Critical pedagogy may be defined as an approach to education which encourages students, first, to become conscious of the social oppressions or dominations around them (racism, sexism, etc.) and, second, to reflect on the actions which may be required to become free (emancipated) from those oppressions or dominations. Here are a couple of online videos: Critical Pedagogy and Why Critical Pedagogy?

In my on-campus classes, I combine lecture with class and small-group discussions. Emphases are placed on the social construction of groups and societies and on the deconstruction, or elimination, of political, economic, and social oppression. My classes are constructed to promote structured dialogue.

Foster, Mark A., Professor of Sociology at Johnson County Community College, owner of Mark A. Foster Services™ and Founding Director of The Structurization Institute™, The League to Fight Neurelitism™, and ASMÁ Learning Communities™.

... almost always, during the initial stage of the struggle, the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or “sub-oppressors.” The very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradictions of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped....

As the oppressors dehumanize others and violate their rights, they themselves also become dehumanized. As the oppressed, fighting to be human, take away the oppressors’ power to dominate and suppress, they restore to the oppressors the humanity they had lost in the exercise of oppression.

It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors. The latter, as an oppressive class, can free neither others nor themselves. It is therefore essential that the oppressed wage the struggle to resolve the contradiction in which they are caught; and the contradiction will be resolved by the appearance of the new man: neither oppressor nor oppressed, but man in the process of liberation.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Myra Bergman Ramos, translator (from Portugese). New York. Continuum Publishing Company. 2000.

Critical pedagogy is a political project that attempts to change the power structures of everyday life, especially in cultural institutions such as those in education and the media. These changes are brought about through critique, resistance, and struggle. It aims to enable people to avoid manipulation and to empower them. Critical pedagogy is closely linked with the history of cultural studies and its democratic idea of a “long revolution.”

Winter, Rainer, "Critical Pedagogy." Ritzer, George et al. (editors). Encyclopedia of Social Theory. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage Reference. 2004.

Although there is no static definition of "critical pedagogy," as the term has undergone many transformations as educators have deployed new strategies to confront changing social and historical contexts, the term has traditionally referred to educational theory and teaching and learning practices that are designed to raise learners' critical consciousness regarding oppressive social conditions. In addition to its focus on personal liberation through the development of critical consciousness, critical pedagogy also has a more collective political component, in that critical consciousness is positioned as the necessary first step of a larger collective political struggle to challenge and transform oppressive social conditions and to create a more egalitarian society. As such, critical educators attempt to disrupt the effects of oppressive regimes of power both in the classroom and in the larger society. Critical pedagogy is particularly concerned with reconfiguring the traditional student/teacher relationship, where the teacher is the active agent, the one who knows, and the students are the passive recipients of the teacher's knowledge (the "banking concept of education"). Instead, the classroom is envisioned as a site where new knowledge, grounded in the experiences of students and teachers alike, is produced through meaningful dialogue ....

Critical pedagogy has its roots in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, whose influence is evident in the emancipatory works of Paulo Freire, the most renowned critical educator. For Freire, liberatory education focuses on the development of critical consciousness, which enables learners to recognize connections between their individual problems and experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded. Coming to consciousness ("conscientization") is the necessary first step of "praxis," configured as an ongoing, reflective approach to taking action. Praxis involves engaging in a cycle of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory. Social transformation is the product of praxis at the collective level.

Voke, Heather, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." Civic Engagement and Education. Washington, D.C. Georgetown University. 2007. Retrieved on May 11, 2009. Or: "What is Critical Pedagogy?" Critical Pedagogy on the Web. n.d. Retrieved on May 11, 2009.

The critical pedagogy which I support and practice advocates non-violent dissent, the development of a philosophy of praxis guided by a Marxist humanism, the study of revolutionary social movements and thought, and the struggle for socialist democracy. It is opposed to liberal democracy, which only serves to facilitate the reproduction of capital. It advocates a multiracial and anti-imperialist social movement dedicated to opposing racism, capitalism (both in private property and state property forms), sexism, heterosexism, hierarchies based on social class, as well as other forms of oppression. It draws its inspiration from philosophers of revolutionary praxis such as Paulo Freire, Raya Dunayevskaya, and other philosophers, social theorists and political activists and supports all those who yearn and struggle for freedom. Critical pedagogy is opposed to both state terrorism and individual acts of terrorism. As Freire writes in The Pedagogy of Freedom, "Terrorism is the negation of what I call a universal human ethic." Critical pedagogy is driven by the engine of class struggle in both national and international arenas.

