What gives life to radical pedagogies?

McElearney, Paula

Abstract

Critical pedagogy in the UK has traditionally been practised in the Lifelong Learning sector. However, the sector has become constrained by funding cuts, instrumental curricula and accountability measures, and teachers can feel that they have little room for professional autonomy and therefore the practice of critical pedagogy. Yet some do continue to do practice, often in relatively isolated circumstances, by working within the system but drawing upon their personal and professional identities.
This session emerges from the early stages of a PhD study, examining what inspires, motivates and sustains practitioners of critical pedagogy in the face of constraints, the teaching strategies they consider to be successful, and how these stories could be harnessed and mobilised to enable critical pedagogy to flourish. These stories are being elicited through in depth, semi structured interviews with practitioners across the sector. The research uses a ‘positive lens’ approach, drawing on the philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), which has demonstrated that the nature of the questions we ask and the stories we tell, determine the direction of our future actions; when we relay stories of inspiration and success in our work, we draw upon and develop these further in the direction of positive change (Cooperrider and White, 2005). This contrasts with the documented difficulties of using critical pedagogy in the current educational climate.
This session will use AI to facilitate participants in discovering the essence of what ‘gives life’ to critical and/or radical pedagogies in their work. In pairs, participants will share their stories of inspiration and success in using such pedagogies, and then convene as a group to distil these stories into messages of light and hope for others wishing to use critical and/or radical pedagogies in their work.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: Radical Pedagogies: A Humanities Teaching Forum
• Start Date: Jan 11, 2018
• End Date: Jan 12, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jul 1, 2022
• Keywords: critical pedagogy; pedagogy
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9418191
• Publisher URL: https://cti.westminster.ac.uk/call-for-contributions-radical-pedagogies-a-humanities-teaching-forum/