exploration of critical pedagogy

24 Aug 2020

You can find in my favorite books Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire, but I have only recently discovered his work. Nonetheless, I have been interested in education for a while now (I used to talk about it on Appprendre comme du monde), and this book sparked my interest again, and it did so toward a more specific field : critical pedagogy.

So here is just a little post to save some resources about it, authors and questions I would like to explore.

• I have only listened to Paolo Freire’s book, I also looked at this very well done synthesis, but I would like buy a copy of it to be able to re-read and annotate thoroughly.
• I want to borrow an introductory book on the subject of critical pedagogy to have a wider perspective on the subject and makes sure I don’t forget any important theory/consideration.
• I shall continue reading Tomorrow’s Childen : A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century by Riane Eisler and stay alert to find new scholars with similar ideas than hers.
• I would also like to investigate a “Pedagogy of Healing”, in a sense of how to teach in a way that heals, but also how to teach healing. My personal healing process has been shaped mostly by books, and the ideas I’ve found in them. I namely wonder how it would have been if I wasn’t a book nerd in the first place.
• I am now somewhat planning to start a Baccalauréat en éducation par cumul de certificats at l’UQAM next year, for which I would possibly do the Certificat en intervention éducative en milieu familial et communautaire, so I would also like to read about pedagogy/learning/teaching outside the school environment.
• I also want to leave here a nice text from Ouvrage, «La reproduction ne sera pas télédiffusée», which summarizes critically how the COVID-19 crisis was handled in Quebec. I think it puts brilliantly how the education is perceived by the Quebec’s governement, and highlights well the challenges we’ll have to face. I like how the author discussed the tension about technology within the education system.

As I am writing this, we are entering in Virgo season, which is also back to school season. I am looking forward all the headlines about everything going wrong in the reopening of schools among a pandemic.

EDIT 18/12/2020 : I think it’s worth adding another text to this list, also from Ouvrage, which is «Contre la romance de l’éducation». I thought it was mind blowing and I want to go back to it another day.