McLaren, Peter. Revolutionary Critical Pedagory. Retrieved on May 11, 2009.

The concept of pedagogy in its contemporary usage is a perspective that envisions effective teaching as a process rather than a set of discrete techniques. Congruent with CRT [Culturally Responsive Teaching], pedagogy as currently defined situates effective teaching more as two-way communication between teachers and students in contrast to the direct transmission of information to students by teachers. A teacher, then, practices approaches to teaching and learning that build relationships with and among students and focuses ultimately on how and to what extent students are learning. This definition of pedagogy mirrors research that finds achievement improves through active student participation in the learning process.

More specifically for CRT, critical pedagogy offers ways to look at teaching and learning that can bring to the forefront such concepts as ideology, hegemony, resistance, power, knowledge construction, class, cultural politics, and emancipatory actions. The underlying concepts of critical pedagogy are theorized as necessary for teachers and their students to understand seemingly intractable conditions of social and educational inequities. CRT uses a critical pedagogy philosophical orientation to differing degrees when conceiving and implementing curriculum and instruction.

Vavrus, Michael, "Culturally Responsive Teaching." Good, Thomas L. et al. (editors). 21st Century Education: A Reference Handbook. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage Reference. 2007.

Critical pedagogy began life in the works, thinking and pedagogic practice of Antonio Gramsci, supplemented with the works of key thinkers from the Frankfurt School, but especially those of Jürgen Habermas. It attained wider recognition in the writings and teachings of Brazilian radical educator and activist Paulo Freire. Specifically, Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972) laid the foundations for what became the American Critical Pedagogy School of the 1970s and onwards. The writings of Ivan Illich and the plays and radical drama theory of Augusto Boal were also importance elements for the development of critical pedagogy during the 1970s. Today, Critical Pedagogy in North America, whilst not mainstream, has spawned doctoral and Masters programmes and a plethora of web sites devoted to it.

Rikowski, Glenn, "Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society." Paper. September 14, 2007.

Critical pedagogy shares some considerable historical and contextual territory with critical theory. Critical theory concerns itself with issues related to the socialization of people for existence in society, usually a society defined by dominant discourses, and this is also the starting point for critical pedagogy....

As mentioned above, critical pedagogy has its roots in critical theory and the two share many common philosophies and approaches. Both critical theory and critical pedagogy are concerned with investigating institutional and societal practices with a view to resisting the imposition of dominant social norms and structures. Critical pedagogy is, however, distinct from critical theory in that it is primarily an educational response to oppressive power relations and inequalities existing in educational institutions. It focuses on issues related to opportunity, voice and dominant discourses of education and seeks more equitable and liberating educational experiences. In short, “in the language of critical pedagogy, the critical person is one who is empowered to seek justice, to seek emancipation” ...

Keesing-Styles, Linda, "The Relationship between Critical Pedagogy and Assessment in Teacher Education." Radical Pedagogy. 5:1. Spring 2003.

Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach which attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate. In other words, it is a theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness....

Most instructors encourage students who have reached the state where they are enlightened to share their knowledge in an attempt to reveal the failings of the society to foster positive change. Other critical pedagogues, however, are suspicious of the claims encountered in certain modernist emancipatory discourses. Rather than seeking to 'enlighten' the 'gullible,' these instructors explore concepts of identity, history, desire, etc. with learners, and any subsequent calls to action are made by learners.

"Critical Pedagogy." Wikiversity. October 23, 2008.

RADICAL TEACHER, founded in 1975, is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist journal dedicated to the theory and practice of teaching. It serves the community of educators who are working for democratic process, peace, and justice. The magazine examines the root causes of inequality and promotes progressive social change.

RADICAL TEACHER publishes articles on classroom practices and curriculum, as well as on educational issues related to gender and sexuality, disability, culture, globalization, privatization, race, class, and other similar topics....

Radical Teacher is published triannually by the University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Center for Critical Education, Inc., a nonprofit organization, and is listed in the Alternative Press Index, GenderWatch, and Alt-Press Watch databases.

"About Radical Teacher." Radical Teacher. Retrieved on June 6, 2009.

