225 that can help to replace, offset, or contest any pre-existing fatalistic, apathetic,
uncritical, self-interested, and apolitical dispositions. Additionally, I provide examples of classroom activities aimed at fostering these dispositions.
8.1 Critical and Progressive Pedagogy and Democracy
In this section, I will briefly review some of the central tenets and political objectives of the substantial literature on pedagogy concerned with fostering a
more critical citizenry and participatory democracy. Generally, this literature follows and builds on the classic works of Paolo Friere 1996 and John Dewey
1990. Both of these traditions and approaches differ from more conventional civics education by emphasizing the learning of democracy not just the teaching of
it. This conception holds that democracy should not be confined to simply voting officials into power, but rather as Biesta and Lawy 2006, p. 65 put it, democracy
should extend to “participation in the construction, maintenance, and transformation of all forms of social and political life”. I will start with the
Frierian 1996 tradition and approaches, then move on to Dewey 1990 and contemporary interpretations of his work. I end this section with a discussion of
some of the potential limitations of both of these that insights from the empirical
findings of my study may help to address.
Critical pedagogy as originally conceived of by Paolo Friere 1996 is based on the premise that schools and education systems are not politically neutral
institutions, but rather function as key political and ideological apparatuses that can help to foster either dominant and oppressive discourses and practices, or
more emancipatory and counter-hegemonic ones. Practitioners of critical pedagogy are concerned with the latter, and posit that education institutions should
be primarily concerned with helping students to develop a critical consciousness. This entails pedagogic practices aimed at helping students to develop the skills to
recognize authoritarian tendencies, unjust social practices, and to take action to correct oppressive institutional and individual practices in order to impact wider
and democratic social change. While there are many forms of critical pedagogy, they are all guided by the central assumption that liberation from oppressive social
settings can be brought about when people acquire a heightened and critical awareness of their social positioning, context, and history Biesta, 1998; Friere,
1996; McLaren, 1997. In practice, this assumption takes the form of what Friere
226 1970, p. 452 refers to as conscientization; viz.,
“the process in which men, not as recipients, but as knowing subjects, achieve a deepening awareness both of the
socio-cultural reality which shapes their lives and of their capacity to transform that reality
”. Drawing on the critical tradition of past theorists, like Karl Marx, Theodor
Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse, critical pedagogic approaches seek to demystify, decolonize, or otherwise make explicit dominant and oppressive discourses and
practices that are taken for granted. Initially, critical pedagogy focused on class and adult literacy issues Friere, 1996, however, contemporary forms of critical
pedagogy have incorporated wider issues of race, gender, space, place, and post- structuralist concerns over identity and multi-culturalism. For example,
Gruenwald 2003, p. 9 argues that most critical pedagogy theorizations have overlooked ecological concerns, and proposes a critical pedagogy of place that
seeks to, “a identify, recover, and create material spaces and places that teach us
how to live well in our total environments reinhabitation; and b identify and change ways of thinking that injure and exploit other people and places
decolonization ”. Other critical theorists like Giroux 2001 and Kellner 1998
concerned about the omnipresence of corporate mass media and its potential interpellating effects, propose a critical pedagogy of media-culture literacy,
technology, and leisure time that, as Kellner 1998, p. 104 puts it, “summons
educators, students, and citizens to rethink established curricula and teaching strategies to meet the challenge of empowering individuals to participate
democratically in our increasingly multicultural and technological society ”.
Nonetheless, despite their many incarnations and permutations, all critical pedagogies are, as
Biesta 1998, p. 499 argues, “in one way or another committed to the imperative of transforming the larger social order in the interest of justice,
equality, democracy, and human freedom ”.
