Critical Pedagogy for Social Justice

193 Pages·1.305 MB·English

by  John Smyth

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
Critical Pedagogy Today Series
Critical Pedagogy Today provides a range of incisive overviews and
applications of Critical Pedagogy across fi elds and disciplines. Building
on the work of Paulo Freire, the series reinvigorates his legacy and pro-
vides educators with an array of tools for questioning contemporary
practices and forging new pedagogical methods.
Series editors
Shirley R. Steinberg i s the Director and Project Leader of the Paulo
and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy at McGill
University.
Ana Maria “Nita” Araujo Freire was Paulo Freire’s partner. She taught
History of Education in Brazil in colleges and universities in the city of
Sao Paulo for many years.
Titles in the Series
On Critical Pedagogy
Henry A. Giroux
2011
Forthcoming:
Rethinking Citizenship: A Theory and Practice of Contemporary
Critical Education
Kevin D. Vinson & E. Wayne Ross
2012
Pedagogy of Beauty
Antonia Darder
2012
Critical Pedagogy and Marxism
Peter McLaren
2012
Echoes from Freire for a Critically Engaged Pedagogy
Peter Mayo
2013
Narrative, Learning and Critical Pedagogy
Scherto Gill & Ivor Goodson
2013
CRITICAL
PEDAGOGY FOR
SOCIAL JUSTICE
JOHN SMYTH
A Series in Celebration of Paula Freire and Joe L. Kincheloe
2011
Continuum International Publishing Group
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The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
www.continuumbooks.com
© John Smyth 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
permission of the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
EISBN: 978-1-4411-0259-1
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgements ................................................................................vi
List of Figures ......................................................................................viii
Chapter 1 C ritical Hope That Aims to Counter ‘the Crippling
Fatalism of Neoliberalism’ ...............................................1
Chapter 2 Teachers-as-Intellectuals in Neoliberal Times .............13
Chapter 3 Students-as-Activists in Their Own Learning ..............55
Chapter 4 Critically Engaged ‘Community Capacity Building’
That ‘Speaks Back’ to Social Exclusion ......................105
Chapter 5 Continuing the Struggle . . . Pursuing the
Light on the Hill through a Conversation with
Joe Kincheloe ................................................................143
References ...........................................................................................148
Author Index .......................................................................................167
Subject Index .......................................................................................170
v
Acknowledgements
W riting is never, for me at least, a process of working totally
in isolation or with a ‘clean slate’, and this book is particularly
illustrative of that. Many of the ideas have come out of extensive
conversations with my close colleagues Peter McInerney, Barry
Down, Lawrence Angus and Tim Harrison, and in an earlier
piece, Lyn Fasoli. Joe Kincheloe and Shirley Steinberg, as always,
were around my very fi rst piece with Peter Lang Publishing, as
was Chris Myers. I am deeply indebted to all of them.
T he University of Ballarat, while one of the smallest universi-
ties in Australia, has been enormously supportive in providing me
with the space to bring this work into existence – and in this I
especially salute my supportive, long-time colleague, and Head of
School, Lawrence Angus.
Chapter 2: Parts of the this were fi rst published by me as Critical
Politics of Teachers’ Work: An Australian Perspective, pp. 197–206,
2001, reproduced courtesy of Peter Lang Publishing, New York;
and ‘Critical teaching as the counter-hegemony to neo-liberalism’,
in S. Macrine, P. McLaren and D. Hill (eds), R evolutionizing
Pedagogy, pp. 187–209, 2010, reproduced courtesy of Palgrave
Macmillan.
C hapter 3: Parts of this were fi rst published by me as ‘When stu-
dents have power’, I nternational Journal of Leadership in Education,
9( 4), 2006, pp. 285–98, reproduced courtesy of Routledge, Taylor
and Francis; and ‘Climbing over the rocks in the road: the case of
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Mango High School’ (with Fasoli), Educational Research, 49 (3),
2007, pp. 273–95, reproduced courtesy of Routledge, Taylor and
Francis.
C hapter 4: Parts of this were fi rst published by me as ‘Schools
and communities put at a disadvantage: relational power, resis-
tance, boundary work and capacity building in educational iden-
tity formation, J ournal of Learning Communities: International
Journal of Learning in Social Contexts , 3 , 2006, pp. 14–19, repro-
duced with acknowledgement to Charles Darwin University; and
‘Critically engaged community capacity building and the com-
munity organizing approach to disadvantaged schools’, Critical
Studies in Education, 50( 1), 2009, pp. 10–19, reproduced cour-
tesy of Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Parts of the professional
development module W hat to look for in Genuine Community
Engagement – a Toolkit , (with acknowledgments to my co-authors
McInerney and Harrison) are also drawn upon here with grateful
acknowledgement to the Victorian Department of Education and
Early Childhood Services, the Department of Human Services,
and members of the Wendouree West community.
I am also extremely grateful to the Australian Research Council,
who have consistently and generously funded my research since
1992 and for the entire period covered by the essays in this book.
N o one deserves more commendation for creating the circum-
stances in which this book was possible than Solvegia – she has
been a part of the entire journey, working cheerfully and provid-
ing incredible support to this and all my work. I express my love
and affection to her for everything!
vii
List of Figures
Figure 3.1 Learner-Centred Policy Constellation .................................75
Figure 4.1 Community-Centred Action Research ...............................137
Figure 5.1 An Evolving Criticality .......................................................146
viii
CHAPTER 1
Critical Hope That
Aims to Counter ‘the Crippling
Fatalism of Neoliberalism’
OPENING EXPLANATORY COMMENT
We need critical hope the way a fi sh needs unpolluted water.
—Freire, 1996 ,Pedagogy of Hope
I have chosen to preface this collection of largely reworked essays
and papers of mine by trying to get to the essence of Paulo Freire’s
incredible lifetime project of critical pedagogy, but to do this in
a way that brings my own somewhat realistic, while at the same
time critical, infl ection to it. In doing this, I am deeply indebted to
Darren Webb (2010) for his most insightful account, that inspired
me to pursue Paulo’s quest around the ‘need for a kind of educated
hope’.
The intent in my opening comments in this overarching piece is
to dip into, but only slightly, some of what Webb (2010) has drawn
attention to around what Paulo Freire, in A Pedagogy of Freedom ,
termed ‘critical hope’ (Freire, 1998, p. 70). Before I go into more
detail on this crucial idea, I should say something about my wider
reason for doing this. My purpose is to provide some kind of intel-
lectual and philosophical scaffolding with which to gain a wider
understanding of, while also advancing, a bundle of ideas I have
been worrying and interrogating for quite some time.
1