Critical Theory and It's Discontents

​Paulo Freire identified the importance and delicacy of dialogue, he cautioned readers that dialogue must find its balance between both action and reflection; too much action and dialogue turns into activism; too much reflection and it turns into verbalism.  He also valued a love for the world and man, he desired a dialogue that opened the possibility for a pedagogy of the oppressed.  “Founding itself upon love, humility, and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialoguers is the logical consequence.”  Freire argues that without this mutual trust, authentic dialogue cannot take place.  It is obvious that Sandy Grande was deeply influenced by Freire’s work, her focus in ‘Red Pedagogy’ was on the importance for citizens to engage in decolonization and rethinking democracy.  Her proposed method for achieving this directly reflects Freire’s ideas, she says “for teachers and students this means that we must be willing to act as agents of transgression, positing critical questions and engaging dangerous discourse.”  In addition to identifying her desire for decolonizing pedagogy, she also outlines seven precepts as a starting point.   Since Paulo Freire’s work was published in 1994 and Sandy Grande’s work in 2004, I find myself wondering what influence did their work have on our newly designed BC curriculum, as many of its ideas are reminiscent of their work?  I also find myself wondering each week, who writes the curriculum and what is their process?

Friere, P, Pedagogy of the oppressed (Flinders and Thornton)
Grande, S. (2009). Red Pedagogy. In M. Apple, W. Au, & L. A. Gandin (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of critical education (pp. 190-203). New York: Routledge.