ABSTRACT
Critical pedagogy is a theory and method of education rooted in an analysis of the role schools play in reproducing systems of oppression. Critical pedagogues argue that the organizational, curricular, and instructional practices of schools train students to passively comply with and accept larger social inequalities. In this view, transformative knowledge and liberation will only occur when students and teachers engage in democratic debate and critical inquiry about the social institutions and cultural dynamics that maintain injustice. For many reasons, a critical pedagogy approach appears ideal for democratic classrooms and, by extension, ideal for consideration and use within teacher education classes. Th e social studies, with its focus on the doings of people throughout time and place and its charge to instill democratic values, seems a natural location for fostering critically conscious citizens.
