Critical Pedagogy

On Saturday I was able to talk to a few teachers during the demonstration at the Estación del Norte in Valencia. They did not seem to know about Critical Pedagogy, the theory that expresses the new developments from Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed blended with European Critical Theory, as presented by writers such as Henry Griroux and Peter McLaren.

The theory started in conversations between Griroux and Freire in the middle of the 1970s. Giroux tried to link private and public issues, that is private lives and social movements. Today Critical Pedagogy constitutes a serious body of work.

The video shows McLaren in Valencia, invited by CCOO Federació Ensenyament. I thought it would be interesting for teachers today as it shows how to deal with difficult situations. Finally, it stresses the idea that every educational system is politically determined, so it becomes absolutely necessary to take sides.