Freire's views regarding history and social change sprang from a clear theological foundation. A starting point for understanding the theological underpinnings of Freire's views on hope and utopia can be found in the Personalist philosophy of Emmanuel Mounier. Many of the themes found in Mounier's writings on the role of God in human history are also found in Freire. For instance, Mounier believed that the shape and destination of history are not predetermined, but rather are created byhuman beings workingas co-creators with God in the making of history. Central for Mounier is the idea that Christianity is a religion of Incarnation. The transcendent (God) is incarnated in the men and women who are living and working in history. Because of their particular orientation toward transcendent values, Christians seek to direct history in accordance with those Christian values, and are on the watch for any deviation from those values. For Mounier this striving was primarily a communal rather than individual endeavor, whereby the Christian community acts as a guard against religious subjectivism.

For Freire "Theology has to take its starting point from anthropology. ("Third World")." In this statement Freire reflects the Personalism of Mounier in that God's activity in history is first and foremost brought about through human beings. In a letter to a friend Freire articulated his views on God's role in history. He criticized those who assumed that God's involvement in history was a reason for an attitude of passive waiting. By contrast Freire believed that salvation (and liberation) has to be "achieved", that is one has to actively work for and pursue the justice one hopes for. To wait passively upon God to act in some transcendent way is to make oneself "an accomplice of injustice, of un-love, of the exploitation of men [sic] in the world" ("Third World").

The role of God in human history is further articulated in a brief essay entitled "Letter to a Theology Student" in which Freire outlines his theology of hope. He begins by stating that Christians cannot bring about change in people's lives without also addressing the conditions of the world in which they live. He writes, "it is idle to talk of changing man [sic] without changing also the concrete circumstances he lives in: transforming them will transform him too—not automatically, of course, but quite certainly."

... He put it this way,

"In the final analysis, the Word of God is inviting me to re-create the world, not for my brothers' domination, but for their liberation. I am not really able to hear that Word, then, unless I am fired up to live it fully. Listening to the Word of God does not mean acting like empty vessels waiting to be filled with that Word. The Word of God is not some content to be poured into us as if we were mere static recipients for it. And because it saves, that Word also liberates, but men [sic] have to accept it historically. They must make themselves subjects, agents of their salvation and liberation."

Thus, one can see that for Freire, truly hearing the Word of God moves one to actively work against oppression and for liberation.

Because working for liberation was at the heart of hearing the Word of God, Freire believed that only those who were oppressed could hear the Word of God and be energized by it. Those who were not oppressed needed to give uptheir privileged lifestyle and perspective and "steep themselves" in the lives of the oppressed. Freire called this repudiation of privilege an "Easter experience" and said that it involved "repudiating the power structures, the establishments that represent the world of domination. It means siding with the oppressed, with the condemned of the earth, in a posture of authentic love that cannot possibly straddle both camps" ("Third World")....

In Freire's view the only true role for the church is the prophetic role. The Prophetic Church rejects the otherworldliness and "halfway measures" of most established churches, and instead works for the social and spiritual liberation of oppressed people....

Schipani characterizes Freire as a "millenialist", by which he means that Freire saw revelation as an ongoing process with the goal of God's action being the ordering of a just society for all people. Freire did not look for God to act outside of or beyond historical circumstances, but solely within them....

The themes in Freire's views on human history are resonant with the theological themes expressed by the proponents of liberation theology. This resonance is not surprising when one recognizes his early relationship with religious leaders like Camilio Torres and Dom Helder Camara and his involvement in the Catholic Action movement. Furthermore, Freire's pedagogical methods were borrowed from Torres and subsequently influenced the methodology of some liberation theologians....

First, like Freire, the liberation theologians views are shaped by a personal involvement with the poor and oppressed in Latin America....

Second, like Freire, some liberation theologians find Marxism to be an effective tool for understanding the political and socioeconomic circumstances of the poor and oppressed....

Third, like Freire, the liberation theologians view the processes of liberation and salvation as deeply intertwined with one another....

Fourth, like Freire, the liberation theologians believe that the hope of history can be found in a utopian vision where there is freedom, justice and peace for the oppressed....

[One place] where Freire differs from the liberation theologians. Freire believed that God provides the vision and motivation, but ultimately liberation is completely an act of human achievement....

... it is clear that Freire and the proponents of liberation theology share a common commitment to the poor based on personal experience, as well as a theological orientation that views God as siding with the poor in a process of both social and spiritual liberation. Furthermore, both Freire and the liberation theologians see hope contained in a vision of the new society expressed in the concept of the Reign of God. At the same time Freire differs in his views on the roles God and human beings plays in the liberation process, as well as how vital the church's involvement is in God's purposes for the poor being achieved.

