What Makes Pedagogy “Critical,” Anyhow? Translating Social Theory Into Practice in Urban Learning Contexts

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session highlights research that applies critical pedagogy and accompanying social theories (critical literacy, critical race theory, critical civics) to the urban classroom context in order to facilitate the empowerment of students of color. Through focusing on praxis, this panel pushes classroom practice and social theorizing in new directions that directly benefit educators and students in urban public schools and contribute to a more complex understanding of how race, class, gender, and immigration status influence learning. By providing case studies of curricular interventions, the papers in this session seek to privilege teacher and student voices and use them to push the conversation between theorists, researchers, and educators forward in the service of students often marginalized by the public education system.

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Section 2: Globalization, Decolonization, and Liberation

Chair

• Nicole Mirra, University of California - Los Angeles

Papers

• Toward an Unapologetic Pedagogy of Race: A Critical Race Pedagogy Framework for K-12 Teaching - Antonio Nieves Martinez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Crafting Resistance and Agency Through Youth Participatory Action Research: A Critical Analysis of the Pedagogy of Urban Youth - Mark Bautista, The University of Texas - Arlington; Melanie Bertrand, University of Southern California

• Literacy as Social Movement: Critical Civic Pedagogy in Urban High School English Classrooms - Nicole Mirra, University of California - Los Angeles

• Critical Play or Digital Distraction? Mobile Media, Critical Pedagogy, and the “New Culture of Learning” - Antero Garcia, Colorado State University

Discussant

• Ernest D. Morrell, Teachers College, Columbia University