Developing Critical Social Justice Literacy in an Online Seminar

The purpose of this article is to report on an effort to cultivate a critical social justice perspective and critical social justice praxis among educators enrolled in an online graduate program. Although the entire program was organized around themes of equity, collaboration, and leadership, this study focused on educators’ perspectives of the purposes, pedagogy, and outcomes of one course, Critical Pedagogy. Fourteen of the 19 students enrolled in the online course participated in one of six online focus groups following the conclusion of the course. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the researchers identified the different ways in which students responded to the course, what they learned, and how they enacted their learning as well as the features of the course that the students believed contributed to their learning and practice. The study provides insight into features of online pedagogy that appear to facilitate transformative learning. It further provides insight into the kinds of content and assignments that may promote critical social justice praxis among educators

Developing Critical Praxis in an Online Social Justice Seminar

As the U.S. education system becomes increasingly standardized, corporatized, and fundamentally inequitable, practitioners and scholars have called for a more critical social justice perspective and practice. This presentation describes student experiences in an online critical pedagogy seminar taken as part of a professional practice doctorate designed to help practitioners cultivate and enact a social justice perspective. Student experiences were characterized as “intensifying” (gained language to articulate an existing critical perspective), “transforming” (shifted toward a critical perspective), and “informing” (participated but unlikely to change). Furthermore, the students highlighted particular aspects of the course content and pedagogy that made the course different from other courses and responsible for the pronounced impact the course had on them

A Pedagogy for Critical Teacher Education: Facilitating Dialogue for Transformative Learning

The context for this documentary account is the preparation of teacher educators for critical multicultural teacher education (Kincheloe, 2008) or what Keating (2007) has called “transformational multiculturalism.” Specifically, we report on the experiences of teacher education doctoral students in a Critical Pedagogy seminar. In particular, our analysis is based on eight doctoral students’ experiences with a course assignment, called “Give it a Try.” Challenged to enact one or more of the concepts studied in the seminar and to reflect on what they learned from “giving it a try,” the students attempted to facilitate the transformation of unquestioned belief systems in a wide range of contexts. We report on what the students learned about their role in facilitating dialogue for transformative learning