This page will be updated with resources as often as possible. The discourse around critical pedagogy in higher education is persistent and evolving, so while we recommend everyone search for the resources that best suit them, it can be difficult to know where to begin. We will link to some resources here and provide some key words to help you get started.
What is Critical Pedagogy?
Paulo Freire is widely considered to be a seminal author of critical pedagogy. His work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (particularly Ch. 2), is heavily cited in discussions of critical pedagogy.
Quick looks
This first video (about 11 min) is a talk by Julio Cammarota, Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies at University of Arizona. He discusses the content and application of Paulo Freire’s 1970 book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, widely considered to be a foundational text in the field of critical pedagogy.
The following video (about 15 min) is a high level look at Critical Pedagogy built by the Freire Project. It is composed of clips from interviews with CP advocates and scholars as well as clips from old and new educational settings. The overall feel of the video is catchy, quick, and a little scattered, but it highlights the important questions without getting caught in the theoretical, academic weeds.
This video is the first of an 8-part series where bell hooks speaks on the concepts of critical pedagogy. hooks has been a critic of and an advocate for critical pedagogy and prolific author in the field of social activism, systems of oppression and class domination, and engaged pedagogy. Her books, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom and Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope, are also widely considered to be foundational in the field of critical pedagogy.
Hybrid Pedagogy self-describes as “a community, a conversation, a collaboration, a school, and a journal. It is a place to discuss critical digital pedagogy by advocating for students and fostering awareness of academic hierarchies. We work together to enact an understanding of co-teaching within a community of mutual respect. Hybrid Pedagogy is centered on praxis — the blend of theory and practice that develops with experience and reflection.”
The editors offer a series of useful explorations on the nature of critical pedagogy.
Featured authors
- What is Digital Pedagogy?
- What is Online Learning?
- Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel, An Urgency of Teachers
This video is part of a series from University of Chicago Urbana-Champaign and is a deeper dive into the constructs of critical pedagogy and critical literacy. It uses highly academic language and embodies a more focused and informative style.
What does critical pedagogy say about grades?
Jesse Stommel, a contributor to Ungrading, writes “I don’t grade student work, and I haven’t for 20 years. This practice continues to feel like an act of personal, professional, and political resistance. I’m still required to turn in final grades, by all of the institutions where I’ve worked, so I have students write self-reflections. The bulk of my “grading” time is spent reading these and adapting our course on the fly as I get to know the students. Over the years, I’ve gotten lots of questions about the what, why, and how of my approach. These are some of those questions and my answers” in Ungrading: An FAQ.
Alfie Kohn writes, “To understand why research finds what it does about grades, we need to shift our focus from educational measurement techniques to broader psychological and pedagogical questions. The latter serve to illuminate a series of misconceived assumptions that underlie the use of grading.”
Kohn also wrote the foreword for Ungrading.
Are there any other frameworks?
Yes! While there are currently few, if any, other frameworks that focus specifically on the application of critical pedagogy, there are many frameworks or framework-adjacent tools available which address different pedagogical concepts and priorities. Here are a couple that we have found to be particularly useful.
The ACE Framework was built by the Open CoLab of Plymouth State University in the wake of the COVID-19 transition to emergency remote teaching in higher education. Given that foundation, ACE has broad applicability beyond emergency remote teaching.
In their words – “ACE stands for Adaptability, Connection, and Equity. ACE elevates three characteristics that are clear, context-sensitive, values-driven, and mission-aligned; we can use them to plan assignment-, course-, and institution-level responses to crisis (such as COVID-19) in the areas of our university that are connected to teaching and learning.”
Racial Equity Tools is an organization which offers resources for learning concepts, examining issues, taking action, and evaluating the work toward racial equity.
“We offer tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working for racial justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.”
