing awareness of globalization, and it has finally started to make its impact on critical pedagogy. Now there are growing studies on how critical pedagogy could and should deal with neoliberal globalization (Allman, 2001; Apple, 2001; Giroux, 2004; Apple et al., 2005; Fischman et al., 2005; McLaren, 2005; Cote et al., 2007; Gur-Ze’ev, 2007; McLaren & Jaramillo, 2007; Spring, 2007). Ideas such as utopian pedagogy (Peters & Freeman-Moir, 2006; Cote et al., 2007) and place-based pedagogy (Gruenewald & Smith, 2007; Martin & Riele, 2011) have been presented, and new theoretical frame- works from neo- and post-colonial theories (e.g., revival of Franz Fanon) introduced into critical pedagogy (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Lissovoy, 2008; Leonardo & Porter, 2010).

This book belongs to the meta-analysis category. It examines what critical pedagogy should do, focus on, and strive for. It is a theoretical analysis, or meta-analysis, on the “language of possibility” with the aim of extracting and critically examining its philosophical elaboration and its alternatives. Yet, this book is different from other works in two ways: first in its question, and second in its methods. First, this book is unique in the very questions it addresses: what are the alternative projects of critical pedagogy, and are these alternative projects critical enough? Somewhat surprisingly, there exists no study, as far as I know, that synthesizes and critically analyzes the projects of critical pedagogy as a whole—what alternatives critical pedagogy presents, and what kinds of politics inform and underlie critical pedagogy. Most studies, as reviewed above, focus on a single dimension (e.g., globalization, race, or the Frankfurt School). This book, somewhat ambitiously, offers a meta-analysis of the very idea of critical pedagogy as the “language of possibility.” It surveys the broad dimensions of critical pedagogy, with a single focus on the very idea of critical pedagogy as a change agent or as the “language of possibility.” Critical pedagogy aligns various projects within differing formations, each with their own trajectory. This book examines how critical pedagogy formulates its projects, and what influences its scopes, approaches, and directions.

Second, this book is unique in its method/approach— historical analysis and political economy. As mentioned above, the debates between feminists and male critical pedagogists in the 1980s and 1990s were theoretical disputes. The recent literature on the nature and goals of critical pedagogy still focuses largely on theoretical investigations. Unlike this abstract theoretical approach, this book analyzes concrete projects—what should critical schools/education look like and do? To put it differently, what this book is trying to do is to concretize abstract ideals and suggestive remarks into reality-based systemic forms. In doing so, this book examines how critical pedagogy has evolved and formulated its political positions within the larger historical context of economic, political, social, and cultural changes. Many ideas in critical pedagogy are a reflection of, and in line with, the larger trends and shifts in academia and the politics of the new social movements and the New Left. Thus, in order to have a thorough understanding of core concepts of critical pedagogy, I believe it is crucial to understand the context from which these concepts came.

Qualifications and Limitations

Before I move on, I need to put forward some qualifications at the outset. As much as it is helpful to present what this book is trying to do, I believe it is also helpful to clarify what this book is not trying to do. First, this book is not intended to provide “practical” guidelines for how to practice critical pedagogy. There are several books and studies about how to practice critical pedagogy in classrooms. As stated above, this book is about identifying alternative projects within critical pedagogy. The reason I focus on the “language of possibility” is because I want to extract more realistic and concrete alterna- tives from the theory- and abstract-ideas-ridden discourses of critical pedagogy. That is also why I intentionally use the term “project.” In that sense, one can say this book is an effort to concretize the ideas of critical pedagogy. Concretization can contribute to a practical dimension, but what is concrete is not necessarily practical.

Second, this book neither reviews theoretical foundations of critical pedagogy, nor explains core concepts of critical pedagogy. There are several books that do that already. Of course, this book examines the diverse theories that underlie critical pedagogy as they are related to the “language of possibility.” However, its aim is not to explain foundational theories of critical pedagogy. Rather, this book is an analysis of theories of the “language of possibility.” As such, I write this book with the expectation that readers have some familiarity with the basic concepts and theories of critical pedagogy.

Third, this book does not aim to present an alternative to critical pedagogy. The goal of this book, as stated above, is to analyze and synthesize various alternatives that are presented within critical pedagogy. Obviously, the intention of such analysis is to give suggestions and directions to our search for alternative visions of education. I hope this book will provide some general directions and implications for critical pedagogy, but this book does not intend to present an/my alternative model of critical education. In other words, this book examines where we have been, so that we may be able to get our future direction right.

And finally, this book does not cover all critical pedagogy studies. The critical pedagogy I analyze in this book is limited to literature written in English. And my analysis—its theoretical orientations, political positions, and trends of discourse—is situated in the current historical and cultural context of the United States. I assume that there are general commonalities within critical pedagogy in other countries. However, I also think that critical pedagogy could have somewhat different approaches and meanings in other countries, depending on the social, political, and cultural context of a specific society. As we know, the meaning of a discourse is dependent on the discourse field. So, I do not claim that my understanding and analysis on critical pedagogy in this book is universal or relevant globally.

Overview of Chapters

Chapter 2 presents the historical context of critical pedagogy, and explores the origin of critical pedagogy—why and how critical pedagogy emerged in the 1980s. The origin is important to understand, because it has shaped what critical pedagogy is and how it has formulated projects to make schools agen- cies of change. The chapter investigates various push and pull factors that have influenced critical pedagogy, by sorting them into the Foe (mainstream education), the Counterpart (neo-Marxism), the Savior (Paulo Freire), the Contour (post- modernism), the Contender (feminism), and the Challenger (anti-racism and postcolonialism). It concludes with the boundary questions: How do we decide which ones are critical pedagogy and which ones are not? Who are critical pedagogues and who are not? In other words, how should we decide the boundary of critical pedagogy, and why does it matter?

Chapter 3 provides an analysis on the theoretical context of critical pedagogy. It focuses on the broad historical background of the emergence of cultural studies and cultural politics. In recent years, cultural theories have had significant influence on critical educational theories. Why did culture come to the forefront of academic studies and of the politics of the New Left? How did culture become so important? What were the polit- ical and economic contexts that catalyzed this move? What problems do these theories address that were not addressed before? This chapter explores these questions and examines the political economy of cultural theories/politics.

Chapter 4 identifies and critically examines the main alterna- tive projects that are presented by mainstream critical pedagogy. It first presents two main agendas that critical pedagogy focuses on: transformation of knowledge (curriculum) and pedagogy (in a narrow sense, i.e., teaching). It highlights how critical pedagogy is similar and different from the neo-Marxist education theories. Based on that, the chapter identifies four alternative projects that are dominant in critical pedagogy, which I call the “project of experience,” the “project of multiplicity and inclu- sion,” the “project of anti-hierarchy democracy,” and the “project of individual enlightenment.” These four projects are closely examined for their theoretical bases and orientations, their controversies and contentions, and their limitations and problems.

Chapters 2 to 4 are devoted to critically examining the “lan- guage of possibility” of critical pedagogy, and to demonstrating the narrow and lop...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Critical Pedagogy and Social Change
• The Critical Social Thought Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series Editors Introduction
• Acknowlegments
• Permissions
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Historical Context: The Origin of Critical Pedagogy
• 3 The Theoretical Context: Culture and Cultural Politics
• 4 Alternative Projects of Critical Pedagogy
• 5 Educations of Resistance against Globalization
• 6 Alternative Models of Society
• 7 Conclusion
• References
• Index