Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban English Classroom

Dear Readers,

            This is my response to “Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom.”

            This is a very empowering article. It wonderfully lays out the complexities of societal issues and their impact of education and how critical pedagogy is to creating the most positive environment for student success. Even in the abstract I was struck at how much sense it makes it means to be dealing with those issues in a classroom.“It is rooted in the existential experiences of marginalized peoples; that is centered in a critique of structural, economic, and racial oppression; that is focused in dialogue instead of a one-way transmission of knowledge; and that it is structured to empower individuals and collectives as agents of social change.” Bringing together students and teacher in a discourse where outside social inequalities are addressed but never imposed will greatly benefit everyone; for students greatly affected by this oppression as well as students who are not. By observing and critiquing this oppression we create students ability to empathize with other situations from their own.

            Literature plays perfectly into this because it is always both a social commentary and an insight to the human condition.  We can use novels, poetry, short stories, plays etc. to bring up these topics and have students identify with characters emotions in a way that relates to their world.

            Creating this new environment for learning will make for a better future. If, as teachers, support and give all students what they need to overcome social injustices that hold them back from opportunities. For someone (like many of us) in the world of education it seems like common sense that these needs are met but this article puts it in a way that shows, through extensive study and research, just how students are affected academically by our social culture. Connecting with our students on a personal level inspires them to deal with the materials they are given in a new way than just regurgitating what the teacher said onto a test. It instead sparks interest and emotion so they have a deeper understanding. 

Thanks for reading,

Halee

Social Justice

Dear Readers:

The article I chose to discuss Social Justice in schools is “The Coddling of the American Mind.” It originally appeared in The Atlantic in September 2015.

A professor from another class required that we read this and keep in in mind during our learning in that class as well as others while in college. Although the article is mainly purposed for college students, I think it can also be applied in a high school setting.

The main idea of this article is questioning if it is essential to keep potentially offensive or harmful material out of curriculum in order to keep students from feeling uncomfortable or is that a type of censorship that is doing a disservice to students. After reading this article I agree that keeping students from discussing difficult topics is not helping them in any way. Yes, it may be difficult to discuss things such as rape, racism, child abuse, genocide, but these things do unfortunately happen and sheltering students only causes them to be ignorant of them.

There is a fine line, when a difficult topic could affect a student emotionally or psychologically more so than the rest of the class because of previous experience with a trauma. This is where a trigger warning would be used. “Trigger warnings are alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response. For example, some students have called for warnings that Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart describes racial violence and that F. Scott Fitzgerald’sThe Great Gatsby portrays misogyny and physical abuse, so that students who have been previously victimized by racism or domestic violence can choose to avoid these works, which they believe might “trigger” a recurrence of past trauma.” I agree that having these warnings to students would be helpful in maneuvering these difficult topics. It still allows that they be discussed but presents it in a way where students are prepared for something that is difficult making them feel safe in their environment.

The article also discusses the complexities of microaggressions in schools. Microaggressions are small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless. This is important because while students have the right to be offended by something they find offending not all acts of offense are meant as such. Yet we must teach students to think about how their actions, based on their own worldview built by the society they live in, may affect someone negatively. Such as asking someone who is not ethnically Caucasian where they are from. While a student may think they are making polite conversation they need to be aware it makes the point that the person is an outsider. They would probably never ask that same question to a white student and this makes white the “norm.” We need to bring equity and Social Justice to a level in our schools where all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientation etc. are normalized.  

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Halee