Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Introduction
The concept of critical pedagogy (CP) has been around in the E LT profession
for almost two decades (Canagarajah 2005), but it has only been relatively
recently that we have seen heightened interest in its principles and practical
implications. Most of the discussion on CP has been limited to its rationale
and not much has been done to bring it down to the actual world of
classroom practice, for which it was originally intended. The present paper
seeks to present a snapshot of CP by delineating its principles and
suggesting some areas of application for L2 practitioners.
What is CP?
Unlike most of the other concepts and ideas one encounters in the literature
on L2 teaching, CP is not a theory, but a way of doing learning and
teaching (Canagarajah op.cit.: 932), or borrowing Pennycooks (2001)
terminology, it is teaching with an attitude. What critical pedagogues are
after is the transformation of society through education, including language
teaching.
CP deals with questions of social justice and social change through
education. Critical pedagogues argue that educational systems are
reflections of the societal systems within which they operate, and since in all
social systems we have discrimination and marginalization in terms of race,
social class, or gender (Giroux 1983), the same biases are reproduced in
educational systems. In other words, the same people who have the power to
make decisions in society at large are the ones who also have the power to
design and implement educational systems, and consequently, their ideas
and values get accepted and promoted while the values and ideas of others
276
The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012
are not given voice. Education, as a result, is a political activity in which the
rights of certain classes are systematically denied.
277
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012
about real world realities and the role of language, power and
representation in injustice . . . education for a democracy should not
be about the development of products or even consumers, but about
preparation for public citizenship, for civic agreement.
(Edelsky and Johnson 2004: 121, quoted in Reagan 2006: 4)
Language teachers can play a more active social role by including themes
from the wider society in their classes, and by drawing the attention of their
students to the way marginalized people feel or act, creating the context for
positive action and a heightened awareness of the plight of those who are not
us, but them or others. They can also incorporate themes from students
day-to-day lives to enable them to think about their situation and explore
possibilities for change. The following sections include some suggestions as
to how teachers can transform their classes into more critical settings.
Transforming classes
Base your teaching
on students local
culture
278
Ramin Akbari
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012
The conservative forces that control education and society at large have tried
to keep critical ideas out of school curricula and classrooms. Coursebook
contents and teaching methods have been cautiously selected to make sure
that only socially refined topics are addressed. As a result, E LT has not been
completely responsive to the demands made by a CP, and still language
teaching is viewed mainly as a cognitive activity with few socio-political
implications. Even when the social dimensions of language are
acknowledged, the social reality of language learning and teaching is
represented from a narrow perspective where social context is only treated
as who is talking to whom about what. The complexity of the social
conditions students and teachers find themselves in is not given serious
consideration and some of the grim facts that are part of the human
condition, such as poverty, disease, domestic violence, racial, or ethnic
discrimination, are ignored. If education in general and E LT in particular
are going to make a difference, then the totality of the experiences of learners
needs to be addressed.
cultural identity of their own. There is little need in this context for the
Anglo-American culture since neither party is a native with whom the other
interlocutor is going to identify.
In addition, in most communicative settings, people try to communicate
their own cultural values and conceptualizations, not those of the target
language. Typically, people involved in communication want to express who
they are and what kind of cultural background they represent, and as
a result, an emphasis on target language is misplaced; what is needed more
is for the learners to be able to develop the competence to talk about their
own culture and cultural identity.
Regard learners L1
as a resource to be
utilized
279
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012
From a critical perspective, reliance on ones own local culture has the added
value of enabling learners to think about the different aspects of the culture
in which they live and find ways to bring about changes in the society where
change is needed. If students are going to transform the lives of themselves
and those of others, they cannot do so unless due attention is paid to their
own culture in the curriculum and opportunities are provided for critical
reflection on its features. It is here that both the negative and positive
features of their culture can be addressed and local cultural sore points (such
as the spread of A I D S, honour killings, etc.) brought to the attention of
learners. In addition, reliance on learners culture as the point of departure
for language teaching will make them critically aware and respectful of their
own culture and prevent the development of a sense of inferiority which
might result from a total reliance on the target language culture where only
the praiseworthy features of the culture are presented.
Include more of
students real-life
concerns
CP takes the local as its point of departure, and local here includes the
overall actual life experiences and needs of learners. Learners needs in CP
are defined not just linguistically or in terms of tasks, but in terms of the
purposes they serve in the social mobility and activism of students.
CP, in fact, would object to a blanket approach to syllabus design where all
students are assumed to have a common set of communicative goals. In CP
there is no separation between the communicative needs of learners and
who they are socially and politically, which means that what students are
taught will differ widely depending on their locale and linguistic, economic,
ethnic, as well as political affiliations. In other words, in a critically inspired
pedagogy, rural students needs are different from those of urban centres,
minorities have needs which diverge from those of the majority, and haves
and have-nots need different types of instructional material and approaches.
Commercially produced coursebooks, which form the backbone of
instruction in many mainstream language teaching contexts, lack the
required sensitivity to be able to address such concerns.
A problem of commercially produced coursebooks, in other words, is their
disregard for the localness of learning and learning needs. Most such books
make use of a language which is considered to be aspirational (Gray 2001),
where most of the language introduced deals with the needs and concerns
of middle and upper classes; in most of the dialogues of such books the
interlocutors talk about issues which are far removed from the lives of many
learners. While learners might have needs related to finding a part-time job,
extending their visa for another year or term, or negotiating their status as
a refugee (Baynham 2006), participants in coursebook dialogues worry
about where to spend their vacation, how people celebrate Mardi Gras, or
what to wear for a friends party. An example of how local concerns can be
incorporated in a typical English syllabus may clarify the issue further.
In Iran there are still regions that are contaminated by landmines; these
landmines are the leftovers of eight years of war with Iraq. Each year
hundreds of people get killed or are wounded by these landmines, and most
of the victims are children and adolescents. Irans Ministry of Education, in
280
Ramin Akbari
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012
collaboration with the Red Crescent Society, has decided to offer a special
crash course on landmines and safety measures needed in dealing with
them for students living in affected areas. This course is offered as an extra
to the curriculum and is not integrated in any subject area students study in
their regular programmes. From a CP perspective, it would have been
advisable and possible to include the landmine topic in the English lessons
or instruction students receive in their curriculum and in this way come up
with a content that is both relevant and transformative to the immediate
lives of the learners.
281
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012
psychological problems are dealt with, only cases with which the public is
fascinated (such as autism or idiot savants) are represented. Old people are
also left out of English coursebook contents, and if old age is mentioned, it is
not normally associated with disabilities, frequent hospital visits, and the
frustrations of losing ones strength.
The transformation of a society will be impossible unless trouble spots are
identified, space is provided for all citizens to make their voices heard, and
all members of the society come to the realization that there are multiple
perspectives on reality; by creating a sense of respect and tolerance the
first steps towards social change can be taken.
Conclusion
Ramin Akbari
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012
CP is about the relationship between the word and the world (Freire 1973), or
how the world of ideas in education relates to the world of reality in society.
In a sense, CP is about the messy, unpleasant aspects of social life and the
people for whom such aspects are part of their day-to-day reality. It is also the
pedagogy of hope and understanding, since without the possibility of
change and a willingness to change criticism does not make much sense.
Among other things, CP is about human dignity and respect. By basing
instruction on learners real-life worlds and identity, it provides a stable
reference point for the marginalized groups to legitimate their own
existence and claim what they are entitled to. It is, in a word, the true spirit of
a real democracy.
283
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Istanbul Bilgi University Library on January 27, 2012