Pre-service Teachers’ Leading and Teaching for Social Justice

This article narrates the experience of three professors in their journey towards the implementation of critical pedagogy in the English language classroom. It describes the Think, Share, Act (TSA) project whose main objective is to raise social awareness in students by providing them with opportunities to get involved in social projects of their interest. The TSA was created by professors Chaves, Solano and Villalobos in the Language School at Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, during the first term of 2009.

2021

Critical thinking is present in the educational intentions in higher education with more or less programmatic development. In the training of social educators, such thinking is considered a fundamental pillar for a good performance of their functions in the social field. By means of qualitative and quantitative instruments, we set ourselves the objective of knowing the opinions of 72 Social Education degree students of the University of Huelva (Spain) about critical thinking, higher education, and their position on the subject. The results obtained showed that students have an approximate general knowledge of what critical thinking is, but a clear lack of knowledge of how it is developed. In addition, it is observed that there is a great contradiction between what they say and what they actually do, as, although they value its development in the degree and professional performance, they do not develop or commit themselves de facto to this competence. Moreover, they recognize that th...

DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING IN THE UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM (Atena Editora), 2023

The third constitutional article in Mexico establishes the need to develop critical thinking in students; on the other hand, the new basic education curricular policy includes a training field on critical thinking. For this reason, the theoretical discussion on higher education postulates that university students must be critical, and to do so, from the formal curriculum and its development, critical thinking must be encouraged not only to fulfill the purposes of education at the level, but for the influence of its graduates in social transformation. Based on the review of the literature and a previous exploratory study in which teachers and students participated in the reflection on teaching in the Bachelor's Degree in Educational Intervention (LIE) of the National Pedagogical University of the State of Chihuahua (UPNECH) and the difficulties of the students in the process of implementation, development and evaluation of the intervention project, this research was carried out with a quantitative approach under a descriptive transectional design with the purpose of evaluating the critical thinking of the students and with it, making changes in teaching. A mixed questionnaire was designed with a reliability index of 80 and was applied to 55 fifth semester students. The skills that still need to be developed to intervene are inductive reasoning and argumentation, important for developing diagnoses and identifying areas of opportunity to transform them, so teachers must take them into account during their teaching.

This article discusses an investigation carried out with a group of young learners of English in a Brazilian language school aiming at these individuals' development of critical thinking and their involvement in a denaturalization process of gender dualism. The study, which took place in an educational context witnessing important changes at both macro and micro levels, has its theoretical foundation in multicultural and identity studies as well as in Goffman's (1974 notions of footing and participant status and in Wood, Bruner, and Ross's (1976) concept of scaffolding. By redefining the EFL classroom as a multicultural site in which essentialist and stereotypical social identities are constantly challenged, participants in this three-semester long research project engaged in pedagogical practices moving away from a teacher-student pattern towards a pattern in which participants, reconfiguring relations of power in the classroom, could take on different alignments while engaging in the development of critical thinking concerning gender issues. These debates, together with this dynamic participation structure, enabled students to revisit some taken-forgranted assumptions concerning gender. They also stimulated changes in the roles traditionally played by the teacher and by students: the former performed varied footings other than those of controller, transmitter, or facilitator, and provided scaffolding characterized by both support and challenge; the latter could perform the role of the more knowledgeable participant.

Much of the literature on critical thinking focuses on the ways in which human beings develop their capacities, through complex cognitive processes and skills, to evaluate or make sense of knowledge and information. This chapter seeks to explore the development of these capacities in relation to the moral, ethical and political dimensions of learning. We invoke the idea of critical thinking as a social practice, which is concerned with the relationship between pedagogical processes, power and oppression. We examine this relationship through the educational approach known as Critical Pedagogy and consider its relevance to higher education today. In essence, this pedagogical approach seeks to connect forms of education with wider political questions by arguing that processes or acts of learning and knowing are themselves inherently political. In this sense we argue that historically the ideal of education as a social good has been bound up with a concept of democratic citizenship. However, we see this ideal as under threat from the contemporary neo-liberal market driven model, which promotes a narrowly instrumental notion of learning.

