Critical Pedagogy:
The first textbook use of the term critical pedagogy is found in Henry Giroux’s Theory and Resistance in Education, published in 1983. During the 1980s and 1900s, Giroux’s work, along with that of Paulo Freire, Stanley Aronowitz, Michael Apple, Maxine Greene, Peter McLaren, bell hooks, Donaldo Macedo, Michelle Fine, Jean Anyon, and many others was, inarguable, one of the most central and potent forces in the revitalization of emancipatory educational debates in this country [U.S., but arguably much beyond-ed]. However, Giroux would be the first to adamantly insist that critical pedagogy emerged from a long historical legacy of radical social thought and progressive educational movements, which aspired to link practices of schooling to democratic principles of society and transformative social action in the interest of oppressed communities.
There is no doubt that in the last decade, monumental historical events tied to 9/11, the politics of indigeneity, global warming, the incalcitrant nature of the Iraq war, and the expanding economic division between the rich and the poor have all challenged critical educators to rethink the meaning of schooling. This process has required the cultivation of greater suppleness and fluidity in defining and expanding the limits of rationality. For only through such awareness could critical theories of education remain inextricably rooted to the actual conditions of everyday life, and conscious of the political and economic landscapes that give rise to their formation. In keeping with the spirit of such a commitment, critical pedagogical scholarship has also undertaken rigorous examination into societal concerns that intersect with the process of schooling.”(Critical Pedagogy Reader, Pg.2)
