ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT

OF

ANATOMY

PEDAGOGY COURSE STUDENT PROJECT

WRITING SCHOLARLY PAPER

ON

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

BY:

MANKELKLOT KASAHUN DEPESO

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................. III
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1
HISTORY OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY ..................................................................................................... 2
BANKING CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION ........................................................................................... 3
CRITICAL PEDAGOGY ............................................................................................................................. 4
WHY CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IS IMPORTANT ...................................................................................... 5
IMPLICATION OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY ............................................................................................ 6
Dialogical Method .................................................................................................................................... 6
Connecting Learning with Real Life Situations ........................................................................................ 7
Engaging Students with Out-of-Book Activities ...................................................................................... 7
Hands-on-Study Activities ........................................................................................................................ 8
Problem-Solving Strategy ......................................................................................................................... 8
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 9
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 10

II
ABSTRACT
One of the most significant goals of teaching is to promote the critical thinking capability of
students and thus, to create good citizens for a just society. Classroom teaching must also awaken
the values of justice and equality in student minds. Critical pedagogy is a vital teaching strategy,
one designed to strengthen the awareness of learners about justice and social equality, while
improving their knowledge. Teachers today are busy in the classroom; they prepare the student for
high stakes testing and, in the process, work to save the school from closing. As a result, teaching
is most often test-oriented rather than knowledge-centered. This paper suggests that teachers
should employ critical pedagogy in the class room to prepare students to gain critical thinking and
contribute to a just society.

Keywords: critical pedagogy, banking concept of education, classroom teaching.

III
INTRODUCTION
The creation of information and the development of students' critical thinking skills are essential
components of modern educational conceptions. In the twenty-first century, school administrators
frequently use a variety of stressful assessments to measure both student progress and teacher
efficacy. Because of this, a lot of teachers are preoccupied with getting their students ready for
these tests, which will also allow the school to stay open, rather than genuinely involving them in
the learning process.

Teachers frequently search for methods to use in the classroom to assist students in receiving high
marks, rather than just improving their critical thinking skills, adhering to norms and values, or
enacting general positive behavioral change. However, studying for these high-stakes exams isn't
helping many students get high marks, and it's not raising their critical awareness either.

Memorization is the main tactic used in preparing for high stakes testing, which is similar to (P.
Freire, 2020) Banking Concept of Education, which is teacher-centered instruction. In an effort to
reverse the trend of knowledge transmission, Freire and numerous other academics (such as Dewey
and Gramsci) promoted the creation of knowledge through a variety of learner-centered activities
like dialogue and problem-posing. These learner-centered techniques were called "Critical
Pedagogy" by Freire.

This paper reviews Freire's critical pedagogy, examining its history, definition, and its implication.
It also reveals about the banking conception of education and provides examples of Freire's
classroom strategies used by teachers.

1
HISTORY OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
While fascism and Stalinism ruled Europe in the middle of the 20th century, the critical thinking
movement in education got its beginnings there. The main forces behind the growth of the critical
thinking movement in education were the government's dominance over the economy, the absence
of social equality, the existence of social and cultural hegemony, the significance of labor
movements, and the abundance of governmental power used in a dictatorial manner.

The Frankfort School gave rise to critical thinking, which was associated with academic worries
on ideology and educational standards. (Mahmoudi et al., 2014) assert that the founders of the
Critical Theory movements were Habermas, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Gramsci.

Understanding how individuals, groups, and society are oppressed is the main goal of critical
theory. These oppressions may be brought about by outside forces or may be self-imposed. Critical
thinkers critiqued a wide range of social, cultural, and personal forces in an effort to assist the
oppressed gain their freedom and transform society. The essential theorists of Critical Pedagogy
were named by Kaya & Kaya, in 2017 as including Apple, Darder, Giroux, Gramsci, Illich,
Kincheloe, McLaren, and numerous more philosophers.

Critical Theory gave rise to Critical Pedagogy as scholars attempted to better understand the nature
of social dominance and provide students with a voice to oppose oppression. The privileged group
can also benefit from critical knowledge since it can help them recognize when they are infringing
on the rights of others.

Paulo Freire revitalized the critical thinking movement and introduced critical pedagogy into the
educational mainstream. He rose to prominence in modern education as a result of his critical
pedagogy movement. His painful experiences in his native Brazil motivated him to look for a way
out and end the students’ silence. In the classroom, he observed that the students were passive
learners. They were helpless and without options. They committed what their teacher had taught
them to memory. According to (P. Freire, 2020), it was teacher-centered education, or the
"Banking Concept of Education," where teachers merely placed their knowledge in the minds of
their students. Both the generation of knowledge and the intellectual and social growth of the
students were absent.

