Practicing Critical Pedagogy: A Review of Critical Pedagogy in Social Studies Classrooms

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Enacting Social Studies Education

Abstract

Critical pedagogy focuses on engaging students for liberation, developing a critical consciousness, and questioning dominant systems of power. As such, it has holds the possibility of helping to develop a more just social order. However, critical pedagogy has been criticized for being too theoretical (focused on the macro) and not focusing on implementation in the classroom (the micro level). This review focuses on the use of critical pedagogy in middle & high school social studies/history classrooms & teaching. In the course of reviewing the literature, a four-fold organizational framework is developed to understand how critical pedagogy is enacted in social studies classrooms.

Author

• Jeremy Alexander, Boston College