2015

In this article I reflect on how I attempted to inculcate and enhance critical multicultural literacy in my Bachelor of Education classroom. Critical multicultural literacy educators focus not only on curtailing bias and inequity in the classroom, but also on promoting social justice in society at large. In this article I argue that the development of critical literacy promotes social justice and the exploration of language and literature in many forms. Using a grounded theory approach, I analyse data sources, including interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires. Findings suggest that exposing pre-service teachers critically to multicultural literacies develops and nurtures much needed social consciousness and social justice in future educators. From an action research perspective, I also discuss implications for future practice.

English Teaching: Practice & Critique

Purpose This paper aims to problematise the notion of social justice and the moral project that underpins critical literacy education. In plural societies, do we all have a shared understanding of what social justice is or how education, currently a dividing practice, might contribute to a better social order? Do we know what “better” looks like and for whom? Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper which examines some of the complexities involved in the constitution of a shared moral order for the creation of social justice in a plural society. Findings There are no findings as such. The paper constructs an argument which makes clear that moral decisions depend on reason. Research limitations/implications South African examples together with examples from Europe, Burma, the USA and the UK are included to support the argument. This paper makes suggestions as to how readers can connect examples elsewhere with their own contexts and why distance is sometimes helpful. Pra...

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2011

Critical pedagogy is an issue which deserves a lot of attention from language teachers. This paper presents a qualitative study which investigates the attitudes and perceptions of language teachers towards teaching English through applying features of critical pedagogy. The study has been conducted in a small scale with about 10 language teachers from 3 popular institutes in Ardebil, Iran. The research was done through observation and semi-structured interview. We came up with positive attitudes but for some reasons most teachers tend not to apply the features of critical pedagogy. Index Terms-critical pedagogy, teaching English, teaching critically, teaching English Critical pedagogy began its life in the works, thinking and pedagogic practice of Antonio Gramsci along with the works of key thinkers from the Frankfurt School, but in reality it became wholly recognized in the seminal writings of Paulo Freire, the Father of critical pedagogy, especially with work of Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972). Ira Shor (cited in Pennycook, 1999) nicely characterizes critical pedagogy as: Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impression, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliché s, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology and personal circumstances of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media or discourse (p. 129). It reads as being after kind of commitment to social transformation. Transformation of what's so far accepted as unquestionable truth. But to achieve such an end, individuals of the society need to become critical and empowered enough to make their voices loud enough in order to be heard. Critical pedagogy criticizes entanglement of individuals in every-day phenomena without ever questioning it. Individual cognitive development Collective social transformation Along with this line of thought, continuous problematization of the common sense is a great help. Not to mention educationalists do not aim at going to the extent of getting radical rather than critical. When social transformation comes to focus, education proves to be a political issue in the need of being dealt politically. This kind of system brings everything including curriculum, materials, teachers, and learners under its influence. Critical pedagogy through critical thinking looks to create a healthy non-alienating classroom-social relationship with no dominant policy overhanging in the minds of individuals. That is, pedagogy needs to be domesticated. Critical theorists highly criticize a one-model-fitsall look toward education. Critical pedagogy, on the whole, rejects a "blanket approach". Looking at education through their glasses, we can see that individuals with different identities and voices are all to be appreciated, all to be discussed dialogically and all to be developed to the point of finding a place in the outside society. Critical theorists believe that adult literacy programs should not be confined to teaching specific literacy skills but rather should contextualize instruction within a framework of social activism and societal transformation. In such a democratic setting, the learners are able to attain a power to analyze their own place in the society critically using their literacy skills.

