Transforming Lives Introducing critical pedagogy into ELT classrooms RAMIN AKBARI 2008 Provided by: Maryam Dolatyaar

Critical pedagogy ( CP)In ELT is an attitude to language teaching which relates the classroom context with the wider social context and aims at social transformation through education.

CP is not a theory but “ a way of doing “ learning and teaching. (Canagarajah )

It is teaching with an attitude .(Pennycook)

√CP deals with questions of ● social justice ● social change through education .

√Critical pedagogues argue that educational system are reflections of social systems within which they operate and since in all social systems we have ■ discrimination and ■ marginalization in terms of race ,social class or gender the same biases are reproduced in educational systems .

■CP puts the classroom context into wider social context with the belief that “ what happens in the classroom should end up making a difference outside the classroom.

■ Critical practice is about connecting the word with world.

People who have the power to make decisions in society also have the power to design and implement educational system .so their ideas and values get accepted while values and ideas of other are not given voice.

Education is

political .

The discourse of CP is the discourse of LIBERATION and HOPE.

• LIBERATIONit questions the legitimacy of accepted power relations and recognizes the necessity of going beyond ideal social constraints .

• HOPEit provides the potential for marginalized groups to explore ways of changing the statue quo and improve their social conditions.

■Critical education is not a unitary phenomenon. Critical literacy is not just about interrogating text, it is also about( real world realities ) and the role of language ,power and representation in injustice…education for democracy should not be about the development of products or even consumers, but about preparation for public citizenship ,for civic agreement.

■ the conservative forces that control education and society at large have tried to keep critical ideas out of school curricula and classrooms. course book contents and teaching methods have been cautiously selected to make sure that only socially refined topics are addressed .

■the totality of the experiences of learners needs to be addressed .

■ language teachers can play a more active role by including themes from the wider society in their classes.

Transforming

classes

3.Include more of students real-life

concerns

1.Base your teaching on

students local culture

2.Regard learners l1 as a resource to be utilized

4.Make your learners aware of

issues faced by

marginalized groups

1.Base your teaching on students ‘ local culture.

■Culture has always been treated as an indispensable part of any language teaching /learning situation and in fact it has been used as a source of content for many language teaching course books.■most cultural content has been from the target language

■Those who want to learn a new language want to communicate with people users of that language ,therefore they should be familiar with the cultural norms of that society.

■ English now is an international language .

■In communicative setting people try to communicate their own cultural values and conceptualization not those of target language.

■They want to express who they are and what kind of cultural background they represent

☼ What is needed is the learner to be able to develop the competence to talk about their own culture and cultural identity.

So reliance on one’s own local culture has added value of enabling learners to think about the different aspects of the culture in which they live and bring about changes in the society where changes is needed Therefore ,the negative

and positive features of their culture can be addressed and local cultural sore points ( such as the spread of aids or honour killing ,etc) brought to the attention of learners.

2.Regard learner L1 as a resource to be utilized .

◘the common practice in L2 professional literature has been the rejection of learners’ L1 as a negative force which will slow down their progress by interfering with L2 development .

◘from a scientific perspective ,there is no much evidence available in support of the total banishment of learners’ L1.

◘learner’s first language can be regarded as an asset that can facilitate communication in the L 2 and as her part of communicative experience on which to base her L2 learning .

■ where and when L1 can be used ? ▪to maintain discipline in the classroom ▪provide instruction for certain activities ▪explaining delicate grammar points ▪abstract vocabulary items

◘An individual L1 is part of her or his identity .for marginalized groups, language become an important refuge or stable pint ( Baynham op.cit.:25)

True respect for human rights and dignity of people start with one of the must basic rights they are entitled to :

(Their linguistic human rights) by including more of the L1 in L2setting and judicious use of that as teaching aids teachers can create the context where the first step toward empowerment and positive social change can be taken

3.Include more of students’ real-life concerns .

■CP takes the ‘local’ as it’s point of departure, and local here includes the overall actual life experiences and needs of learners. learners’ needs in CP are defined not just linguistically or in terms of tasks, but in term of the purposes they serve in the social mobility and activism of students.

■In CP there is no separation between the communicative needs of learners and who they are socially and politically. In a critically inspired pedagogy ,rural students needs are different from those of urban centers, minorities have needs which diverge from those of majority ,and haves and have-nots need different type of instructional material and approaches.

■A problem of commercially produced course books, in other words ,is their disregard for the localness of learning and learning needs.

■The needs and concerns of middle and upper class is dominant.

Needs of learners Course book dialogues Finding the part time job where to spend their vacation Extending their visa Celebrate Mardi Gras Negotiating their status as What to wear for a friend’s party a refugee

An example of how local concerns can be incorporated in a typical English syllabus:

In Iran there are still regions that are contaminated by landmines; these landmines are the leftovers of eight years of war with Iraq. Each year hundreds of people get killed or are wounded by these landmines, and most of the victims are children and adolescent .Iran’s ministry of education .in collaboration with the Red Crescent Society, has decided to offer a special crash course on landmines and safety measures needed in dealing with them for student living in affected areas.

From a CP perspective, it would have been advisable and possible to include the landmine topic in the English lessons or instruction students receive in their curriculum and in this way come up with a content that is both relevant and transformative to immediate lives of the learner.in this situation students can be exposed to reading passage which makes them familiar with landmines, places they are planted and cautionary measures that must be taken in contaminated areas.

4.Make your learners aware of issues faced by marginalized groups

The majority of English learners are aiming at more social respectability and higher levels of self-actualization .they mostly belong to middle or upper class of their society.Such learners are unaware of the way the majority of their citizens negotiate their day-to-day lives or even their survival .CP can provide the needed insight for such learners so that through social activism they can transform their lives of those who are marginalized and help them attain better economic and social condition .

Most publishers advise coursbook writers to not follow controversial topics .The guidelines that GRAY in 2001 summarized as P A R S N I P

POLITIC, ALCOHOL, RELIGIONS , SEX, NARCOTICS, ISMS, AND PORNOGHRAPHY .

As a result most coursebook deals with neutral, apparently harmless topics such as food , shopping ,or travel .

The writers , producers , or publisher intentionally or unintentionally refuse to recognize and represent certain groups of people who might not fit in exactly with expectations of their middle and upper class language learning clients.

Poverty ,psychological or physical abnormalities, amputees ,disabled ,and old people. Transformation of

society will be possible by:1.identifying the trouble spot

2.providing space for all citizens voice

3.realizing the multiple perspective of reality

√ By creating a sense of respect and tolerance the first step towards social change can be taken .

▪Cp is the relationship between the word and the world .(freire 1973) (how the word of ideas in education relates to the world of reality in society)

▪cp is about human dignity and respect .by basing instruction on learners’ real-life worlds and identity. ●Implementation of critical model in any ELT context has a number of requirements among which decentralization of decision making is crucial .

▪The great potential CP has in curriculum development and students empowerment will be actualized only when education ,and by extension ELT , develops the required attitude ,start at the local level ,and acknowledge the significance of learners’ experiences as legitimate departure points in any meaningful learning enterprise..

thank you

Methodology 1393/2014

Provided By: Maryam Dolatyaar