ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the "critical student agency" to refer to purposeful action taken by a student, or group of students, to facilitate the creation of counter-hegemonic pedagogical practices. The changing demographics of Southern Californian schools in particular have documented a growth of largely immigrant, non-English speaking, economically disenfranchised and politically disempowered students and their families. To advance the project of Freirean/critical pedagogy, to show its viability as a radical and democratic alternative, especially during these politically and pedagogically challenging and conservative times, it is not only useful, but necessary to undertake just such forms of analysis. Contemporary public schools in Los Angeles, or in any other major North American urban center, face a wide array of problems which underscore the need for more liberatory and democratic forms of pedagogical practice that center around issues of social justice. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
