Samantha Post

March 7, 2017

Sociology of Education

Using Critical Pedagogy to Build a Better Narrative in Black Education

The Civil Rights Act was written in 1964, and it outlawed discrimination based on race,

sex, ethnicity and religion. However, today Black students (of all levels) on average record the

poorest academic performance of any major racial or ethnic group in the United States (Wilson

Quarterly). Recent studies show that only 7 percent of Black students performed at or above

proficient on the 12th grade math exam in 2015, compared with 32 percent of white students.

Finally, studies show that African American students are least likely, of all racial groups, to meet

ACT college readiness benchmarks.

Though racial discrimination was outlawed over half a century ago, the Black population

is still suffering from perpetuating racial inequality, particularly in the American education

system. Today, there are many activist groups that encourage building a better narrative for

Black education. Many of their ideas stem from the concepts of a Brazilian educator and

philosopher named Paulo Freire, who suggests that the traditional pedagogy used in today’s

education, which he refers to as banking education, reinforces oppression. In his book

“Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, Freire develops a pedagogy of education as a practice of freedom.

This essay intends to develop culturally relevant pedagogy, the importance of Black educators,

and the link between the points in Freire’s critical pedagogy and Black community action.

Banking Education

Pedagogy is defined as the “method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic

subject or theoretical concept”. In other words, pedagogy is the study of teaching. In the world

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today, most schools use the traditional pedagogical method which Freire defines as the

“banking” approach. Suggesting that students are considered as empty bank accounts, being

filled with deposits by the teacher, Freire claims that the “banking” method results in

dehumanization of both students and teachers, and stimulates oppressive attitudes and behaviors

in society.

In the banking education model, the primary goal of education is to familiarize people to

their oppressive conditions and positions in the world. Teachers do this by treating the students

as ignorant objects, and attempting to control students’ thinking and actions by removing them

from their historical, current and future contexts. Essentially, reality is taught to be fixed and

unchangeable. In the banking model, teachers assume that although the students are people in the

world, they reinforce that students are not connected to the world by lecturing about topics in

which the student has no connection. Thus, teachers’ words are empty and alienating, and

students are “filled like empty containers” and tested to see how much they can remember. The

final key point of the banking model of education is that teachers’ treat oppressed people as if

they are on the margins of healthy society. Essentially, the banking education model consists of

teachers giving students information that does not connect to the reality of the students’ lives,

and expecting the students to memorize and repeat that information. Freire theorizes that this

systematic type of education influences and reinforces systematic oppression by preventing

analytic thought and consciousness of the surrounding world.

Critical Pedagogy and Critical Consciousness

In response to the banking education model, Freire develops the ideas of education as a

practice of freedom, which is called critical pedagogy. The primary goal of this pedagogy is

something called critical consciousness, which is explained as achieving a deep understanding of

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the world, allowing for the observation and exposure of social, political and economic

oppression and taking action against these oppressive elements. It is the ability to question the

source of information and knowledge, and examine one’s current situation from a critical,

analytical perspective.

There are two components of critical consciousness: anti-oppressive thinking and anti-

oppressive action. Anti-oppressive thinking is described as a critical awareness of the systems of

privilege, and a deeper understanding of structural and internalized oppression. This is critical

because it leads to anti-oppressive action. Anti-oppressive action can occur at both individual and

community levels, and is where individuals use resources to minimize oppression in

communities through both personal development and community growth. This also requires

community participation through “action, empowerment, leadership, skills, resources,

understanding of community history, community power, and critical reflection” (Newark CCB).

These are goals that Freire believed essential for the self-liberation of oppressed communities,

thus teaching critical consciousness is a vital part of the process.

To help students gain critical consciousness, it is imperative that both the educators and

the students teach and learn from each other, and that their relationship is not hierarchical but co-

intentional. Students learn within their context, history, present dynamic and incomplete future

assuming that everyone and everything in the world is interrelated. In classrooms, students are

posed with problems that relate to their lives and they must creatively challenge these problems

which expands comprehension and understanding. Essentially, unlike the banking model of

education, students and educators have a co-intentional relationship where they are culturally

responsive, think critically, and analyze and connect with their current, past and future presence

in the global community.

