Next Generation of Critical Pedagogues:

Insights to Transform Schools and Society

Kurt Love, Ph.D.Central Connecticut State University

Annual Meeting of the Conference for Social Justice and EquityMarch 26, 2011 - The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

lovekua@ccsu.edu

What is Transformative Learning?

Learning is a process of changing one’s relationships with her/his community, which consist of interconnections with nature and society.

ThinkingDivergent Thinking - Explore many paths in authentic settings with questions that have no predetermined answer.

Thought

Info

New ThoughtThought

New Thought

Transformative

CommunitiesCritical

Questioning

New Relationship

New Relationship

TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR

Main target is not a predetermined answer

Students are not facilitated or scaffolded to the “right” answer

Students are not discovering what the teacher already knows and calls “truth”

TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR

Main target: Divergent thinking in a context of community of diverse voices

Students critically question information in curriculum using various lenses of analysis

Examples: critical social theory, critical race theory, feminism, ecojustice, queer theory, indigenous theory)

Students investigate authentic and/or unresolved issues, knowledges, histories, and practices in community (local through global)

Teacher mediates so that students can do authentic research based in communities

“Thick Description”

Mainstream Message

Null Message

These two might set up a binary

Tensions

RelationshipsThese two

generally show a complexity not

binary “packaged” info

Superficial

Deep

“Thick Description”❖ Avoid binaries (including the binary relationship between mainstream and null content)

❖ The “Who” matters: Students should be able to articulate knowledge and understandings from different social, cultural, and political frames.

❖ Include null content, relationships and tensions.

❖ Relationships are the ways in which the actions and discourse of various groups affect and interact with each other, who benefits, who is privileged, who experiences oppression, who is burdened

❖ Tensions are the ways in which specific groups could be disproportionately burdened by change, even change that initially seems like it is motivated by social justice concerns

❖ Interviews (family, friends, members of organizations, leaders, veterans, artists, scientists, lawyers)

❖ Observations (the mall, school, sporting event, school dance, playground, on the internet via social network sites, environment)

❖ Case Study (focus on one person, group, location, ecology)

❖ Ethnography (cultural thick description)

❖ Participatory Research (reporting on their experiences)

❖ Demographic Research (census, state dept websites)

❖ Literature Research (local newspapers, internet)

❖ Field Trips as sites for all of these

Community Involvement Stage 1

Researching the Community

❖ Art Exhibits (Art show, public art, instillations, eco-art, murals, street art, “guerrilla art”)

❖ Poetry Slams

❖ Critical Performances (Plays, musicals, choir pieces that rework and recontextualize texts or existing pieces)

❖ Video Game(Social or Eco-themed)

❖ Theatre of the Oppressed (Forum theater, rainbow of desire, image theater, legislative theater)

❖ Reports & Publications (Writing to local newspaper, having a journalist present, BOE meetings, community groups, WWW)

❖ Documentary Film (Local issues, local attitudes, local projects, film festival)

❖ Habitat for Humanity House

Community Involvement Stage 2

Action in the Community

Clash of the Pedagogies❖ Bowers vs. McLaren (2004 & 2005)

❖ Bowers (2004, 2005) argued that critical pedagogy is anthropocentric and destined to create double binds that further enclose nature

❖ McLaren & Houston (2005) argued that Bowers romanticizes a noble savage and has political amnesia

❖ Greunewald (2005) stated that we can benefit from both McLaren’s and Bowers’ work, but that we should start by recognizing that they are arguing with two different units of analyses, which provides the tensions and disagreements (and negative attitudes?)

Units of Analysis❖ Critical pedagogy = Socioeconomics

❖ Ecojustice pedagogy = Cultural commons

❖ Feminist pedagogy = Patriarchy

❖ Queer pedagogy = Social norms

❖ Aesthetic pedagogy = Social imagination

❖ Red pedagogy = Indigenous sovereignty

❖ Peace education = Conflict resolution

❖ Place-based education = Local knowledges, local voices, cultural commons

Units of Analysis & Practice❖ Teaching about Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol

❖ Critical Pedagogy with Socioeconomics

❖ Critically examine how capitalists oppress community members

❖ Ecojustice Pedagogy with Cultural Commons

❖ Critically examine how capitalists divide a community, insulate themselves, and undermine reciprocity among community members

❖ Aesthetic Pedagogy with Social Imagination

❖ Investigate the spiritual transformation of a human being who identifies as a capitalist

Thick Description of A Christmas Carol Using a Critical Lens❖ Mainstream curriculum = Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a self-centered old

miser to a caring person because of the spirit of Christmas

❖ Hidden curriculum = Individualism, Privilege, Affluence, Industrialization, Capitalism, Hegemony, Passivity

❖ Null curriculum = Critique on capitalism and Christmas is used merely as a context to have that critical exploration

❖ Relationships = Voices of the various characters describing the consequences of the social structure that Scrooge perpetuates

❖ Tensions = Dickens advocates for a “better” capitalism with moral and ethical treatment, but he does not describe a reality whereby capitalism is dismantled or one with a significant shift of power. Also, Bob Cratchet is a character that embodies hegemony.

Thick Description of A Christmas Carol Using an Ecojustice Lens

❖ Mainstream curriculum = Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a self-centered old miser to a caring person because of the spirit of Christmas

❖ Hidden curriculum = Individualism, Privilege, Affluence, Industrialization, Capitalism, Hegemony, Passivity

❖ Null curriculum = Critique on capitalism, the isolationism of capitalist behaviors and mindsets, and the devaluing of community relationships that focus on nurturance and reciprocity. Christmas is used merely as a context to have that critical exploration.

❖ Relationships = Voices of the various characters describing the consequences of the an isolated community or a minimizing of cultural commons that Scrooge perpetuates.

❖ Tensions = Dickens describes a community in the end that is more connected because the person with the most privilege decided on it.

Thick Description of A Christmas Carol Using an Aesthetic Lens❖ Mainstream curriculum = Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a self-centered old

miser to a caring person because of the spirit of Christmas

❖ Hidden curriculum = Individualism, Privilege, Affluence, Industrialization, Capitalism, Hegemony, Passivity

❖ Null curriculum = Personal transformation occurred because of Ebenezer’s forced experience of having to see the perspectives of others as well as to see the burdens that his decisions have on people throughout the community

❖ Relationships = Voices of the various characters describing the consequences of the material poverty and emotional turmoil that Scrooge perpetuates

❖ Tensions = Dickens advocates for a shift in consciousness, but it only comes because of supernatural beings guiding Scrooge

Community Involvement Stage 1 with A Christmas Carol❖ Interview workers, day laborers, middle managers, CEOs, business professors, social workers,

etc.

❖ Observe people in a workplace, identifying patriarchal practices, class elitism, materialism, and interpersonal relationships overall

❖ Research treatment of workers in various contexts

❖ Case study of entry level workers

❖ Attend a performance of Ebeneeza by the HartBeat Ensemble

❖ Personal narratives of people who live in homeless shelters, rely upon soup kitchens, and/or often feel crushed by a capitalistic society

❖ Investigate relationships in one’s community that seem to be strained by practices of capitalism creating more isolation, insulation, and individualism

❖ Interview people who do charity work during the holiday season

Community Involvement Stage 2 with A Christmas Carol❖ Perform a play that is a more contemporary version of A

Christmas Carol that incorporates critical views of capitalism in their own communities

❖ Have a film festival exclusively of student-made films that present excerpts of A Christmas Carol as it connects to their own communities

❖ Have a poetry night with a theme of capitalism and Christmas

❖ Have a choir perform “Christmas carols” with the words rewritten to question social issues as connected to capitalism