Critical possibilities for teacher education

Abstract

This article reviews the limitations of critical pedagogy in programs of teacher education, as well as several approaches of critical pedagogy, and the author, to surpass these limitations. I ask: How can teacher education manifest as a radical force in the transformation of society and cultural relations in schools for the purpose of advancing social justice, the humanization of students, and the relevancy of education curriculum? Furthermore, how can teacher education do more to challenge the status quo of an uncritical, power-obsessed teaching force which reproduces relations of domination and subordination in school? Using historical as well as current research on the political developments influencing the role of critical pedagogy in programs of teacher education, I assert that although neoliberal mandates have restricted the prominence of this approach, teacher educators, teacher education program directors and administrators can exercise agency to promote critical pedagogical concepts for the humanization of student-teachers. I offer as an example the outline of a course designed to address these goals. Although the field of teacher education subsists in a neoliberal political climate, and remains beholden to uncritical funding sources, critical pedagogy, as an alternative paradigm, offers concrete steps programs and professors of teacher education can potentially take to act as critically transformative agents in education.