ABSTRACT
As an interactive, experiential teaching strategy that uses a problem-posing method to elicit learner's expertise, a pedagogy of praxis is effective in engaging young people. Through a pedagogy of praxis, learning was situated in young people's lived experience, which built their confidence to use and develop their existing expertise to develop solutions to community problems. Learning to act upon and address oppressive social conditions leads to the acknowledgment of one's ability to reshape the context of one's life and thus determine a proactive and empowered sense of self. Broader conceptions of democratic learning as a process of collaborative inquiry about the world we live in allow for an approach that engages all students in the difficult intellectual work. This work examines current complex social issues in order to contribute their ideas about a variety of solutions to social problems and strengthen democratic institutions and civil society.
