Critical Pedagogy

"Community-based? Asian American Students, Parents, and Teachers in the Shifting Chinatowns of New York and Los Angeles"

by Benji Chang

Chang, B., & Lee, J. H. (2012). “Community-Based?” Asian American Youth, Parents and Community in the Shifting Chinatowns of New York and Los Angeles. Asian American Pacific Islander Nexus Journal, 10(2) 99-117.

This article examines the experiences of children, parents, and teachers in the New York and Los Angeles Chinatown... more This article examines the experiences of children, parents, and teachers in the New York and Los Angeles Chinatown public
schools, as observed by two classroom educators, one based in
each city.

The authors document trends among the transnational East and Southeast Asian families that comprise the majority in the local Chinatown schools and discuss some of the key intersections of communities and identities within those schools, as well as the pedagogies that try to build upon these intersections in the name of student empowerment and a more holistic vision of student achievement.

Ultimately, this article seeks to bring forth the unique perspectives of Chinatown community members and explore how
students, families, teachers, school staff and administrators, and
community organizers can collaborate to actualize a more transformative public education experience.

"Obama and the ‘Arab Spring’: desire, hope and the manufacture of disappointment. Implications for a transformative pedagogy"

by John Schostak

paper just published with co-author Lorna Roberts. It develops themes and arguments in earlier conference versions available on academia.edu: see: ‘Democracy matters in race matters’: Obama, desire, hope and the manufacture of disappointment.

For a period, in the run up to the election (2007–2008) and the months after the election, the name ‘Obama’ signified... more For a period, in the run up to the election (2007–2008) and the months after the election, the name ‘Obama’ signified hope for millions, not just in America but across the world. As the hope turned to disappointment, the financial crisis deepened and the Arab Spring renewed a call for a ‘humanity’ that could transcend the differences of nations and faiths. What can be learnt from such events about the pedagogies of hope, disappointment and public action? Are there lessons for a transformative pedagogy, an education that could underpin and continuously create the conditions for a politics of freedom and social justice? A range of print, broadcast and digital/Internet news media is analysed to explore the political/rhetorical/pedagogical strategies already set into play that ‘manufacture disappointment’ in order to undermine and negate the transformative, transgressive symbolic significance of ‘Obama’ and thus manage the theme of change to reassert the same.

Ways of Reading. Visual Music Course Development at OCADU

by Robert Appleton

Ways of Reading. A course at OCAD University conceived and taught by Robert Appleton using sound, text and image.

The Pedagogical Subject of Neoliberal Development

by Alvin Lim

Under review

I first started to seriously consider the pedagogical subject of neoliberal development when I began drafting a... more I first started to seriously consider the pedagogical subject of neoliberal development when I began drafting a proposed course on the challenges of development. In order for me to develop a syllabus for my proposed course, I had to understand the development challenges which emerged from Nigeria’s neoliberal transformation in the 1980s. After considering this history of neoliberal development in Nigeria, I describe a visit to the underdeveloped Koma Hills to see first hand the challenges faced by a traditional community facing the encroachment of "development." I conclude with a consideration of community service learning as a methodology for introducing my proposed students to the challenges of neoliberal development.

Local Struggles

by G. Honor Fagan

“We Teach All Hearts to Break” (2012)

by Christian Garland

“We Teach All Hearts to Break”: On the Incompatibility of Education with Schooling at All Levels, and the Renewed Need for a De-Schooling of Society
Published in Educational Studies: A Journal of the American Educational Studies Association 48:1, Special Issue: “Anarchism… is a living force within our life…” Anarchism, Education and Alternative Possibilities pps.30-38
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/heds20/48/1

Ranciere and the Disciplines v1

by Paul Bowman

First draft of a paper to be given in July 2012

Whose voice is speaking? Ethnography, pedagogy and dominance in research with children and young people

by Simon Bailey

Co-authored with Deirdre Duffy, presented at the Oxford Ethnography Conference in 2010.

Ethnographic research can often provide a useful and unique insight into the lived dynamics of work with children and... more Ethnographic research can often provide a useful and unique insight into the lived dynamics of work with children and young people in a variety of settings. By emphasising the importance of researching from the participant’s perspective and underlining the need for ‘subjects’ of study to be treated as active agents in the production of knowledge, ethnographic researchers are able to locate theoretical observations in their ‘natural’ settings. Additionally, by facilitating the co-creation of knowledge with participants, ethnographic research can also empower and give voice to groups who are frequently unable to make their voices heard. However, despite the importance of this approach and the benefits it can have, propagating ethnographic research as a means of representing the ‘lived experience’ and giving voice to participants is underlined by the assumption that these participants are inherently incapable of representing themselves and have no voice but that which is given to them. Though that may frequently be the case, it is important to recognise that, applying the arguments of feminist theorists such as Benhabib (1992) and Cornell (1995), such an approach can also reinforce the power relations which exclude these groups from the process of knowledge creation. That said, given this critique it is equally important to ask whether, incorporating a Foucauldian perspective, this is a naturalised and irreconcilable problem. On  the one hand ‘the best of intentions’ can become the ‘tools of oppression’, and yet, there are practices of freedom in the attempt to ‘change something in the minds of people’ (Foucault, 1988, p. 10).
 
