Blogpost 4- Critical Pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy: A look at the Major Concepts

Peter McLaren

Factual Question: What does dialectical mean?

 Of, relating to, or in accordance with dialect. A method of examining and discussing opposing ideas in order to find the truth

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dialectical

Evaluation Statement:

Critical thinking is a very important part in education that I believe develops and grows over time. It is a skill that gets develops as one grows and is more educated in different studies. Dialectical thinking involves looking at the contradictions. If we weren’t trained to think critically we would be robots believing everything a superior told us. I believe we are born with curiosity and natural instincts to explore. I think that the dynamics between contradictory states of affair are interesting. The complements of the elements of contradictions are dynamic in the sense that there is tension between the two different poles. New contradictions are equivalent to the new ideas that can be developed and achieved.

Macro objectives are designed so students make connections between the methods, content, and structure of a course and its significance with the bigger picture of the larger social reality. Oppositely the micro objectives represents students course contents being characterized by their narrowness of purpose to the content bound inquiry. It is said that when one develops macro objectives they foster a dialectal model of inquiry. The learning process consists of the development of social and political applications of knowledge, which is what Giroux calls directive knowledge. It is important for critical theorists to educate students on the social function of particular forms of knowledge. “The purpose of dialectical educational theory is to provide students with a model that permits them to examine the underlying political, social, and economical foundations of the larger society.”

It is important to recognize in the critical pedagogy that school knowledge has historically and socially be rooted as interest. The knowledge we gain in school is ordered and structured in different ways. Knowledge can be seen as socially constructed by the products of agreement or consent between individuals who live out particular social relations and who live in particular junctions at that point in time. Since the social world is such a generation constructed part of our society that we are living in and apart of, it is important to be knowledgeable of the influence we have upon it. Critical pedagogy asks how our everyday commonsense constructs our social subjectivities that get produced and lived out. A key point in this understanding is that the social functions of knowledge have different forms of power and legitimacy between each other.

Knowledge is so important and diverse that there are different forms of knowledge. There is technical knowledge, practical knowledge, and emancipatory knowledge, according to the article. Technical knowledge is knowledge that can be measured and quantified. Practical knowledge is generally acquired through describing and analyzing social situations historically or developmentally, and is geared toward helping individuals understand social events that are ongoing and situational. Emancipatory knowledge is the attempt to reconcile and transcend the opposition between technical and practical knowledge.

Lastly, it is important to understand culture when understanding the critical pedagogy. Culture signifies the particular ways in which a social group lives out and makes sense of its circumstances and conditions of life.

Interpretive Question:

When the author says that a dialectical understanding of school permits us to see schools as sites of both domination and liberation, does he mean we go under this control of education so we can be set free after we receive our education? This is very plausible but some believe that we never stop learning and being educated. Maybe after we are free from institutional educated domination is when we are liberated. The author of the article also elaborates on how this dialectical understanding of schooling also brushes against the grain of mainstream educational theory, which conceives of school as mainly providing students with the skills and attitudes necessary for becoming patriotic, industrious, and responsible citizens.