Boyd, Drick, "Pedagogy for the Reign of God: A Theological Perspective on the Educational Philosophy of Paulo Freire." Eastern University Working Papers. 2007.

During the 1970s, Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's text Pedagogy of the Oppressed impacted scholars across the globe in relation to unearthing what larger political and economic forces generate unjust practices that create oppression in various social contexts as well as how to use critical forms of pedagogies to help students and working-class peoples see what causes oppression in their lived worlds, in their communities, and across the globe, while simultaneously guiding them to individually and collectively tackle the unjust conditions and lived practices girding their oppressive social relationships. Arguably, Freire's work served as a springboard to modernize critical theory.

Scholars have devised new theories and conducted research specifically designed to gauge what economic, social, and political forces cause suffering and oppression in educational systems and in the wider society. Teachers and activists alike have also developed new forms of pedagogies aimed to guide students to reflect upon the totality of social reality, to struggle actively against oppression, and to dream collectively about a world without a hierarchy based on the social markers of race, class, gender, and sexuality....

Several scholars, such as Peter McLaren, Dave Hill, and Nathalia Jaramillo, believe critical theorists must retool their pedagogies and research designs to focus on how class exploitation is the key force behind growing hate, hostility, poverty, racism, and environmental degradation at today's historical juncture. They also have raised concerns and highlighted how corporatist practices and imperatives are flooding K-12 schools and institutions of higher education, so as to block critical theorists from conducting research and instituting pedagogies bent on bringing awareness of oppression along the axes of class, race, gender, and sexuality and how to promote global movements that support social and cultural transformation.

Porfilio, Brad J., "Critical Theory." Provenzo, Eugene F. (general editor). Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications. 2008.

[The Critical Pedagogy tradition] regards specific belief claims, not primarily as propositions to be assessed for their truth content, but as parts of systems of belief and action that have aggregate effects within the power structures of society. It asks first about these systems of belief and action, who benefits? The primary preoccupation of Critical Pedagogy is with social injustice and how to transform inequitable, undemocratic, or oppressive institutions and social relations....

The idea of Critical Pedagogy begins with the neo-Marxian literature on Critical Theory. The early Critical Theorists (most of whom were associated with the Frankfurt School) believed that Marxism had underemphasized the importance of cultural and media influences for the persistence of capitalism; that maintaining conditions of ideological hegemony were important for (in fact inseparable from) the legitimacy and smooth working of capitalist economic relations....

Critical Pedagogy represents, in a phrase, the reaction of progressive educators against such institutionalized functions. It is an effort to work within educational institutions and other media to raise questions about inequalities of power, about the false myths of opportunity and merit for many students, and about the way belief systems become internalized to the point where individuals and groups abandon the very aspiration to question or change their lot in life. Some of the authors mostly strongly associated with this tradition include Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, and Ira Shor. In the language of Critical Pedagogy, the critical person is one who is empowered to seek justice, to seek emancipation. Not only is the critical person adept at recognizing injustice but, for Critical Pedagogy, that person is also moved to change it. Here Critical Pedagogy wholeheartedly takes up Marx's Thesis XI on Feuerbach: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it" ....

The author who has articulated these concerns most strongly is Paulo Freire, writing originally within the specific context of promoting adult literacy within Latin American peasant communities, but whose work has taken on an increasingly international interest and appeal in the past three decades. For Freire, Critical Pedagogy is concerned with the development of conscienticizao, usually translated as "critical consciousness." Freedom, for Freire, begins with the recognition of a system of oppressive relations, and one’s own place in that system. The task of Critical Pedagogy is to bring members of an oppressed group to a critical consciousness of their situation as a beginning point of their liberatory praxis. Change in consciousness and concrete action are linked for Freire; the greatest single barrier against the prospect of liberation is an ingrained, fatalistic belief in the inevitability and necessity of an unjust status quo.

Burbules, Nicholas C. and Berk, Rupert, "Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy: Relations, Differences, and Limits." Published in Popkewitz, Thomas S. and Fendler, Lynn (editors). Critical Theories in Education. New York. Routledge. 1999.

Educators for Community Engagement is the only national organization committed to democratizing classrooms and communities through learning circles, service-learning, and critical dialogue.

