Critical Pedagogy Primer

The second edition of the Critical Pedagogy Primer not only introduces the topic but also provides a vision for the future of the critical pedagogy. Kincheloe's notion of an evolving criticality makes sure that critical pedagogy will continue to be a vibrant and creative force that makes a powerful difference in education and in the world in general. As it prepares readers for the challenges of the future, it focuses on the traditions and individuals who have helped construct the discipline. This attention to the past and the future provides readers with an introduction unlike most initiations into academic disciplines. In a richly textured but direct manner, Kincheloe captures the spirit of critical pedagogy in a language accessible to diverse audiences. Both the uninitiated and those with experience in critical pedagogy can learn from this unique and compelling perspective on the field.

The Critical Pedagogy Primer provides a short, smart, and innovative introduction to this topic. Focusing on the traditions that helped create critical pedagogy, this primer concentrates on what the author calls an «evolving criticality». This refers both to the constantly changing and evolving nature of critical pedagogy, and to the need to keep the field on the cutting edge of scholarly innovation. These concerns are presented in a language that is designed for both uninitiated and sophisticated readers. The Critical Pedagogy Primer includes a glossary and a description of leading figures in the field of critical pedagogy. Anyone learning about critical pedagogy must read this book - it should be an assigned text at every school of education.

In a globalized neo-colonial world an insidious and often debilitating crisis of knowledge not only continues to undermine the quality of research produced by scholars but to also perpetuate a neo-colonial and oppressive socio-cultural, political economic, and educational system. The lack of attention such issues receive in pedagogical institutions around the world undermines the value of education and its role as a force of social justice. In this context these knowledge issues become a central concern of critical pedagogy. As a mode of education that is dedicated to a rigorous form of knowledge work, teachers and students as knowledge producers, anti-oppressive educational and social practices, and diverse perspectives from multiple social locations, critical pedagogy views dominant knowledge policies as a direct assault on its goals. Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction takes scholars through a critical review of the issues facing researchers and educators in the last years of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Refusing to assume the reader’s familiarity with such issues but concurrently rebuffing the tendency to dumb down such complex issues, the book serves as an excellent introduction to one of the most important and complicated issues of our time.

The Critical Constructivism Primer introduces education students to the study of knowledge; how it is inscribed by particular values and produced in problematic ways; whose interests it serves; and how it shapes the identities of those who consume it. Critical constructivism is an epistemological position that examines the process by which knowledge is socially constructed. Joe L. Kincheloe takes readers through the basic concepts and alerts them to the dangers of objectivism, reductionism, and the pathological views of self and world that emerge if students and educators are unaware of the construction of knowledge by dominant power interests. The book is essential reading for individuals who want to become researchers and educators.

There has been an explosion of Web-based courses in higher education. Aiming at an interdisciplinary audience, the contributors draw upon diverse philosophical and empirical backgrounds to make claims about Web-based pedagogy. Among the points they raise is the concern that education is more easily commodified through Internet technologies, implying that traditional faculty roles in teaching (and research) are at risk. Moreover, current understandings of what it means to be a teacher or a student are undergoing redefinition as a result of these new distance-learning technologies. The contributors note that Web-based pedagogy is associated with sound instruction when particular strategies are adopted. As a corollary, this form of teaching is least effective when attempts are made to directly translate traditional styles of teaching. Political, social, and economic interests are competing to shape the direction that online education will take. The authors argue that opportunities exist for administrators and faculty to define the terms under which Web-based learning will occur in their institutions.

The author questions commonly understood binaries in understanding gender, identity, sexuality, and education in order to forge new areas of theorizing the politics of self and other while destabilizing established power hierarchies. The book concludes with a discussion of feminist pedagogy and activism, stressing the significance of analyzing pedagogy and working to create more open feminist and democratic spaces for learning."--Jacket.

The Pedagogy Primer raises questions and provides explanations that are central to the study and practice of teaching. Most educational research and policy, and even teaching practice, fails to recognize the complexities of pedagogy. This primer unearths the various histories, structures, and narratives that undergird teaching in U.S. schools. Modern teaching practice is revealed to be an uncritical historical layering of irreconcilable worldviews, intermixed with a craft or guild perspective, and undermined by cultural and political ideologies that promote one perspective at the expense of others. Understanding pedagogy requires sorting out these conflicting worldviews embedded in educational policy, research, and practice. Professionalism requires developing a personal schema for balancing the values of each worldview. This primer investigates the socio-cultural context and aims of teaching, pedagogical content knowledge, uses of disciplinary knowledge, and the epistemology and language of teaching. Aimed at new as well as experienced teachers, and innovative researchers and policymakers, the Pedagogy Primer is essential reading for those who study teaching and learning and those who engage in the profession of teaching.

Our educational system is in turmoil. Many would argue that it has been assaulted and oversimplified by the right. There is growing concern that we are becoming a liberal nation-state with an increasingly anti-liberal population and an electorate that is disinterested in politics. In this globalized world, the power of capital is so great that opposition to it is often discouraged and disheartened, leaving many citizens few political precepts by which to consider their institutions. This contemporary failure of vision has opened the way for the unimpeded return of the philosophy of the free market. As a result, social and educational policies are debated almost solely in terms of how they fit with the needs of the market. Social and ethical understandings are replaced by a failed economic theory that requires a radical constraint of our political and economic choices. Compassion for the poor, the market lets us know, is wrong-headed because any interference with the labor market will always result in unfortunate economic and social consequences. Moral issues are eclipsed by market needs. In Critical Pedagogy: Where Are We Now? the contributors discuss how the field of critical pedagogy should respond to such dire conditions in a way that is theoretically savvy and visionary, while concurrently contributing to the struggle to improve the lives of those most hurt by them. Critical Pedagogy is essential reading for every classroom teacher and pre-service teacher. It is also a valuable tool for use in undergraduate and graduate-level classrooms.