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Social Reconstructionism and the Roots of Critical Pedagogy: Implications for Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era

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Part of the book series: Explorations of Educational Purpose ((EXEP,volume 6))

Abstract

When people hear or see the term “critical pedagogy,” they might think of Paulo Freire, whose work with Brazilian peasants in the 1970s led him to see education as inseparable from individual empowerment and social change (1970/2000). Joe Kincheloe (2008) suggests anyone working in critical pedagogy today must reference Freire’s work; Peter McLaren, another prominent figure in critical pedagogy, has called Freire the “inaugural philosopher of critical pedagogy” (2000, p. 1).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Cremin (1953) for more on history of American state public school systems.

  2. 2.

    The Frankfurt School emerged from the Institute for Social Research, originally a center for Marxist study at the University of Frankfurt, in Germany. In 1934, as Hitler’s concentration camps were being established across Europe, several sociology professors urged Teachers College president, Nicholas Butler, to invite members of the Institute to New York (Marcus & Tar, 1988).

  3. 3.

    While Maier (1988) explains that Horkheimer and his colleagues remained “outsiders” at Teachers College (they continued to write and publish in German, limiting their readership), Maier suggests “the presence of the institute on American soil did make a difference. There was … always a group of intellectuals … who did mine the gold in [Horkheimer’s writings]” (p. 34).

  4. 4.

    John Dewey’s beliefs about the role of schooling in developing democratic participation was an early influence on the social reconstructionists, but Dewey eventually became a harsh critic of Counts and the social reconstructionist movement (see Bowers, 1969, and Kliebard, 1986, for more on the history of their relationship).

  5. 5.

    Other NCLB critics describe its deleterious effects on high-poverty communities. Sleeter (2008, p. 1952) explains that NCLB reflects a “narrowing in how equity is discussed, away from the need to address high-poverty communities’ chronic lack of basic resources, including education resources.” McNeil (2000) suggests that disadvantaged students often receive test-prep “drilling” that does not transfer well to literacy requirements outside of school. Thus, disadvantaged students fall further behind other culturally advantaged students. See Chapter 4, Menken, and Chapter 8, Dantas-Whitney et al., this volume, for negative effects of NCLB on English language learners (ELL), including how they are repeatedly retained (and thus encouraged to drop out of school) to lessen low-score impact on school accountability systems.

  6. 6.

    Under pressure from conservative organizations and right-wing think tanks, NCATE dropped “social justice” as a disposition teacher educators should help develop in their students in 2006 (Morrison, 2007).

  7. 7.

    Darling-Hammond (2001) suggests there is a surplus of teachers, but a shortage in their distribution, as few teachers are both qualified and willing to teach in urban and rural schools, especially those serving low-income students or students of color. Also, Ingersoll (2002) suggests, teacher shortages occur not because of teacher retirement, as many educational policymakers suggest, but because of teacher migration/attrition due to low salaries, teachers’ feelings of having little influence in school policies/decision making, and student discipline problems/concerns about school safety. The overemphasis on fast-track, alternative licensure programs to account for teacher shortages distracts attention away from the reasons teachers leave teaching, and the resources needed by high-poverty schools to attract and retain high-quality teachers.

  8. 8.

    At the time of this writing, US corporations’ and banks’ unregulated financial dealings have left them bankrupt and the world economy in collapse. American consumers wait to see what the repercussions of the government bailout of these corporations and banks will be. American economists compare the current financial crisis to the Great Depression of the 1930s (Uchitelle et al., 2008).

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Eileen Galang and Shannon Coulter, doctoral students at the University of Tennessee, for their help on earlier drafts of this chapter.

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Correspondence to Susan L. Groenke .

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Groenke, S.L. (2009). Social Reconstructionism and the Roots of Critical Pedagogy: Implications for Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era. In: Groenke, S.L., Hatch, J.A. (eds) Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era. Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9588-7_1

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