Teaching secondary
school aged students

Critical Pedagogy

What and Why?

Language Teaching is increasingly being seen as a part of education, and as such has a responsibility towards the students' whole personality, educational and social development. Some teachers have taken this idea further and argue that teaching should try to develop the students' ability to question, to think for themselves and ultimately take more control over their lives. To do this, these teachers chose topics which will provoke discussion and thought, and encourage students to criticise. They also try to bring about more student involvement and try to develop the student's sense of autonomy. Many of these ideas have been built into CES3. A number of topics require students to think about wider social issues - the environment, gender roles, the content of news broadcasts, ethnic minorities (e.g. Native Americans in the USA) and so on. The methodology of CES3 also aims to develop the students ability to think for themselves and organise their own learning.

Practical ideas

• Many of the topics in CES3 can be used as a starting point for students to think about and investigate their own society. Students can work in small groups on a project and report back to the class or you can allow time for displaying students' work.
• If you think that most of the students are likely to have the same opinion about something, you can ask some of them to prepare an argument against it. You can then involve them in class discussions or get them to prepare posters with their ideas.
• You can involve the students in planning some part of the work they will do in class over the next few weeks. For this you can require that they make decisions and plan what they will do. See do it yourself for more ideas.
• Critical pedagogy also encourages students to be aware or critical of their own attitudes, values and prejudices. A text or situation may provoke reactions in the students which you can encourage them to question and discuss.