Paralleling and overlapping critical pedagogy is work based on Dewey’s
1990 classic model of progressive education. Building on the classic Enlightenment ideals of reason and critique, and Rousseauian humanist notions of
community and child- centred approaches to education, Dewey’s 1990 model is
concerned with the development of essential cognitive, social, and vocational skills so pupils can grow to be self-reliant yet critical, conscientious, and
227 responsible citizens who can live in, and maintain, a decentralized democratic
society. I believe that the psychological and social sides are organically related
and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of one upon the other. We are told that the
psychological definition of education is barren and formal - that it gives us only the idea of a development of all the mental powers
without giving us any idea of the use to which these powers are put. On the other hand, it is urged that the social definition of education, as
getting adjusted to civilization, makes of it a forced and external process, and results in subordinating the freedom of the individual to a
preconceived social and political status Dewey, 1897, p. 77. How to best achieve this balance between nurturing individual abilities and
fostering community solidarity continues to be hotly debated by contemporary practitioners of Dewey’s progressive education model. However, these
practitioners tend to emphasize hands on experimental learning, co-operative educational activities, multi-age classrooms, and in depth conceptual, practical,
and contextual understanding of scientific, mathematical, and political knowledge Kohn, 2008; Wenglinsky, 2004. These pedagogic approaches are contrasted and
in direct opposition to the rote learning and behaviourist inspired pedagogies epitomized by contemporary neoliberal standards-based educational approaches
discussed in section 1.3 Ohanian, 2002. According to Dewey 2011, democracy and education go hand in hand, and
thus education settings must help students to develop their unique natural abilities, in addition to co-operative, empathetic, and tolerant dispositions that can facilitate
collective decision-making and problem-solving in and out of school. Hence, progressive education, like critical pedagogy, is an inherently democratic-socialist
political project, albeit not one based on Marxism. As Cohen et al., 2010, p. 76 note:
For Dewey, a democratic society was more than just the institution of government. It was a way of living together, of learning to
cooperatively agree and disagree non-violently, and of appreciating
228 and learning from diversity and of coming to support one another for
the good of the whole. While there is no universally accepted framework that encompasses the political
goals of progressive education as envisioned by Dewey 2011, the following comprehensive list of skills and dispositions identified by Cohen et al., 2010, p.
80, largely reflect those advocated by contemporary progressive educators.
Essential skills:
1. Learning to listen to ourselves and others.
2. Critical and reflective thinking abilities e.g. being able to think
about various points of view and goals; being able to understand, analyze and check the reliability of information about government;
being able to analyze instances of social injustice and decide when some action or nonviolent protest is justified; being able to analyze
how conditions in the community are connected to policy decisions.
3. Flexible problem solvingdecision making abilities e.g. the ability to
resolve conflicts in creative and non-violent ways; being able to build consensus; being able to reach an informed decision about a
candidate or conclusion about an issue.
4. Communicative abilities e.g. being able to participate in discussion;
learning to argue thoughtfully and directly for one’s position and use evidence in support of it; being able to articulate the meaning of
abstract concepts such as democracy and patriotism; being able to articulate the relationship between the common good and self-
interest and use these ideas in making decisions; being able to
express one’s opinion on a political or civic matter when contacting an elected official or a media outlet.
5. Collaborative capacities e.g. working together for a common goal;
learning to compromise; being able to participate in a respectful and informed discussion about an issue; being able to act in a group in a
way that includes others and communicates respect for their views; being able to envision a plan for action on community problems and
mobilize others to pursue it.
Essential dispositions:
6. Responsibility e.g. sense of personal responsibility at many levels
including obeying the law and voting; respect for human rights and willingness to search out and listen to others’ views; personal
commitment to others and their well-being, and to justice.
7. An appreciation that we are social creatures and need others to
survive and thrive, and an overlapping sense of social trust in the community.
8. Appreciation of and involvement with social justice e.g. a nation is
as strong as its weakest members; when certain groups are discriminated against it is not only unfair to them but, in the long run
undermines society; support for justice, equality and other
229
democratic values and procedures.
9. Service to others or an appreciation that it is an honour and a
pleasure to serve and help others.
10. Appreciation that – most of the time – others do the best they can
e.g. sense of realistic efficacy about citizen’ actions.
