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Critical Pedagogy

Rooted in classical Marxist theory, critical pedagogy has its foundation in early-20th-century German Jewish theorists, a group of radical leftist thinkers who founded the Institut fur Sozialforsc-hung (Institute for Social Research) in Germany. Their ideas were considered a threat to extreme Nazi ideology in World War II Germany, and a number of critical theorists fled to the United States because of the rising persecution of Jews.

Upon conclusion of World War II, the school was reestablished in Frankfurt, Hesse, in Germany and the critical tradition became known as the Frankfurt school. Frankfurt school theorists were united in their critique of capitalism and its negative impact on society, primarily focusing on the effects of the free market's domination of the economy and the world's social structure. Although influenced by classical Marxism, they depart from Marxists in their understanding of freedom and emancipation. Theorist Peter McLaren points out that critical pedagogues often differ in their ideas, beliefs, and theoretical framework. However, they are united in their objectives that call for them to empower the powerless and uplift their less fortunate brethren, challenging the inequalities and inequities in public schools.

Schooling and Culture

Critical pedagogues define culture as specific ways that certain social groups live out, express, and interpret their life circumstances and social situation. Culture has to do with how certain groups make sense of the world and how their values, beliefs, and practices reflect their worldview. One of the primary aims of critical pedagogues is to critically examine the dominant culture in the United States and its influence on American public schools. They argue that schools are currently sites that privilege and advance the ideas and ideals of the dominant culture, thus perpetuating the status quo and disenfranchising those who fall outside that norm. Students who do not possess the cultural capital of the middle and upper classes and do not fit into the prevailing culture's model of success typically do not perform well in schools.

Certain forms of social life are legitimized and others are not. In fact, many students of low socioeconomic status are viewed as deviant, as they lack the proper sociocultural capital to be successful. Public schools introduce and indoctrinate students into the inequities and inequalities that exist in the world. These youth often do not realize that the system can be challenged because they are steeped in the dominant culture and view it as a commonsense way of reading the world. In other words, they view the oppression as the way things are supposed to be. Schools have made inequality into a type of common sense for the public in that they rationalize structures of classism, racism, and sexism, creating classroom environments centered on capitalist notions coupled with competition and ethnocentrism.

Challenging the Dominant Culture

Critical theorists further break down the notion of culture into three main categories: dominant culture, subordinate culture, and subculture. Dominant culture is defined as the practices and norms advanced by the cultural group that has ideological, sociological, economic, and political control of society. Any group or culture that is not a part of the dominant culture is considered to be a member of a subordinate culture. Critical pedagogues then in turn define subcultures as any subset of either the dominant or subordinate culture. An example of this would be the hip-hop subculture, as it has its own language, style of dress, musical genre, and distinct ideas that challenge the status quo. Another example is the working-class subculture, generally a part of the larger subordinate culture. Working-class people are noted for challenging the status quo of the dominant cultural group. In public schools, children of the working class often have trouble adjusting to the middle-class values and curriculum put forth by the school system.

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