Think/act: There's a name for that?

It is really satisfying to find a name for the theory I've been interested in all along.

Critical pedagogy.

I've had a couple of semesters of composition and teaching theory under my belt, and Paulo Freire's name has come up from time to time, but I've never read anything by him, or any of the other major names in this field. I'd never even heard the term "critical pedagogy" until now.

Maybe it's something that everyone but me was aware of. Maybe it speaks to the conservative nature of my program that we haven't been exposed to this -- after all, it's got Marxism, postmodernism, feminism and social action, things that rarely come up in my schooling. What a shame. The idealist in me thinks of how powerful a theory like this can be. This isn't just applying a Marxist reading to a given text, or looking at the gender issues at work in Faulkner. It's practical! Think of how we could empower our students, and transform the face of the modern university (which is in steady decline).

Though I've only read a little bit on it this morning, critical pedagogy makes so much sense to me. This is exactly what I want to do as a teacher: empower my students to think critically and take control of their own learning, and challenge that teacher/student power dynamic in the classroom. I'm not sure why this isn't just called "pedagogy," though, since empowerment seems like the most important thing for any student to succeed.

I've only just begun teaching, of course, and I realize that I'll be working toward to these goals for the rest of my career. And I haven't even touched that social justice aspect, though I want to.

It's probably the Type A part of me that likes to organize, list and label, but I find it immensely rewarding to come across a theory that so elegantly summarizes the things that are most important to me.