Application to Schools and Classrooms Taking Issue: Teacher Objectivity or Commitment on Social, Political, and

FOCUS What elements of critical theory appeal to you as a teacher? Which appeal least? Why? Are there elements of critical theory that you would like to incorporate into your philosophy of education?

6-10c application to schools and classrooms

Critical theorists want teachers—in both their preservice preparation and classroom practice—to focus on issues of power and control in school and society. They urge teachers to (1) find out who their real friends are in the struggle for control of schools; (2) learn who their students are by helping them explore their own self-identities; (3) collaborate with local people to improve their school and community; (4) join with like-minded teachers in teacher-controlled professional organizations to empower themselves; and (5) participate in critical dialogues about political, social, economic, and educational issues that confront American society.

Critical theorists find that teachers’ power in determining their own professional lives is severely limited. State boards, not teachers’ professional organizations, largely determine entry requirements into the profession. Where standardized tests are used to determine schools’ effectiveness and teachers’ competency, teachers are judged by criteria mandated by state legislators and prepared by so-called experts external to their own schools and classrooms.

Michael Apple, a neo-Marxist curriculum theorist, warns that too much discussion about using educational technology in the classroom is rhetorical rather than motivated by a desire for genuine change. Unless educational technology is used to uncover the root issues of discrimination and poverty, he believes it is likely to bring an externally derived, “impersonal, prepackaged style” to education rather than one based on the schools’ real internal conditions.71

Critical theorists want students to construct their own meaningful knowledge and values in their local contexts, that is, the immediate situations and communities in which they live and in the schools they attend. Teachers should begin consciousness-raising with the students by examining the conditions in their neighborhood communities. Students can share their life stories to create a collaborative group autobiography that recounts experiences at home, in school, and in the community. They can further connect this group autobiography to the larger histories of their respective economic classes and racial, ethnic, and language groups. For example, The Freedom Writers Diary is a compelling narrative of how Erin Gruwell, an English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, used autobiographical writing as a teaching method. Gruwell’s students, categorized as at-risk students, wrote their autobiographies in diaries. They wrote about the conditions that they were experiencing in their own situations—violence, gang warfare, drug abuse, and poverty.72

Teachers using a critical-theory approach might, like the example in Freedom Writers, design a unit in which middle-school social studies students explore their racial and ethnic heritages. Students begin by sharing their impressions of their heritage by telling stories about their families, their customs, and their celebrations. Then, parents and grandparents are invited in as guest speakers to share their cultural experiences with the students. Students then create a multicultural display that includes family photographs, artifacts, and other items that illustrate the lives and cultures of the people who live in the local community.

Throughout the chapter, you have been encouraged to reflect on how the philosophies and theories can be used in constructing your own philosophy of education. Now, it is time to bring your thoughts together in a summative experience—in

71Michael W. Apple, Official Knowledge: Democratic Education in a Conservative Age (New York and London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 132–133. 72 The Freedom Writers, with Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them (New York: Doubleday/Random House, 1999). Also, see the Freedom Writers Foundation at www.freedomwritersfoundation.org.