Advocating for a More Effective Critical Pedagogy by Examining Structural Obstacles to Critical Educational Reform

摘要

Since a major purpose of critical pedagogy is to change society by changing schools, critical pedagogy must gain an increased presence within K-12 schools. For this to happen, however, critical educators must begin to more fully recognize and appreciate the structural obstacles that schools present to critical educational change. This paper examines three of these obstacles: schools' nature as public institutions, the fact that schools change reform efforts, and the relationship between 'first-order' and 'second-order' change and the types of changes for which criticalists often advocate. The paper ends by encouraging a smaller, more practical critical pedagogy that is focused on tangible and meaningful effect.