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Critical Consciousness for Community Action

Today, in response to the perpetuating racial inequality in the United States’ education

system and the drastic gap in proficiency and graduation rates between whites and Blacks, there

are movements and organizations trying to understand what is wrong in the education system and

education community and how to fix it. However, these movements are receiving little

appreciation or recognition on a wider scale, leading to a negative narrative in Black

communities around Black education.

According to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), “education reform organizations

have largely minimized the perspectives and contributions of educators and communities of color

in their framing of educational excellence and innovation”. This means that not only are

educators and communities of color struggling to better their own communities’ education

system, but their efforts are failed to be recognized on a national scale. The perspectives and

contributions of educators and communities of color, however, are vital to consider in today’s

framing of educational reform. For example, there are programs for Black students in the USA

that focus on “teaching and learning, cultural competency, mentoring, parent partnerships,

college readiness and rigorous curriculum development” (UNCF). These points relate back to

Freire’s critical pedagogy, and his emphasis on cultural competency. Having dialogue in the

classroom that relates to present and future events and encourages analysis and critical thinking

about present situations is vital in Black and White communities. Without culturally relevant

education in White communities, for example, White students will lack the “deep understanding,

expertise and ties to minority communities” (UNCF). This lack of cultural understanding only

perpetuates racial inequality.

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 Freire emphasizes culturally competency as helping form anti-oppressive thinking, a

component of critical consciousness. In summary, innovative educational reform efforts must

engage the entire community – blacks and whites. Having authentic, culturally resonant

representation of current situations in education in all American communities is essential in

closing achievement and opportunity gaps.

Integrating Culture

As stated above, it is imperative that education is culturally responsive, relevant and

resonant. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a separate concept than critical pedagogy and was

developed by Gloria Ladson-Billings in the early 1990s, who defines it as pedagogy “that

empowers students to maintain cultural integrity while succeeding academically”. This concept

of culturally responsive pedagogy is important to consider as an in-depth component of critical

pedagogy because it emphasizes education in response to the diversity of culture, knowledge and

skills that each student possesses. Culturally responsive teaching includes multicultural content,

different forms of assessment, and nurturing academic, social, emotional, cultural psychological

and physiological wellbeing. In less words, culturally responsive pedagogy recognizes and

engages the diversity in knowledge and experience of both students and teachers and not only

focuses on academic intelligence but also emotional intelligence.

Culturally responsive pedagogy, like critical pedagogy, emphasizes the role of the

educator and the co-intentional, transformative relationship between the educator and the

student. Components of culturally relevant pedagogy include: validating and affirming the

strengths of students and their heritage; using “cultural resources to teach knowledge, skills,

values and attitudes”; adapting teaching to different classroom environments; liberating to

students and educators; empowering to students and educators by giving them the capacity to

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succeed in and beyond the classroom and; transformative to educators and their students. In

summary, the key aspects of this pedagogy are cultural diversity and the role of the educator in

using cultural diversity to liberate, empower and transform.

Many Black students view school as a place where their culture is not valued so they

cannot be themselves. However, methods such as substituting poetry for rap music that develop

cultural competence and critical consciousness have been successfully implemented in schools.

Educators have, instead of only using out of date and unrepresentative textbooks, critiqued the

information in the textbooks and compiled other articles and resources on the subject to teach

analytic and critical thinking as well as provide more representative information. Another

method in developing cultural competence is involving parents and community members in the

classroom. By having parents or community members share their skills, students learn more

about topics that are close to and significant in their culture. In bridging students’ home and

school lives, validating their cultures and affirming their race through culturally relevant

pedagogy, students’ critical consciousness and cultural competence is developed.

