Education in a changing world - what should it look like?

The world is changing and has always been.

Proponents of a critical pedagogy to be used in the teaching/learning process from Paulo Freire in his work Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968) to more recent academics such as Joe Kincheloe and Peter McLaren, among others, have put forward cogent arguments for its use. They believe that if educators employ a critical pedagogy in the classroom they will be contributing to the liberation of students from oppressive influences. This is possible because in employing this critical pedagogy, teachers will be providing students with the tools to interrogate and challenge any facet of life which they believe is oppressive. The proponents of the use of critical pedagogy in the teaching/learning process believe that doing so is necessary for students to become critical thinkers. And critical thinkers have the tools to change their world to a state which they deem to be desirable. And this desirable state is one in which democratic principles are fostered.

The oppressive conditions from which people are encouraged to free themselves seem to be acts, omissions and situations which go against a very general notion of democracy. These oppressive conditions seem to be ones in which all kinds of freedoms are restricted. Therefore, situations like race relations, gender relations, and sexual relations seem to be atop the list of priorities of oppressive situations which a critical pedagogy will prepare people to question and then change. Of course, there are a number of other situations which the literature on this critical pedagogy deems as being oppressive.

For example, the curricula taught in schools have come in for questioning. However, the extent to which proponents of a critical pedagogy encourage students to question the content of schooling is questionable. But if they do, students may begin to ask, is the content of education oppressive? They may look for answers by questioning the rules, content and methodology of education. 

Having developed the tools to interrogate the status quo and being engaged in the interrogation of it, many of those who are so involved may develop different perspectives about it. As a result, they will proffer varying explanations of and solutions for any problems they have identified. Whose perspective and whose solution is “correct”? And whose perspective or whose solution is adopted to remedy whatever malady is identified?

More often than not, it is the perspective and solution of those who possess powerful capital whether intellectual or otherwise who make the decision that their reading of the situation is the “correct” one. Therefore through the mass media and other sources they provide society with a “blueprint” which everyone is expected to follow. The law is used to give force to this “blueprint”. Those who disregard this “blueprint” in favour of their perspective which they have arrived at from their engagement in the process of critical thinking, a process which has brought them to a different place from that of the controllers of powerful capital are named and shamed. That is, the spotlight is focused on them because not accepting the “blueprint” is deemed as being a wrong and an offence.

This is social engineering at work, here. Throughout history, those who possess powerful capital have been leading the process of social engineering. These are the “critical thinkers”. They have devised ways of life that fit in with their thinking of their time. They have decided what is right and what is wrong or that right and wrong are relative concepts. They expect society to accept their dictates. Those who do not are suitably punished.

As society has progressed new thinkers have emerged who have devised new perspectives of what the world should be like. They aggressively market their perspectives. There are buyers who buy and, in turn, sell these perspectives to the rest of society. When we say the world is changing, we are saying that we have accepted new modes of being which “critical thinkers” have told us are the best for this period and are enacting them in society.

We are seeing much of this happening through the process of socialisation where powerful agents of socialisation such as the mass media and the education system are leading the charge. The concept of performativity is being played out. Performativity as explained in a previous article may be seen as a process of speaking things into being. Words are that powerful but other texts have been discovered to be as equally powerful. So through many discourses whether by word or any other texts society is being shown the image of what this new world should look like. This is the new status quo which is being created.

In the future, others will have another perspective of what their world ought to look like, what is good and what is bad. And they will begin a process of re-creating the world to suit their new sensibilities.

The goal of critical pedagogy is to create a world in which oppression is eradicated because the proponents believe that all human beings have an inalienable right to be free, an idea which was popularised by the founding fathers of the United States of America. What is interesting, though, is that many who have got and are getting relief from their sources of oppression will, inadvertently, find ways to oppress those who do not fully share their beliefs. This has been the way of the world throughout history.