This paper explores these issues within the context of two different research projects with children in a formal educational setting and young people involved in an informal youth participation initiative. By examining the dynamics of conducting an ethnographic research project in these settings and the role of the researcher as the dominant figure in the production and interpretation of information drawn from both these projects, we question firstly whether ethnographic research can really be described as ‘giving voice’ to vulnerable groups or as reinforcing pedagogies which exclude or remove their voices and, secondly, whether this is unavoidable. 

Discursive enactment of power in Iranian high school EFL classrooms

by Faiz Sathi Abdullah

Co-authored with Kobra Hosseini; published in GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, Volume 12(2), Special Section, May 2012, pp. 375-392.

Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical... more Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical theories of education. While critical pedagogy that espouses a problem-posing model of education has sought to promote a more equitable and dialogical teacher-student partnership and to transform the oppressive conditions of the ESL/EFL classroom, the claimed potential of the approach has had only limited success in practice. Drawing upon Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis to make for a principled analysis of EFL classroom practice, this study investigated the discoursal features of unequal power relations in Iranian high school EFL classes. The data was collected via observation of two classrooms, one located in an urban area and the other in a semi-urban area of Iran. The analysis of the observation data, which included transcripts of classroom lessons as well as field notes, indicated that teachers played a disproportionately dominant role to the extent that the students were kept
apparently passive and powerless via a range of discursive strategies including maximizing teacher-controlled talking time, turn-taking, topic control, modes of meaning-construction, and elicitation strategies. The findings of this study are expected
to provide critical and emancipatory insights into ESL/EFL classroom practice and contribute to the transformation of its status quo.

Technologizing Pedagogy: For better or Worse

by Cassie Earl

The Zeitgeist Movement UK (TZMUK) are a relatively new movement in the political spectrum (although the global... more The Zeitgeist Movement UK (TZMUK) are a relatively new movement in the political spectrum (although the global movement has been around longer), unlike a great number of emerging social movements they apparently offer as much a vision of the future , in the form of a resource based economy (RBE), as a critique of current practice. In a time when individuals are looking for answers concerning how to get out of the current socio-economic crisis, it is important to understand how these new social movements are articulating their message to the public. Drawing from a background in critical pedagogy, that is what this paper will examine.
The pedagogy from this movement is heavily technologized and is finding its way onto the scene through the use of social media and openly available film predominately.

Utilising interviews with individuals involved in the movement, this paper will discuss the

implications of the highly technologized and media reliant movement and how they are negotiating the becoming into being as a movement at a time when offering alternatives is a pertinent methodology and the use of social media is creating social action and informal networks.

How does TZMUK understand its own use of virtual presence and media led mobilisation as a tool for social change and pedagogy?

In addition, how is it learning to create a counter-capitalist voice in the plethora of media savvy movements emerging in the current context?

Critical Media Literacy: A Pedagogy for New Literacies and Urban Youth

by Jeff Share

Mohammed Choudhury and Jeff Share, "Critical Media Literacy: A Pedagogy for New Literacies and Urban Youth." Voices from the Middle, Volume 19, Number 4, May 2012 by the National Council of Teachers of English.

Using new literacies critically can be an excellent pedagogy for motivating and empowering students who feel alienated... more Using new literacies critically can be an excellent pedagogy for motivating and empowering students who feel alienated from their school and society.  This article describes how one middle school teacher engaged his inner-city English language learners with critical media literacy as a way of making their learning more meaningful and motivating.  The students interviewed and photographed community members, analyzed portrayals in the media of themselves and their neighborhood, and created their own alternative representations of their concerns and findings.  Not only did the students increase their self-esteem and sense of pride in their community, they also demonstrated substantial academic gains in their English language development.

GSU Spring 2012 Teaching Evaluations

by Robin Kemp

A Principles-Based Approach for English Language Teaching Policies and Practices

by Ahmar Mahboob

Mahboob, A. & Tilakaratna, N. (2012). Towards A Principles Based Approach for ELT Policies and Practices. Alexandria: TESOL International.

This TESOL white paper introduces the notion of a principles-based approach (PBA) for English language teaching... more This TESOL white paper introduces the notion of a principles-based approach (PBA) for English language teaching policies and practices. PBA identifies six principles aimed at helping policymakers, researchers, and practitioners build effective and successful practices within varied contexts while identifying and engaging with the challenges that the implementation of these practices will encounter. The principles are collaboration, relevance, evidence, alignment, transparency, and empowerment (CREATE). While acknowledging the complexities inherent in the process of language policy and planning, this white paper also includes a discussion of how these principles have emerged as a result of the demands of globalization and the interests of the local populations of countries in which the teaching and learning of English is having a major impact.

