The document outlines the concept of transformative learning in critical pedagogy, emphasizing the significance of students engaging with diverse perspectives and investigating community issues. It advocates for teachers to act as mediators and guides in facilitating students' critical questioning and authentic research within their communities. The discussion includes various pedagogical approaches and critiques the limitations of mainstream educational frameworks while encouraging action-based involvement in the community.

1. Next Generation
of Critical Pedagogues:
Insights to Transform Schools and Society
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University
Annual Meeting of the Conference for Social Justice and Equity
March 26, 2011 - The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
lovekua@ccsu.edu

2. What is
Transformative Learning?
Learning is a process
of changing one’s
relationships with
her/his community,
which consist of
interconnections with
nature and society.

3. Thinking
Divergent Thinking -
Explore many paths in authentic settings with questions
that have no predetermined answer.
Transformative
New New
Thought Thought Relationship
Critical Communities
Info Questioning
New New
Thought Thought Relationship

4. TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR
Main target is not a predetermined answer
Students are not facilitated or scaffolded to the
“right” answer
Students are not discovering what the teacher
already knows and calls “truth”

5. TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR
Main target:
Divergent thinking in a context of community of diverse voices
Students critically question information in curriculum using
various lenses of analysis
Examples: critical social theory, critical race theory, feminism,
ecojustice, queer theory, indigenous theory)
Students investigate authentic and/or unresolved issues,
knowledges, histories, and practices in community (local through
global)
Teacher mediates so that students can do authentic research based
in communities

6. “Thick Description”
Superficial
Mainstream
Message These two might
set up a binary
Null
Message
These two
Relationships generally show a
complexity not
Tensions binary “packaged”
Deep info

7. “Thick Description”
❖ Avoid binaries
(including the binary relationship between mainstream and null content)
❖ The “Who” matters: Students should be able to articulate knowledge and
understandings from different social, cultural, and political frames.
❖ Include null content, relationships and tensions.
❖ Relationships are the ways in which the actions and discourse of various
groups affect and interact with each other, who benefits, who is privileged,
who experiences oppression, who is burdened
❖ Tensions are the ways in which specific groups could be disproportionately
burdened by change, even change that initially seems like it is motivated by
social justice concerns

8. Community Involvement
Stage 1
Researching the Community
❖ Interviews ❖ Ethnography
(family, friends, members of (cultural thick description)
organizations, leaders, veterans, artists,
scientists, lawyers) ❖ Participatory Research (reporting on
their experiences)
❖ Observations
(the mall, school, sporting event, ❖ Demographic Research (census, state
school dance, playground, on the dept websites)
internet via social network sites,
environment) ❖ Literature Research
(local newspapers, internet)
❖ Case Study
(focus on one person, group, location, ❖ Field Trips as sites for all of these
ecology)

9. Community Involvement
Stage 2
Action in the Community
❖ Art Exhibits ❖ Theatre of the Oppressed
(Art show, public art, instillations, (Forum theater, rainbow of desire,
eco-art, murals, street art, “guerrilla image theater, legislative theater)
art”)
❖ Reports & Publications
❖ Poetry Slams (Writing to local newspaper, having
a journalist present, BOE meetings,
❖ Critical Performances community groups, WWW)
(Plays, musicals, choir pieces that
rework and recontextualize texts or ❖ Documentary Film
existing pieces) (Local issues, local attitudes, local
projects, film festival)
❖ Video Game
(Social or Eco-themed) ❖ Habitat for Humanity House

10. Clash of the Pedagogies
❖ Bowers vs. McLaren (2004 & 2005)
❖ Bowers (2004, 2005) argued that critical
pedagogy is anthropocentric and
destined to create double binds that
further enclose nature
❖ McLaren & Houston (2005) argued that
Bowers romanticizes a noble savage and
has political amnesia
❖ Greunewald (2005) stated that we can
benefit from both McLaren’s and
Bowers’ work, but that we should start
by recognizing that they are arguing
with two different units of analyses,
which provides the tensions and
disagreements (and negative attitudes?)

