Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts

Nothing in this world is absolute. Let us have that soak into our brains for a bit. After reading Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts, I have been enlightened. My view of the world and the education system has changed just a bit. When I think of the world, I believe that everything is, for the most part, black and white. There are truths and there are untruths, there are answers to every question and traditions are always the best way to go about doing things. Well, that is not true. Society has a way of wanting to conform to one thing. The media, government, education system, etc. have a way of telling us how things are. If we do not conform or we do not meet the standards, we feel that we have failed. This should not be! Those who resist to conform to society should not be deemed wrong either.

In education, teachers have a set way of doing things, they have procedures put in place to smooth the transitions, deal with misbehavior and effectively teach. What may work for one teacher may not work for another. I see in the classroom I am placed in, my teacher has a way of dealing with student misbehavior and rewarding good students. After observing, I find that I want to use the same techniques because they work. This is not the only way of doing it though. Maybe this is how ideologies are formed. Something may work once, and it starts a waterfall effect. Generations keep doing the same thing because that is how the generation before it did. Once somebody tries to break tradition, people stand aghast! Standardized testing is one of these ideologies that will take forever to break; a standard that one must meet to be considered a successful student.

As I have continued in my schooling, my mind has been put to ease on the ideology that teachers are all knowing and students expect that from them. I have found that this idea is slowly fading and classrooms are becoming more democratic. Students and teachers play an equal role in the classroom. Veering away from this traditional idea, I believe, helps students to inquire for themselves, to test the limits of knowledge and truth and become valiant thinkers. That is my goal as a future teacher. I want to break this concept that there is absolute truth, that there is always an answer, it hinders learning.

It is my hope that we as individuals can act like individuals and decide for ourselves, without outside influences to determine what values and morals are; to look at society through new glasses. Try to live a life without prejudice or concrete standards influenced by society.