This research investigates effects of critical pedagogy on the development of critical thinking through teaching English essay writing. The research also provides guideline to English Language Teachers to promote critical thinking in language learning and to teach language for reasoning. Quantitative and Qualitative data were collected from 53 English Language Teachers and 34 Civil Superior Services (CSS) students to test the hypothesis (by incorporating critical thinking through English Essay Writing promotes reasoning skills among the students). Descriptive Statistics, Paired Sample t-test and graphic representation were executed for the analysis of data. A marked difference (41.26 Mean Score)

International Journal of Linguistics Studies

The main aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of critical pedagogy and high-order thinking skills in upgrading values-based education and intercultural understanding. Critical pedagogy is a transformational approach that aims to embrace educational values, intercultural identity, the commonality of beneficence and the value of individual freedom in today’s globalised world. In this regard, the teacher’s role is to help learners to aggrandize their intercultural and critical cultural responsibility for acceptance of otherness, that is, self-reflection, essentialism, and cosmopolitanism in a value based educational system. This article used EFL teaching materials that drew on critical literacy (two culturally based units and a short story analysis) stemming from the critical pedagogy lens (praxis pedagogy). The data of this study were analysed qualitatively through the three stages of disciplinary Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis: description, interpre...

A Brief Review Paper, 2024

EDULEARN Proceedings, 2019

A recent Fulbright grant by the author at the University of Potsdam, Germany focused on providing Multicultural Teachers Education programs of instruction for European teachers from Germany and other European countries. The purpose was to assist in-service and graduate teacher training programs at the university with the expanding multicultural student populations to acclimate with new environments by teaching critical thinking skills. Ten modules were developed and co-taught by a German professor and a Fulbright recipient United States professor at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Instructors infused ethnic and critical thinking content and perspectives by varying their teaching strategies to accommodate the learning styles of those who have immigrated and placed primarily in educational systems to continue their education within a new cultural environment. The program emphasized that competent multicultural instructors will assist with the expansion and improvement of their educational institutions by providing cultural and critical thinking training to migrants within the educational institutions of Germany and the European Community, the ability to work and communicate in global communities can only be achieved if students can analyze, evaluate, and integrate information that helps them comprehend social, cultural and economic policies. A migrant trained as a critical thinker at an early age can have an impact on expanding and improving the social, cultural and economic future within their environment. The teacher education programs included discussions on reasoning in a logical manner, an evaluation of what is written and spoken, a reflection on students' ideas and individual thoughts, a revaluation of reasoning, an opportunity to pose questions, and the analysis and clarification of student-teacher responses. This process will help teachers to assist students with becoming lifelong learners and using critical thinking techniques when making decision and adapting to new cultural environment. Infusing critical thinking into the multicultural teacher education curriculum ensures commitments are made to make reflective decisions and develop positive attitudes toward other ethnic, cultural, racial, religious or sexual identity groups. The focus of this multicultural teacher training curriculum is to assure multicultural teachers have the knowledge of various cultures, traditions, and religions to assist with the enrichment of students' critical thinking skills. The teacher education seminars and the 10 module contents embrace new thinking, encouraged creativity, and foresee cause-and-effect relationships within the educational organizations. Critical thinking accepts and appreciates cultural diversity while respecting both human dignity and universal human rights. Instructors should serve as mentors to convey the characteristics and knowledge that enhances multicultural teaching coupled with the practice infusing critical thinking skills within the curriculum of all educational institutions.

2021

Although coursebooks publishers for English as a foreign language claim their contents to be culturally neutral, this does not exactly reflect the reality, as even a cursory glance demonstrates cultural elements promoting mostly the culture of English speaking countries. It is thus imperative that education policy makers embrace critical perspectives in teaching English to help shift the focus to local cultures, experiences, and histories, as well as to move foreign language education beyond behaviorist ideologies to include forms of social difference such as gender, culture, racism, and religion among many others, as topics of study. It is even more pertinent that critical approach becomes a priority in higher education, considering that learners reach cognitive maturity at this stage and are immune to the risks of indoctrination. It is important that in geopolitically sensitive regions, such as Turkey, for example, young generations learn not only how to communicate in English but...

Editorial Introduction April Biccum and Vanessa …