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The Socially Just School pp 93–110Cite as

Socially Critical Pedagogy of Teaching

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Part of the book series: Explorations of Educational Purpose ((EXEP,volume 29))

Abstract

This chapter commences by addressing the corrosive and damaging effects of neoliberal and neoconservative policies and practices (marketisation, competition, managerialism, performativity, standardization, testing, prescribed curriculum and so on) on teaching. This chapter speaks back to centralized, top-down, policing-oriented, demeaning views of teaching by presenting instead a teacher-driven, grassroots, bottom-up, democratic orientation that says that what is currently occurring in schools doesn’t work. There are three parts to the chapter. First, there is an unsettling of transmission models of reaching explaining why this is a problem for students and teachers. Second, there is an identification of some key elements informing a socially critical pedagogy of teaching including the Freirian notions of problem-posing education, conscientization and praxis. Thirdly, there is a provision of some examples of what critical teaching looks like in practice. The chapter concludes by making some suggestions about the way forward for classroom practitioners.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

    John Smyth & Peter McInerney

  2. Murdoch University, Rockingham, Western Australia, Australia

    Barry Down

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  1. John Smyth
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Smyth, J., Down, B., McInerney, P. (2014). Socially Critical Pedagogy of Teaching. In: The Socially Just School. Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9060-4_5

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