“I don’t want to be imported or exported”: Critical pedagogy and the English writing and research course in the UAE

Freire developed his theory and practice in community literacy courses in Brazil and although his work has had global influence, critical pedagogy’s relevance in the Arabian Gulf remains unexplored.  The present study examines the role that critical pedagogy—student-centered teaching wherein agency and critical thinking are fostered through open inquiry and exploration of social and cultural issues connected to everyday life—plays in the English writing and research courses offered at three private Universities in the United Arab Emirates.  Freire wrote, “I don’t want to be imported or exported.  It is impossible to export pedagogical practices without reinventing them.” Just as English-language institutions often reinvent broader aspects of curriculum from the West to adapt to local culture, so too do practitioners of critical pedagogy need to adapt Freirian philosophy to avoid colonial, uncritical mindsets.  The investigators focus their study on student experience, culture, and critical thinking.  The study relies upon teacher surveys, interviews with course directors and program administrators, and analysis of teaching artifacts.  The ultimate goal is to attempt to introduce critical pedagogy in English writing and research courses in the UAE in order to shift from passive rote learning styles to more creative, transformative methods

The junior college movement: Corporate education for the working class

The working class, largely excluded from college life before the twentieth century, obtained access to higher education through the two-year college movement, which began in 1901. "Junior colleges," a name that education scholars at elite universities invented to denote the new institutions, grew out of a desire to put higher education in service to business interests. Junior colleges trained industrial workers and provided transfer to four-year colleges for the most qualified students. Through tools such as first-year composition curricula and active guidance counseling programs, junior colleges frequently attempted to teach students lessons in competition, individuality, and meritocracy. Leaders of the movement feared social unrest would result from burgeoning labor movements and the rapid influx of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe and constructed disciplinary devices to squelch elements they perceived to be subversive and dangerous. Furthermore, leaders of the movement enjoyed support for their regressive ideology in the popular press, which legitimated the movement and helped to manufacture a need for the brands of education (e.g., vocationalism) the junior college came to promulgate

"I Cannot Be Like This Frankie": Disability, Social Class, and Gender in Million Dollar Baby

No abstract availabl