ECE brings together college and university students, faculty, staff, and local community organizations to develop and implement creative strategies for teaching, learning, and social justice.

Educators for Community Engagement. Retrieved on July 7, 2009.

Educators for Community Engagement (ECE) is a 501c3 non-profit organization committed to fostering more democratic classrooms and communities through learning circles, service-learning, and critical dialogue. ECE brings together college and university students, faculty, staff, and local community organizations to develop and implement creative strategies for teaching, learning, and social justice. Formerly known as The Invisible College, Educators for Community Engagement is over 10 years old and has grown to a new level of maturity and gained a larger sense of purpose in recent years.

We are college and university faculty, students, staff and community partners who strive to integrate learning and service within the diverse communities in which we work and live. We approach our work in partnership and endeavor to be simultaneously teachers and learners. Critical pedagogies such as service-learning, democratic education, and community based research are central to our work. We seek to build a national community of educators and activists who are building local communities everyday through their efforts in and outside the classroom.

"Who We Are." Educators for Community Engagement. Retrieved on July 7, 2009.

Even though media education is a new and emerging field, there are already various types of media education serving different goals, from moral protection to technological literacy. In this paper, I stress the importance of creating and maintaining media education that focuses on social justice issues with the goal of creating a transformative education. A transformative education uses constructivist pedagogy in which students actively construct and reconstruct knowledge, thereby transforming meanings to arrive at new understandings and different ways of thinking. Beyond the constructivist notion of the creation of knowledge, transformative education also includes critical pedagogy to critique the social construction of ideas and reject the notion that knowledge is value free. Critical pedagogy brings the additional goal of transforming society in a liberating manner to become more democratic and less oppressive. This pedagogical approach is the opposite of transmissive or banking pedagogy, an unproblematic, ahistorical, positivist approach that tends to transmit dominant ideology and preserve the status quo. For media education to foster different ways of thinking necessary to transform society to become more just and democratic, it needs an openly critical focus that addresses issues of representation and human rights....

We are living in what Marshall McLuhan coined the global village and it is not enough to merely understand the media, students need to be empowered to critically negotiate meanings and engage the problems of misrepresentations and underrepresentations. Addressing issues of inequality in media representations can be a powerful starting place for problem-posing transformative education. Media literacy offers the tools and framework to help students deconstruct these injustices and express their own voices.

Share, Jeff, Transformative Media Education." Retrieved on July 7, 2009.

Critical pedagogy was heavily influenced by the works of Paulo Freire, arguably the most celebrated critical educator. According to his writings, Freire heavily endorses students’ ability to think critically about their education situation; this way of thinking allows them to "recognize connections between their individual problems and experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded." Realizing one’s consciousness ("conscientization") is a needed first step of "praxis," which is defined as the power and know-how to take action against oppression while stressing the importance of liberating education. "Praxis involves engaging in a cycle of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory. Social transformation is the product of praxis at the collective level."

Postmodern, anti-racist, feminist, postcolonial, and queer theories all play a role in further explaining Freire’s ideas of critical pedagogy, shifting its main focus on social class to include issues pertaining to religion, military identification, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and age. Many contemporary critical pedagogues have embraced postmodern, anti-essentialist perspectives of the individual, of language, and of power, "while at the same time retaining the Freirean emphasis on critique, disrupting oppressive regimes of power/knowledge, and social change."

"Critical Pedagogy." Wikipedia. Retrieved on July 7, 2009.

Although early critical pedagogy was shaped by a variety of philosophical strains--most notably Existentialism, Catholicism, and Marxism--the influence of the Frankfurt School, and the "critical theory" that emerged from it, clearly marks the work of the most renowned critical pedagogue, Paulo Freire, and continues to inform the work of many critical educators today.

Stevens, Christy. Critical Pedagogy on the Web. Website (Theories and Theorists page). Retrieved on July 15, 2009.

Henry Giroux, one of today's leading critical pedagogy scholars, was born on September 18, 1943, in Providence, R.I. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Maine, earned a Masters degree from Appalachian State University, and received his doctorate from Carnegie-Mellon University (1977)....

Although Giroux has appropriated some postmodern theoretical concepts, he has not abandoned modernist categories altogether, calling for a reconstruction of modern categories such as democracy, liberation, and social justice, rather than lamenting/celebrating their demise. His work is appealing to many educators because it both critiques modern theory, pedagogy, and politics as well as suggests new alternatives that draw upon both modern and postmodern insights. Rather than ignoring difference, as modernist theory tended to do, or valorizing the endless play of difference, which is characteristic of some postmodernist theory, Giroux affirms difference while simultaneously defending the necessity of finding ways to articulate shared goals and values.

