Critical pedagogy is a way of looking at teaching/learning that is inclusive. It attempts to reduce or eliminate the boundaries between the teacher and the taught. It pays attention to the exercise of power in the learning situation, and requires that the learners have the power and ability to question what it is thedy are being taught and why they are being taught it. I draws links between the structures and exercise of power in the wider world and in the classroom or learning environment.

 

The first major theoretician of Critical Pedagogy was the late Brazilian educator Paulo Freire,  whose book Pedagogy of the Oppressed has helped to transform tghe way we look at education.

 

The aim of critical pedagogy is the creation of a conscious and politically active populace, abled to exercise and participate fully in the processes of direct democracy. It eschews formulaic and rote learning, it abhors regimentation and the application of discipline (power) and it supports and promotes democracy in the classroom.