Critical Pedagogy - Be the change you want to see in the world

I have been following from afar the #ulearn17 conference in New Zealand last week. In particular, the keynote address of Dr. Ann Milne of Colouring in the white spaces: Cultural identity and community in white stream schools. This is in part because I am fascinated by how we see educational technology and 'future-focused learning' sitting in relation to equity in schools and communities. The articles of Benjamin Doxtdator and Karen Spencer have challenged the assumptions of which a majority of schools see how to prepare our learners for an uncertain future. 

They argue that the present obsession with 21st-century learning skills is a continuation of the hegemonic vision produced for and by the dominant capitalist neo-liberal paradigm to help maintain the social and economic status quo. This view suggests that the education system deliberately fails to take into consideration the values and beliefs of any other interpretation of the world. Young people who enter this type of system and don't conform to this vision are immediately seen as failures.

Moreover, the teaching of prescribed content in a national curriculum that instilled a culture of conformity has merely been replaced by a focus on 21st-century learning skills and 'future-focused learning' that still doesn't encourage students to think critically about the society in which they are a part of. Their contention is that 21st-century learning skills that focus on learners becoming effective team players and thinking creatively within a certain context are designed to allow the learners to fit within a world of multiple career changes and allow them to become comfortable with their expendability as employees. They further argue that this new obsession with skill-based learning still perpetuates the vision of a capitalist society where students compete for jobs based on skills rather than specific knowledge and still prevents social mobility and do not challenge the dominant culture.

Ann Milne argues we need to rethink success. The former principal argues that we as educators can't ignore the contexts, culture, histories, and meanings that students bring to their school. That we should not be focusing on increasing the success of a certain group of students be it poor, Maori, or African American, but increasing their success as students of a culture or socioeconomic background. Milne argues that all students need an education that prepares them with the knowledge of identifying the problems and conflicts unique to their identity and we as educators need to provide the skills to act on that knowledge so they can improve their communities. Now is the time for our schools to incite a desire in students to challenge the accepted social truths of the media and present education systems

Milne further argues that schools must develop a commitment to social justice that ignites bravery in young people to realize they have the power and opportunity to challenge the status quo. Educators have a duty to promote learning that encourages students to question rather than create yet again more competitors in a capitalist paradigm of winners and losers. 

So what would this look like in a classroom and where does educational technology fit in? We as educators need to create an environment where there are freedom and encouragement for students to determine and discover who they are and to understand that they should not be defined by the system, but the system should be defined by them. So what is this pedagogy where each school should be one of freedom that provokes students to fight against power and enforce equality for themselves and their communities?

Critical pedagogy is one approach to go towards achieving this. The philosophy was first described by Paulo Freire and has since been developed by the likes of Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, and Roger Simon. Critical pedagogy enables young people to develop a social awareness of freedom. This is where the true power of technology lies This pedagogy connects classroom learning with the experiences, histories, and resources that every student brings to their school and connects students globally to activate change on a worldwide scale. Through local and global collaborations students find they are worthy to contribute to change and their identity is a resource. Technology allows students to understand that with knowledge comes power; the power that can enable young people to do something different in their moment in time and take positive and constructive action for change

I see two main limitations to critical pedagogy, the first is the ideology of the teacher is of central importance and so critical pedagogy cannot be reduced to a method or technique. Therefore, teachers need guidance when translating this pedagogy into practice. The second limitation is that most literature only focuses on class creating its own bias. One needs to be careful not to marginalize other axes of oppression.

An embryonic example of technology in conjunction with critical pedagogy is the climate action project where 250 schools over 69 countries collaborate on climate change topics. Students from across six different continents conduct research, brainstorm and discuss ideas, present and share their findings of these topics from their perspectives - they are telling their stories. During the final week of the project, all participants have the opportunity to Skype with each other to establish personal and meaningful connections with their global peers. Together, the project desires to create a greater understanding of the importance of allowing action against climate change and the local level pertinent to the community on which the students are based.

Education has the power to change social inequality by nurturing a generation with an educated mistrust of everything before. This educational stance is one that we must all strive for as the moral purpose of education, with technology as a tool to bring about this approach.