Feminist Reading on Paulo Freire: Freire’s Pedagogy as Feminist Pedagogy

by Chang Jordan

Making Global Publics? Communication and Knowledge Production in the World Social Forum Process

by Hilde C. Stephansen

PhD Thesis, 2011

This thesis provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the character and significance of media and communication in... more This thesis provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the character and significance of media and communication in the World Social Forum (WSF), focusing on their relationship to processes of knowledge production. Using the concept of publics as a theoretical tool, it explores how, through mediated communication, forum organisers and communication activists seek to extend the WSF in time and space and thereby make it public. Engaging critically with the idea of the WSF as a global process, the thesis considers how mediated communication might contribute to making the WSF global, not so much in absolute terms as by creating a sense of globality, and how the idea of the global relates to other scales. It develops an understanding of the WSF as an epistemic project that seeks both to affirm the existence and validity of multiple knowledges and to facilitate convergence between them, and considers how different communication practices might further this project.

Based on ethnographic research carried out in connection with the WSF 2009 in Belém, complemented by fieldwork at other social forums, the thesis is structured as a series of case studies of different communication practices, ranging from efforts to engage with conventional mass media to various initiatives that seek to strengthen movement-based communication infrastructures and enable WSF participants to communicate on their own terms. These demonstrate that there are many different approaches to making the WSF 'public' and 'global', which beyond facilitating the circulation of media content also involve mobilising new actors to participate in media production and generating a sense of identification with a global WSF process. They also show that mediated communication can contribute to knowledge production not only by facilitating information sharing, but also through the more subtle processes of empowerment, network-building, and translation across difference it can stimulate when embedded in movement dynamics.

Laying down the law: Teachers’ use of rules.

by Gregory Bornmann

On JALT 95: Curriculum and Evaluation. (Proceedings of the JALT International Conference), Nagoya, Japan, November 1995

This paper offers an analysis of the way rules function in the classroom by applying insights generated by recent... more This paper offers an analysis of the way rules function in the classroom by applying insights generated by recent debates in legal theory. Members of the Critical Legal Studies (CLS) movement have been particularly adept at identifying the logical contradictions which are pervasive in legal discourse. These contradictions—between formal rules and ad hoc standards; between subjective values and objective facts; between intentionalism and determinism—render all legal disputes problematic. CLS theorists have also devoted a great deal of effort to demonstrating that law and society are interpenetrating, and thus inseparable. For this reason, the classroom as a basic social institution offers especially fertile ground for legalistic analysis.

Introduction: shaped or shaping? The role for radical teachers in teaching with technology

by Sarah T. Roberts

Points of Intersection: Martha Rosler and the Center for Urban Pedagogy

by Julie Niemi

Co-designing and Co-teaching Graduate Qualitative Methods: An Innovative Ethnographic Workshop Model

by gianpaolo baiocchi

Please cite as: Cordner, Alissa, Peter Klein, and Gianpaolo Baiocchi. (2012) Co-designing and Co-teaching Graduate Qualitative Methods: An Innovative Ethnographic Workshop Model. Forthcoming in Teaching Sociology. Available online: April 25 2012.

This article describes an innovative collaboration between graduate students and a faculty member to co-design and... more This article describes an innovative collaboration between graduate students and a faculty member to co-design and co-teach a graduate-level workshop-style qualitative methods course. The goal of co-designing and co-teaching the course was to involve advanced graduate students in all aspects of designing a syllabus and leading class discussions in a required course for first-year graduate students. The authors describe the multiple stages involved in designing and teaching the qualitative methods course and discuss the challenges of this type of collaborative teaching. This type of collaboration builds on the existing strengths of workshop-style methods courses to improve student learning by providing opportunities for grounded engagement with epistemological topics and ample opportunities for feedback, discussion, and reflection on the research process. This collaborative teaching model, although difficult and time-intensive, provides measurable improvements to existing qualitative workshop courses by overcoming some of the limitations of workshop courses and providing significant benefits for graduate students in the class, the student co-teachers, and faculty.

[2012] Capitalism, Illegality and Subversion: The Pre-Figurative Politics of the 2-Hour Work Day

by Michael Loadenthal

published in Unrest Magazine, Issue 6 March/April 2012.

Though this essay does not seek to apologize for the management and owning class, it does attempt to pose a more... more Though this essay does not seek to apologize for the management and owning class, it does attempt to pose a more challenging question about our relationship to work and survival: What about those of us who make our way through capitalism by exploiting not our neighbors or coworkers, but the outside margins of ‘less than fully regulated’ economies? What about those who seek to work less, yet earn more because they choose to operate in a sphere of employment that exists in between legal and illegal, regulated and unregulated, socially accepted and stigmatized?