Pedagogy

Pedagogy versus Instruction

Although pedagogy requires some larger ideal or set of beliefs to give it life and form, instruction does not. Instruction can occur with no set of larger beliefs or with no larger ideal in mind. It is a technical process that can be applied relatively context-free. For this reason, instruction is often used as a primary mechanism for thinking and planning about the enactment of a number of the reform models used in recent years. Further, the term instructional leader is often used to refer to principals and the ways they work with teachers without any specific image regarding the larger values, aims, and beliefs of education. Instead, the instructional leader is often seen as one who manages instruction for the sake of efficiency and, consequently, higher test scores. By the same token, much has been written in recent years about best practices, which are instructional techniques teachers can do (relatively context free) to bring about higher achievement as measured through standardized tests. This trajectory of privileging images of instruction over pedagogy is supported by policies and practices that make “achievement” the sole aim of schools and, subsequently, standardized tests as the primary if not sole measure of that aim.

In contrast, pedagogy does not exist outside of larger ideals or beliefs. Larger aims animate pedagogy and give purpose to the efforts of the teacher. For example, Paulo Freire developed a specific way to teach illiterate Brazilians who lived in oppressed villages during the 1960s. His work included entering the villages to learn about the people and their lives. It also involved listening to the villagers to understand what words were important to them. Freire and those who worked with him would use the language and experiences of the villagers to develop generative themes for literacy lessons. In these lessons, they would teach the villagers to see how they had been oppressed and how the power of literacy could help them overcome their oppression. Freire's work with the oppressed and illiterate Brazilians was not merely a set of effective instructional techniques. It was, instead, work animated by strong convictions about justice and empowerment. Freire believed [Page 635]that political and social systems had relegated many people into the role of objectsseemingly powerless to change their circumstances. He fought to empower these individuals so they could be subj ects with control over their own lives and the well-being of their communities. Further, Freire believed this shift was possible only through a heightened sense of critical consciousness. These convictions about justice, power, and critical consciousness permeated Freire's pedagogy of and for the oppressed he taught in Brazil.

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