Freire came to the realization that without the oppressed people's voice, social hegemony,
oppression, and inequality would persist. He also came to the conclusion that the oppressed
economic circumstances contributed to their ignorance, illiteracy, and culture of silence—despite
the fact that these individuals were unaware that their rights had been violated(Mahmoudi et al.,
2014).

Freire initiated a cultural revolution to liberate the underprivileged and promote understanding,
integrating critical pedagogy into the curriculum to combat oppression and ignorance.

2
BANKING CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION
The banking idea of education is arguably one of the most innovative topics in Freirean pedagogy.
According to this interpretation, students are seen as anti-intellectual, passive objects that need to
be taught knowledge and are lectured into "sleepy silences." According to Freire (2020 pp.72–73),

Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories, and the
teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes
deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat ... [Thus] knowledge is a gift
bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to
know nothing... The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they
develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as
transformers of that world.

The perspective that situates the banking notion of education model within the larger discussion
of power and control in the educational system is implicit in this quote from Freire. He compares
the teacher's control over the learning process to a subject-object connection, where there are little
opportunities for inquiry-based learning, in addition to the typical features of a traditional
classroom.

According to Freire( 2020, p. 72), this proves that there is "an absolute ignorance onto others, a
characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of
inquiry."

Moreover, students are expected to replicate verbatim the teacher's definition of what constitutes
accurate knowledge of the social environment, which limits their capacity for critical thought
(Rodriguez, 2008). Learning thus becomes the intake, or appropriation, of certain gobbets of
intellectual capital; by some process of alchemy, knowledge simultaneously belong to everybody.
As a result, students internalize values and habits (Yandell, 2017).

In particular, Freire criticized the role of the teacher in banking education. He viewed them
essentially as the hegemon's servants, using their ultimate power to shape and propagate organic
ideologies among their students.

By using the "problem-posing" method, in which educators and students submit queries regarding
the social production of knowledge, Freire challenges the banking conception.

Furthermore, in these Freirean classrooms, as noted by (Shor, 2019), the interaction is reciprocal
to the extent that both professors and students are prepared to seek out and create knowledge while
fostering egalitarian and democratic principles in the process. .

3
Researchers now have a greater opportunity to analyze science classroom pedagogies and how
well they address the social realities that children face because to the idea of the banking model
(Rodriguez, 2008). As previously said, in classrooms using the banking approach, students are
viewed as passive objects, and whatever experiences they may have that are related to their class,
gender, or racialized status are disregarded.

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
Critical Pedagogy is an effective strategy to enhance the critical thinking capability of students
and to generate positive behavioral change in students’ lives. This tactic improves students'
awareness, comprehension, and judgment.

First introduced by Freire, critical pedagogy is an interdisciplinary approach motivated by theories

that link social theories to humanization stories. Its fundamental tenets encompass a spectrum of
radical "emancipatory" educational concepts, wherein schools are viewed as democratic arenas
that generate citizens and critical agency in their students (Shor, 2019).

It offers students a platform to express themselves in class. According to Freire (1998), critical
pedagogy is a critical approach to education that emphasizes the value of allowing students to
actively participate in their education and to identify, develop, and hold their own opinions.

According to Kaya & Kaya, (2017), critical pedagogy is a theory that tackles issues with education
and the educational system as a whole. It aims to indicate how audience voices, power dynamics,
and assessment issues can be actively utilized to build schools into spaces where educators and
learners can critically examine the connections between theory and practice, common sense and
critical analysis, learning and social change (p. 182).

Critical pedagogy is "a correct way of thinking that goes beyond the ingenious," according to Freire
(1998), He stated on page 43 that it needs to be created by the students in collaboration with the
instructor in charge of their education.

In addition to advocating for problem-posing education, Freire promoted learner-centered

education and a conversation between teachers and students. With a dialogue-based approach,
students are encouraged to ask questions, share ideas, and gain knowledge.

The goal of problem-posing education is to get students excited about brainstorming solutions to
any kind of challenge. In order to raise a child to be a good citizen, John Dewey also promoted
child-centered education.

Thus, the primary goal of critical pedagogy is to make students active learners by including them
in the learning process.

