Fostering Active Learning via Critical Pedagogies

This chapter aims to provide a guideline for pre-service and in-service teachers to apply reflective research in language classrooms to gain a multidimensional overview of language teaching strategies in increasing active learning via critical pedagogies. A previously conducted reflective research will be used throughout the chapter to reach the stated aim. Analyzing language teaching techniques and strategies in an English for Academic Purposes classroom where all the students are originally from East Asia, the sample reflective research illustrates the needs and expectations of East Asian students in language learning through the research students, and also it aims to provide clues for TESOL educators to implement a similar study in classrooms employing critical pedagogies to develop language instruction.

Toward ‘seeing’ critically: a Bayesian analysis of the impacts of a critical pedagogy

Critical reflection supports enactment of the social roles of care, like collaboration and advocacy. We require evidence that links critical teaching approaches to future critically reflective practice. We thus asked: does a theory-informed approach to teaching critical reflection influence what learners talk about (i.e. topics of discussion) and how they talk (i.e. whether they talk in critically reflective ways) during subsequent learning experiences? Pre-clinical students (n = 75) were randomized into control and intervention conditions (8 groups each, of up to 5 interprofessional students). Participants completed an online Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) module, followed by either: a SDoH discussion (control) or critically reflective dialogue (intervention). Participants then experienced a common learning session (homecare curriculum and debrief) as outcome assessment, and another similar session one-week later. Blinded coders coded transcripts for what (topics) was said and how (critically reflective or not). We constructed Bayesian regression models for the probability of meaning units (unique utterances) being coded as particular what codes and as critically reflective or not (how). Groups exposed to the intervention were more likely, in a subsequent learning experience, to talk in a critically reflective manner (how) (0.096 [0.04, 0.15]) about similar content (no meaningful differences in what was said). This difference waned at one-week follow up. We showed experimentally that a particular critical pedagogical approach can make learners’ subsequent talk, ways of seeing, more critically reflective even when talking about similar topics. This study offers the field important new options for studying historically challenging-to-evaluate impacts and supports theoretical assertions about the potential of critical pedagogies.

Fostering Youth Sociopolitical Action: The Roles of Critical Reflection, Sociopolitical Efficacy, and Transformative Student Voice

Critical pedagogies often prioritize critical thinking and social awareness at the expense of preparing urban youth for social action. Though sociopolitical efficacy is argued to bridge critical reflection and social action, this relationship is undetermined. We argue that critical reflection and sociopolitical efficacy are independent predictors of sociopolitical action. We surveyed 158 high-school students and found that critical reflection and sociopolitical efficacy were positively related to sociopolitical action. Additionally, participation in transformative student voice (TSV) and classroom leadership opportunities positively influenced sociopolitical efficacy. We argue that educators and community organizers should promote leadership development and TSV activities to encourage youth sociopolitical efficacy and action.

The case for creative folklore in pedagogical practice

The political question of who can produce knowledge and how we delineate epistemological standards without reproducing epistemic marginalization is central to critical pedagogy in international relations (IR) scholarship. While critical pedagogies often attempt to enact an emancipatory agenda, they largely rely on the educator as knowledge (re)producer and student as passive consumer, with little to say on what it means to be emancipated, the oppressions at stake or the means of enacting this project. Drawing on Simon Bronner’s definition of folklore, this article explores folklore as a creative practice allowing us to explore who the ‘folk’ are in the process of teaching and how we constitute disciplinary ‘lore’ to incite students to revise and reflect on disciplinary boundaries. The article focuses on IR pedagogy as a creative practice, arguing that deploying a folklore lens allows us to challenge the uncritical reproduction of disciplinary boundaries.

Doing Academia Differently: Loosening the Boundaries of Our Disciplining Writing Practices

In this article, I explore questions of pedagogy and knowledge-writing practices in their relation to knowledge production. Starting from the observation that different styles of writing are present in our work, but many of them are systematically pushed back and mis-read as non-academic, the article brings to the fore a discussion on the direct relationship between practices of knowledge-writing and those modes of knowing that escape the linear and propositional academic style while still being part of how knowledge comes into being. Following a tradition of intersectional feminist epistemologies, I engage with questions of epistemologies and critical pedagogies, speaking to and with several generations of scholars who address and work with questions of diversity and knowledge production that are seminal within International Relations (IR), yet underexplored from the perspective of knowledge-writing practices.