The Importance of the Educator

The role of the educator is key in all pedagogical theories, and is crucial in the process of

achieving racial equality and eliminating oppression in education. However, teachers are more

effective when they know their “students’ backgrounds, cultural rules for engagement and

diverse ways of expressing knowledge” (Mother Jones). In other words, teachers being able to

relate to their students and students being able to relate to their teachers can help foster the

comfortable learning environment for students and teachers to engage, which is emphasized in

both critical and culturally relevant pedagogy. However, some Black students complete their

educational career without having a teacher that shares their ethnicity or can identify with their

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cultural heritage. Having a teacher to which the students cannot relate can hinder the student-

teacher relationship that is heavily emphasized in Freire’s critical pedagogy. He stresses that the

relationship between the educator and the student should be reciprocal and co-intentional, where

they will teach and learn from each other within their contexts, history and present and future

dynamics.

Freire states that “teachers and student must co-intent on reality, both as subjects, not

only in the task of unveiling that reality and coming to know it critically, but in the task of re-

creating that knowledge”. In other words, both students and educators must have a shared

intention in discovering and critically examining their situations as oppressed people. According

to this philosophy, it is important that Black students are able to relate to their educators, and

sharing an ethnicity is a key factor in helping them do so.

However, according to a study done by the Albert Shanker Institute, the number of black

educators in urban school districts have dropped sharply – between 2001 and 2012, the number

of black teachers declined by 18.5 percent in Philadelphia, by 40 percent in Chicago and by 62

percent in New Orleans. The biggest reason that teachers of color cite for leaving schools is

“micromanagement and lack of autonomy in the classroom” (Mother Jones). In other words, the

retention of Black educators is dropping because they are restricted in their teaching material and

methods.

In addition, black teachers interviewed by Education Trust said that “the very ability to

manage a classroom meant they were then viewed primarily as disciplinarians and not as

educators” (The Atlantic). In other words, it was challenging for teachers to build a co-

intentional relationship and connect with their students because of the authoritarian mold in

which banking education puts them. This phenomenon clearly demonstrates the clash of banking

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education and critical pedagogy, and why the banking education model is not effective in

achieving racial equality. If educators were to have more autonomy to explore what teaching

methods would be most effective for their class based on cultural rules for engagement and

students’ backgrounds, they would be able to establish their co-intentional relationship with their

students instead of being stuck as a disciplinary, authoritarian teacher.

Conclusion

Education is the most crucial tool for the advancement of a society, but education must

also advance with a society. White students scoring at or above proficient 25 percent more than

Black students is not a question of intelligence, but a question of education. Though many

factors play a role in the perpetuating inequality in education, it is important to focus on what

goes on within the classroom and how students can be empowered and liberated from the

constraints in which American society has kept on the Black community for hundreds of years.

Black culture needs to be appreciated, taught and emphasized as a crucial part of American

culture and American history, Black education needs to be discussed at both a national and

community level and all educators need to be given the autonomy to utilize cultural tools that

they feel would be most effective for their students to be critically conscious of their position in

the world. The “banking” model of education is a traditional model, but American society is no

longer traditional – thus, the education needs to adapt with society in order to benefit the whole

of society.

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 Works Cited

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Brownstein, Janie Boschma and Ronald. "The Concentration of Poverty in American Schools."

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Coffey, Heather. "Culturally Relevant Teaching." Learn NC. Learn NC, 2008. Web. 07 May

2017.

"Critical Consciousness Theory." NCCB. Newark Community Collaborative Board, n.d. Web. 07

May 2017.

"Culturally Relevant Teaching." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 07 May

2017.

DeRuy, Emily. "The Burden of Being a Black Teacher." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,

07 Nov. 2016. Web. 07 May 2017.

Freire P. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: The Continuum Publishing Company;

2000:164.

Hsieh, Steven. "14 Disturbing Stats About Racial Inequality in American Public Schools." The

Nation. N.p., 29 June 2015. Web. 07 May 2017.

McWhorter, John H. "Explaining the Black Education Gap." Explaining the Black Education

Gap | Wilson Quarterly. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2017.

Rizga, Kristina. "Black Teachers Matter." Mother Jones. N.p., Sept. 2016. Web. 7 May 2017.