Towards a framework for critical citizenship education

Critical Pedagogy

The term ‘critical pedagogy’ describes that body of literature that aims to provide a
means by which the oppressed (or ‘subaltern’) may begin to reflect more deeply upon their
socio-economic circumstances and take action to improve the status quo. Recent
manifestations have been variously termed ‘radical pedagogy’, ‘liberatory pedagogy’,
‘revolutionary pedagogy’, ‘oppositional pedagogy’ and ‘border pedagogy’ (Au 2007; De
Lissovoy and McLaren 2006; Giroux 2003; Green 1997; Hill 2003).

The roots of critical pedagogy lie in the critical theories of the Frankfurt School
(most notably Adorno, Habermas, Horkheimer and Marcuse) and are most directly
associated with the teachings of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator whose seminal work
Pedagogy of the Oppressed captured the imaginations of many educators and academics
across the world. Freire (1972) brought a fiercely Marxist approach to his work with
illiterate adult workers in Brazil. He developed pedagogical methods and a philosophy of
education in which he argued that the ‘banking’ approach to education constituted a great
hegemonic oppression and that, in order to free the people, educators needed to develop
context-specific pedagogical methods through which teachers and pupils used dialogue to
open up the critical consciousness of the people ('conscientizaςao', or Conscientization).
The notion of praxis was central to these methods, by which Freire meant a synergistic
process of reflection and action through which the people would become ‘involved in the
organized struggle for their liberation’ (Freire 1972, p. 40).

Following the publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, many educationalists
took up the banner of critical pedagogy and its close associate, ‘critical literacy’ and, at the
beginning of the 21^st century, as McLaren (2003, p. 69) states, ‘critical pedagogy is as
diverse as its many adherents’. However, DeLeon brings out common themes from the

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