Advertisement

Education to Address Social and Environmental Challenges: A Critical Pedagogy Perspective on Saudi Public Education

  • Saad Algraini
  • Janet McIntyre-Mills
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Contemporary Systems Thinking book series (CST)

Abstract

Education plays an important role in enhancing people’s autonomy and in helping them to make well-informed decisions. Thus, the aim of the current chapter is to investigate the ability of students in the Saudi education system to build creative and critical thinking capabilities. The analysis draws on critical pedagogy to highlight key issues in learning at the school level. In general, the focus is on the process and the content of learning and on the extent to which learning considers broader social and environmental challenges. In the analysis of the current top-down approach to learning, the findings highlight that education is often in passive forms and that the curriculum is less relevant. The recommendation made in this chapter is that the learning system should provide students and teachers with better opportunities for creative learning and teaching and that the importance of social and environmental diversity is acknowledged and appreciated. This will support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are aimed at preparing students to become lifelong learners.

Keywords

Saudi public education Critical pedagogy Passive learning Social and environmental challenges Human development Sustainable development 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Alabdulkareem, R., & Alshehri, A. (2014). Barriers for intermediate school female teachers’ creativity in their instructional performance in Saudi Arabia. (in Arabic). Journal of King Saud University-Educational Sciences, 26(1), 47–68.Google Scholar
  2. Algraini, S., and McIntyre-Mills, J. (2017). Human Development in Saudi Education: A Critical System Approach. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 26(5), DOI 10.1007/s11213-017-9432-9Google Scholar
  3. Algraini, S. (2017). A critical systemic approach to human development in education: a case study of the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral dissertation). Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.Google Scholar
  4. Al-Issa, A. (2009). Education reform in Saudi Arabia between the absence of political vision and apprehension of religious culture and the inability of educational administration. (in Arabic). Beirut: Dar Al-Saqi.Google Scholar
  5. Alzahrani, M. (2016). ‘I Got Accepted’: Perceptions of Saudi graduate students in Canada on factors influencing their application experience (Master dissertation). University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Retrieved from https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/71675/2/Alzahrani_Maha_201603_MA_thesis.pdf
  6. Borradori, G. (2004). Philosophy in a time of terror: Dialogues with Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
  7. Burbules, N. C., & Berk, R. (1999). Critical thinking and critical pedagogy: Relations, differences, and limits. In T. Popkewitz & L. Fendler (Eds.), Critical theories in education: Changing terrains of knowledge and politics (pp. 45–65). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  8. Dobson, A., & Eckersley, R. (Eds.). (2006). Political theory and the ecological challenge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  9. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
  10. Freire, P. (1974). Education for critical consciousness. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
  11. Freire, P. (1998). The adult literacy process as cultural action for freedom. Harvard Educational Review, 68(4), 480–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
  13. Giroux, H. A. (2004). Public pedagogy and the politics of neo-liberalism: Making the political more pedagogical. Policy Futures in Education, 2(3-4), 494–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Giroux, H. (2011). On critical pedagogy. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.Google Scholar
  15. Kameenui, E. J., & Carnine, D. W. (1998). Effective teaching strategies that accommodate diverse learners. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
  16. Kampman, D. (2011). From Riyadh to Portland: The study abroad experiences of five Saudi Arabian female students. MA TESOL collection, paper 512.Google Scholar
  17. Kincheloe, J. (2000). Making critical thinking critical. In D. Weil & H. Anderson (Eds.), Perspectives in critical thinking: Essays by teachers in theory and practice (pp. 23–40). New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
  18. Kincheloe, J. (2008). Knowledge and critical pedagogy: An introduction. Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. McIntyre-Mills, J. (2006). Introduction to volume 1: The contribution of West Churchman to sustainable governance and international relations. In J. McIntyre-Mills (Ed.), Rescuing the enlightenment from itself: Critical and systemic implications for democracy (pp. 1–22). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
  20. McIntyre-Mills, J. (2014). Transformation from wall street to wellbeing. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. McKay, V., & Romm, N. (1992). People’s education in theoretical perspective. Maskew: Miller Longman.Google Scholar
  22. Ministry of Economy and Planning. (2013). The Saudi Economy in figures. (in Arabic). Riyadh: Ministry of Economy and Planning.Google Scholar
  23. Ministry of Economy and Planning. (2014). The achievements of the development plans: Facts and figures. (in Arabic). Riyadh: Ministry of Economy and Planning.Google Scholar
  24. Ministry of Economy and Planning, & UNDP. (2003). Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Human development report. Riyadh: Ministry of Economy and Planning.Google Scholar
  25. Ministry of Education. (2011). Ministry of Education yearly report for 2011. (in Arabic). Riyadh: Ministry of Education.Google Scholar
  26. National Education Policy in Saudi Arabia. (1969). Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia. Declare no (779). Riyadh: Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia.Google Scholar
  27. Private Education Act. (1975). Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia. Declare no (1006). Riyadh: Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia.Google Scholar
  28. Riyadh Municipality. (2016). Riyadh urban indicators. Riyadh: Riyadh Municipality. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from https://www.alriyadh.gov.sa/en/riyadh/popudev/
  29. Romm, N. R. (2015). Foregrounding critical systemic and indigenous ways of collective knowing towards (re) directing the Anthropocene. Paper presented at the 59th annual meeting of the International Systems Sciences, Berlin, Germany, August 2–7.Google Scholar
  30. Stinson, D. W., Bidwell, C. R., & Powell, G. C. (2012). Critical pedagogy and teaching mathematics for social justice. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 4(1).Google Scholar
  31. Wink, J. (2011). Critical pedagogy: Notes from the real world (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Saad Algraini
    • 1
  • Janet McIntyre-Mills
    • 1
  1. 1.Flinders UniversityAdelaideAustralia

Personalised recommendations

Cite chapter

Buy options