Stevens, Christy. Critical Pedagogy on the Web. Website (Henry A. Giroux page). Retrieved on July 15, 2009.

Although there is no static definition of "critical pedagogy," as the term has undergone many transformations as educators have deployed new strategies to confront changing social and historical contexts, the term has traditionally referred to educational theory and teaching and learning practices that are designed to raise learners' critical consciousness regarding oppressive social conditions. In addition to its focus on personal liberation through the development of critical consciousness, critical pedagogy also has a more collective political component, in that critical consciousness is positioned as the necessary first step of a larger collective political struggle to challenge and transform oppressive social conditions and to create a more egalitarian society. As such, critical educators attempt to disrupt the effects of oppressive regimes of power both in the classroom and in the larger society. Critical pedagogy is particularly concerned with reconfiguring the traditional student/teacher relationship, where the teacher is the active agent, the one who knows, and the students are the passive recipients of the teacher's knowledge (the "banking concept of education"). Instead, the classroom is envisioned as a site where new knowledge, grounded in the experiences of students and teachers alike, is produced through meaningful dialogue (see dialogical method).

Critical pedagogy has its roots in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, whose influence is evident in the emancipatory works of Paulo Freire, the most renowned critical educator. For Freire, liberatory education focuses on the development of critical consciousness, which enables learners to recognize connections between their individual problems and experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded. Coming to consciousness ("conscientization") is the necessary first step of "praxis," configured as an ongoing, reflective approach to taking action. Praxis involves engaging in a cycle of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory. Social transformation is the product of praxis at the collective level.

Postmodern, feminist, anti-racist, postcolonial, and queer theories have all played a role in expanding and transforming Freirean critical pedagogy, shifting its predominant focus on class to include categories such as race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and age. In place of the Marxist metanarrative and essentialist categories upon which Freire's vision of liberatory education relies, many contemporary critical pedagogues have adopted more postmodern, anti-essentialist conceptions of identity, language, and power, while at the same time retaining the Freirean emphasis on critique, disrupting oppressive regimes of power/knowledge, and social change. Contemporary critical educators, such as Henry A. Giroux, Bell Hooks, and Peter McLaren, turn their critical gazes upon the impact of various issues, institutions, and social structures, including globalization, the mass media, and race relations, while also pointing out potentially productive sites of resistance and possibilities for change.

Stevens, Christy. Critical Pedagogy on the Web. Website (What is Critical Pedagogy? page). Retrieved on July 15, 2009.

Critical educators experience rage caused by the unjust circumstances that surround the educational experiences of the dispossessed (the poor, minorities, and other marginalized people). While being fully cognizant of the immense struggles to be faced to achieve the goal of social equity, they are committed to the notion that education can be a transformative process....

Critical educators "draw from their own personal biographies, struggles, and attempts to understand their own contradiction in the context of the contradictions of schooling and capitalism." (Torres, 1998)

Rage and Hope Website. Retrieved on July 15, 2009.

Freire’s pedagogy of literacy education involves not only reading the word, but also reading the world. This involves the development of critical consciousness (a process known in Portuguese as conscientização). The formation of critical consciousness allows people to question the nature of their historical and social situation—to read their world—with the goal of acting as subjects in the creation of a democratic society (which was new for Brazil at that time). For education, Freire implies a dialogic exchange between teachers and students, where both learn, both question, both reflect and both participate in meaning-making.

Concretely, this pedagogy begins with the teacher mingling among the community, asking questions of the people and gathering a list of words used in their daily lives. The teacher was to begin to understand the social reality of the people, and develop a list of generative words and themes which could lead to discussion in classes, or "cultural circles" (Gadotti 20). By making words (literacy) relevant to the lives of people, the process of conscientization could begin, in which the social construction of reality might be critically examined.

Bentley, Leslie, "A Brief Biography of Paulo Freire." Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed. Website. Retrieved on July 15, 2009.

The critical methods collective arranges conferences about the politics of knowledge production and supports critical research, guerilla publishing and radical teaching initiatives. We are a loose grouping of lecturers and students at South African universities, but our focus is on international as much as on South African issues.

The Critical Methods Collective. Website. Retrieved on July 15, 2009.