11. Units of Analysis
❖ Critical pedagogy = Socioeconomics
❖ Ecojustice pedagogy = Cultural commons
❖ Feminist pedagogy = Patriarchy
❖ Queer pedagogy = Social norms
❖ Aesthetic pedagogy = Social imagination
❖ Red pedagogy = Indigenous sovereignty
❖ Peace education = Conflict resolution
❖ Place-based education = Local knowledges, local voices, cultural commons

12. Units of Analysis & Practice
❖ Teaching about Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol
❖ Critical Pedagogy with Socioeconomics
❖ Critically examine how capitalists oppress community members
❖ Ecojustice Pedagogy with Cultural Commons
❖ Critically examine how capitalists divide a community, insulate
themselves, and undermine reciprocity among community members
❖ Aesthetic Pedagogy with Social Imagination
❖ Investigate the spiritual transformation of a human being who
identifies as a capitalist

13. Thick Description of
A Christmas Carol Using a Critical Lens
❖ Mainstream curriculum = Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a self-centered old
miser to a caring person because of the spirit of Christmas
❖ Hidden curriculum = Individualism, Privilege, Affluence, Industrialization,
Capitalism, Hegemony, Passivity
❖ Null curriculum = Critique on capitalism and Christmas is used merely as a
context to have that critical exploration
❖ Relationships = Voices of the various characters describing the consequences of
the social structure that Scrooge perpetuates
❖ Tensions = Dickens advocates for a “better” capitalism with moral and ethical
treatment, but he does not describe a reality whereby capitalism is dismantled
or one with a significant shift of power. Also, Bob Cratchet is a character that
embodies hegemony.

14. Thick Description of
A Christmas Carol Using an Ecojustice Lens
❖ Mainstream curriculum = Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a self-centered old miser
to a caring person because of the spirit of Christmas
❖ Hidden curriculum = Individualism, Privilege, Affluence, Industrialization,
Capitalism, Hegemony, Passivity
❖ Null curriculum = Critique on capitalism, the isolationism of capitalist behaviors and
mindsets, and the devaluing of community relationships that focus on nurturance
and reciprocity. Christmas is used merely as a context to have that critical
exploration.
❖ Relationships = Voices of the various characters describing the consequences of the
an isolated community or a minimizing of cultural commons that Scrooge
perpetuates.
❖ Tensions = Dickens describes a community in the end that is more connected
because the person with the most privilege decided on it.

15. Thick Description of
A Christmas Carol Using an Aesthetic Lens
❖ Mainstream curriculum = Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a self-centered old
miser to a caring person because of the spirit of Christmas
❖ Hidden curriculum = Individualism, Privilege, Affluence, Industrialization,
Capitalism, Hegemony, Passivity
❖ Null curriculum = Personal transformation occurred because of Ebenezer’s
forced experience of having to see the perspectives of others as well as to see
the burdens that his decisions have on people throughout the community
❖ Relationships = Voices of the various characters describing the consequences
of the material poverty and emotional turmoil that Scrooge perpetuates
❖ Tensions = Dickens advocates for a shift in consciousness, but it only comes
because of supernatural beings guiding Scrooge

16. Community Involvement
Stage 1 with A Christmas Carol
❖ Interview workers, day laborers, middle managers, CEOs, business professors, social workers,
etc.
❖ Observe people in a workplace, identifying patriarchal practices, class elitism, materialism, and
interpersonal relationships overall
❖ Research treatment of workers in various contexts
❖ Case study of entry level workers
❖ Attend a performance of Ebeneeza by the HartBeat Ensemble
❖ Personal narratives of people who live in homeless shelters, rely upon soup kitchens, and/or
often feel crushed by a capitalistic society
❖ Investigate relationships in one’s community that seem to be strained by practices of capitalism
creating more isolation, insulation, and individualism
❖ Interview people who do charity work during the holiday season

17. Community Involvement
Stage 2 with A Christmas Carol
❖ Perform a play that is a more contemporary version of A
Christmas Carol that incorporates critical views of capitalism in
their own communities
❖ Have a film festival exclusively of student-made films that
present excerpts of A Christmas Carol as it connects to their
own communities
❖ Have a poetry night with a theme of capitalism and Christmas
❖ Have a choir perform “Christmas carols” with the words
rewritten to question social issues as connected to capitalism