In his 1999 essay, "Paralogic Hermeneutic Theories, Power, and the Possibility for Liberating Pedagogies," Sidney Dobrin argues that critical pedagogies should focus on liberating students by empowering them to negotiate the power relations that occur in individual moments of communication. Dobrin situates his argument within post-process theory and maintains that a pedagogy is inherently oppressive if it promotes codified processes, including processes of writing (prewritinglwritinglrevision, and so on) or of cultivating critical consciousness. Such "prescribed processes" deny the agency of individual students by taking care of the naming of the world for them (139). Critical pedagogy could promote "truly liberating possibilities" if critical educators avoid the prescription of process and instead help students resist the "power moves" that occur in individual moments of communication (146). This would allow students to "attain agency in a more direct manner than many liberatory and radical pedagogies profess" because it would prepare them to act at the level of one-to-one communication (146). Dobrin concludes his essay by stating that "students who become more adept at participating" in individual communication are not only more able to resist oppression, but are also empowered to "wield more adequately their will" against others (147). In short, Dobrin's theory locates liberation in the agency of the individual. On one level, this recasting of liberatory pedagogy sounds emancipatory: students would gain greater access to power with which to engage actively in individual moments of communication. A theory such as Dobrin's might provide critical educators with a framework to help
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