4
WHY CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IS IMPORTANT
According to Breunig (2005), the goal of critical pedagogy in education is to establish justice in
society. The goal of critical education, according to Freire, is not to seize political power but rather
to free people from social and cultural hegemony.

In order to improve students' critical awareness, he also advocated for the use of a wide range of
interactive teaching techniques (such as dialogical and problem-posing) in the classroom. On the
other hand, a lot of academics have politicized Freire's philosophy of critical pedagogy.

They make clear that Marxism is the source of critical pedagogy. Because of this, Freire was
prohibited from entering the United States and lived in exile from his native Brazil for eight years.

According to Kaya & Kaya (2017), Freire promoted critical pedagogy as a means of educating the
impoverished and oppressed in order to liberate them.

Schools should be viewed as sites for social evolution and transformation, according to Mahmoudi
et al. (2014), In addition to encouraging critical thinking, schools ought to teach students how to
alter their immediate surroundings.

The idea of Freire's work was to assist the oppressed realize that they were under oppression.
However, Freire also desired for the oppressors to acknowledge that they were abusing the weaker
people. Freire envisioned a world in which all people enjoyed equal chances and rights.

As a result, he promoted education that would both empower the oppressed and provide the
oppressors with a knowledge of social justice.

5
IMPLICATION OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
Many educators believe that using various teaching methods in the classroom when there is only
limited time to assist students in receiving good ratings on their report cards is difficult. However,
with careful organization, teachers can incorporate a variety of activities into their usual class time.
Some of these activities are explained below.

Dialogical Method

In order to foster contact between teachers and students as well as amongst students themselves,
dialogue is essential to education. According to P. Freire (2020), critical thinking can only be
produced through discourse, which in turn necessitates critical thinking. There cannot be
meaningful education without communication, which cannot exist without discussion (p. 92).
Finding the truth and establishing a tight relationship between the parties are two benefits of
dialogue.

According to P. Freire (2020),there are a few prerequisites for discourse in the classroom. The
teacher and the student should first and foremost love one another.

Love is accompanied by dedication. It is imperative for educators to exhibit a positive mindset to

their students, as this will demonstrate their desire to involve them in the learning process. Second,
the instructor shouldn't regard themselves as superior to the pupils. Both the teacher and the student
should view themselves as equal dialogue partners. Lastly, the instructor needs to have confidence
in the students, believing that they are not empty shells but rather possess some information. The
learner can converse with others and gain additional knowledge by using this knowledge.

Students can express themselves through dialogue, which also breaks the teacher's monologue and
the students' often hushed demeanor. According to P. Freire (2020), a logical conclusion can be
brought about by the instructor and pupil developing a mutually trusting horizontal relationship
based on love, humanity, and faith . According to Lyle (2015), the dialogic approach can be used
to improve the caliber of classroom interactions and deepen student engagement.

According to Freire, the best educational strategy for developing students' critical thinking skills
is to use dialectical approaches. With active participation from both the teacher and the student, it
fosters two-way communication. According to Shih (2018), Freire is an advocate for equal
discourse between instructors and students rather than teachers having total authority.

Good cooperation arises from the presence of love, humanity, and faith among the interlocutors,
allowing them to participate in critical analysis. The dialogical approach of Freire is not a brand-
new method of instruction. Socrates used to instruct people through dialogue in classical Athens.

6
In 400 B.C., Socrates employed conversation as a teaching tool. Meno and Socrates discussed
virtue in Meno (Sheppard, 2011). Meno responded to Socrates's questions with four definitions of
virtue, but he was unable to prove any of them. Rather of claiming that Meno's notion of virtue
was incorrect, Socrates used the dialogical method to put Meno in a position where he could see
that his definition was incorrect. It was not Socrates' goal to demonstrate Meno's ignorance. Rather,
Socrates wanted Meno to be his own judge, to determine whether his response was sincere, and to
arrive with a workable solution.

The most effective teaching technique for developing critical thinking is still the Socratic
approach. Using this approach, the instructor poses a question to the class without offering a
response. The teacher uses inquiry and critical thinking to assist the students in determining the
correct response. The use of dialogue-based teaching methods, as proposed by Freire, is a
successful way to help students develop their critical thinking skills.

Connecting Learning with Real Life Situations

Freire's banking theory of education demonstrates how disconnected from reality schooling is.
Only the information imparted by the teacher is retained by the students. A pupil does not
experience any concrete learning benefits from this memory. Dewey (1902), noted how
disconnected the educational system and curriculum are from the world of a child. A child's
education and circumstances in actual life are unrelated. Students' critical thinking skills do not
significantly improve as a result of this type of instruction. Education lacks critical awareness and
self-realization, making it unable to relate to real-world situations.

