Wednesday, August 28, 2013

So what IS the purpose of public schooling?

Traditional education, as defined by Ira Shor in The Art of Critical Pedagogy (2008) suppresses student skills and intellectual interests, while a more critical approach develops these skills and interests. Traditional education puts the students in positions of powerlessness and the teacher in a position of authority. This approach hampers the student’s development as a critical thinker. Above all else, the role of the public school is to help the next generation of voters to approach media and information as critical thinkers.

Paulo Freire advocated for developing the capacity in students to confront real-world problems related to them and their community. At the core of his critical pedagogy was the concept of praxis, which is not unlike the more recent concept of problem-based learning. This approach leads teachers and students to action and reflection upon that action. Through this approach, students (1) identify a problem, (2) analyze the problem, (3) create a plan of action, (4) implement the plan, and (5) analyze and evaluate the action. By addressing real-world, community-based problems, students are able to become their own change agents, which prepares for an active civic adulthood.

The public school system plays the most integral role in developing the next generation of citizens, and this is not accomplished through traditional approaches of filling empty receptacles. This is accomplished by fostering dialogue, inquiry, critical reading/viewing of the world, and a partnership and exchange of ideas between students and teachers.


Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R., & Morrell, E. (2008). The art of critical pedagogy, possibilities for moving from theory to practice in urban schools. New York, NY: Peter Lang Pub Inc.

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