Adopting the Critical Pedagogy Model in Teaching

Elaine R. Maninang

Renato Constantino's essay, The Miseducation of the Filipino, is bears resemblance to Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire’s works as both theorists draw attention to hierarchal systems of education in capitalist societies and how education itself is used as a tool by the dominant groups in oppression. Drawn from his personal experiences of colonization, Freire’s most influential work, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” describes a pedagogy that aims for self-liberation and empowerment of the oppressed.

Freire’s methodologies and views on education serve as foundations in the philosophies of contemporary education, especially within the leftist, progressive, and radical.

Education cannot be neutral. As written by Richard Shaull on the introduction to the book, “There’s no such thing as neutral education. Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or freedom.” We can draw from this the central belief in Freire’s works: Education is inherently political and revolutionary. Unlike other models of teaching, critical pedagogy is a political and moral practice, not a teaching method imposed on students nor political indoctrination. It is the process of enabling students to practice their democratic rights as civically-engaged citizens by equipping them with critical thinking, forged through dialogue, critical questioning, love for humanity, and praxis, the synthesis of critical reflection and action. As concluded by Giroux in his study, “Critical pedagogy forges an expanded notion of politics and agency through a language of skepticism and possibility, and a culture of openness, debate, and engagement.”

According to Freire, “literacy as a way of reading and changing the world had to be reconceived within a broader understanding of citizenship, democracy, and justice that was global and transnational” This meant adapting a pedagogy that develops a praxis that forefronts power relations analysis, social justice and addressing democratic struggles.

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The author is Teacher II- Pulong Santol High School, Porac, Pampanga