According to Dewey (1902), "There is some gap in kind (as distinct from a degree) between the
child's experience and the various form of subject matter that makes up the course of study" (p.
11).

Engaging Students with Out-of-Book Activities

The teacher has a direct impact on the students' increased critical awareness. A teacher can plan a
lesson according to each student's ability. Because they are familiar with the students, the teacher
may establish classroom procedures that will help the students become more critical thinkers.
Learning requires open communication in a free and equitable classroom setting where kids feel
comfortable asking any questions. While the conventional notion of education makes the student
a passive learner, this type of atmosphere encourages active learning. P. Freire (2020), likened the
classroom of the banking model to an ivory tower devoid of any interaction with the students.

7
Hands-on-Study Activities

Sylvester (1994), used practical exercises to help his third-graders develop their critical awareness.
Within the classroom, the author and his students created "Sweet Cake Town." They demonstrated
their ability to do their jobs correctly by opening the Fidelity bank, toy store, Value Plus Clothing
Store, art gallery, and Sweet Cake Zoo. The students were able to apply for any employment and
provide justification for their suitability. Sylvester wrote in 1994:

Every child completed a pay sheet in the last ten minutes of each day to assess how well they had
done in their "job of being a good student." A grid with one column for each day of the week and
a row for each component of the "job of being a student"—their behavior, their schoolwork, and
their government employment—was located on the upper half of the pay sheet for the students to
complete. Students wrote how much they should be paid in compliance with the rules based on
their self-evaluation. I paid the pupils on Friday afternoon, following which they may purchase
the use of the activities. Prior to that, they had to pay taxes for municipal salaries as well as rent
for their desk. Page 313

The author’s hands-on-study activities connected the community, and even the low scored student
showed performance, and at the end, the academic year, all students got a sound report card.

Problem-Solving Strategy

The problem-posing technique was developed by Freire to displace the educational banking
paradigm. In Singapore, problem-posing education is a popular approach. The nation is among the
top in the world for education.

Students that use the problem-posing technique are better able to think logically and solve
problems by finding better solutions to them. After selecting a problem, the students brainstorm
and develop a preliminary solution. Students then evaluate the initial response and arrive at a
conclusive answer.

Through the application of Bloom's Taxonomy, students acquire competencies in higher order
thinking. Problem-posing education is categorized by P. Freire (2020), as a transformational
technique.

In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist
in the world in which they find themselves: they come to see the world not as a static reality but
as a reality in process, in transformation. (p. 83)

8
CONCLUSION
According to Steinberg et al. (1999), educators and parents should direct their attention away from
the perspective of the child and how they interpret the world. In order to assist students in
producing information with acute comprehension, educators must use critical pedagogy in the
classroom.

Furthermore, critical pedagogy is hardly a brand-new approach to education. From Socrates to

many of today's most well-known educators, learning and knowledge creation have been facilitated
for students through the use of various student-centered classroom approaches.

Education aims to increase students' critical awareness, and instructors are the most important
persons who may mentor children and inspire a lifelong love of learning.

The goal of Freire's educational philosophies is to raise students' critical consciousness. The goal
of education, according to Freire, is to break down barriers that separate the affluent from the
underprivileged in society.

There would be no social divide among the students, and they would all have equal access to and
opportunities in school. Hegemony in society and culture would cease to exist.

When creating a lesson plan, a teacher who is familiar with the students should consider how to
use the dialogical method to get students interested in learning activities. The design should
incorporate the method used in the classroom to have students converse with one another in order
to solve the given challenge.

A clear and reasonable assessment of the problem will be made through student-student or student-
teacher discourse. The instructor will encourage the students in coming to a sound conclusion by
acting as a facilitator. Students can develop an open-minded, rational growth attitude by using a
teacher-guided dialogue method.

Enhancing students' capacity to apply a reason-seeking method also requires connecting the course
to a real-world scenario. In the age of rigorous exams, educators keep their students occupied in
the classroom in order to receive good grades.

As a result, rather than viewing education as a means of altering their lives, students view their
studies as a means of improving their test scores. Teachers need to remember that lifelong learning
is a need. As a result, the teacher should have a technique in place that allows them to relate the
material to real-world scenarios.

The teacher should not solely rely on the curriculum's material; they can use various tools like
stories, theater, and cultural displays to foster creativity and critical thinking, fostering a learning
community.
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