In Search of a Critical Pedagogy

I feel that one of the current challenges facing art education is the lack of active engagement on the part of the pupils in their learning. Education and learning are seen "in terms of techniques or cures or remedies” and thus, often, this renders pupils and the learning process as “objects to be acted upon, treated, controlled, or used” (Greene, 2003, p. 110). Education has become somewhat of a commodity provided for a consumer society (Giroux, 2003, p. 120). There is little sense of ownership for pupils or any connection to real life. Adopting a more critical pedagogy, where the teacher takes on the role of learner in a shared dialogue of learning that is meaningful and significant to pupils, would help facilitate a sense of agency and personal responsibility in learning. This in turn would develop ownership and commitment as pupils begin to see learning as “interrelated to to other problems within a total context, not as theoretical questions” (Friere, 2003, p. 64).

The more flexible and open curriculum offered by CfE has the potential to develop practice that is much more in keeping with critical pedagogy. However, we must take care to understand that "a mere removal of constraints or a mere relaxation of controls will not ensure the emergence of free and creative human beings […] the freedom we cherish is not an endowment, it must be achieved through dialectical engagements with the social and economic obstacles we find standing in our way, those we have to learn to name" (Greene, 2003, p. 111). Critical pedagogy is vital in this naming process and thus, as a result, in the awakening to new alternatives and the possibility of a different status quo. In particular a critical art pedagogy is significant as both imagination and creativity are the currency of this type of engagement, multiple interpretations are all valid and dialogue is important. As Monchinski (2008) states “transformation involves imagination and possibility” (p. 4).

Friere, P., 2003. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In: Darder, A., Baltodano, M., Torres, R. D., eds., 2003. The Critical Pedagogy Reader. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Ch 2.

Giroux, H. A., 2003. Education Incorporated? In: Darder, A., Baltodano, M., Torres, R. D., eds., 2003. The Critical Pedagogy Reader. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Ch 5.

Greene, M., 2003. In Search of a Critical Pedagogy. In: Darder, A., Baltodano, M., Torres, R. D., eds., 2003. The Critical Pedagogy Reader. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Ch 4.

Monchinski, T., 2008. Critical pedagogy and the Everyday Classroom. New York: Springer Science + Business media B.V.