Critical Pedagogy, Power, and Instructional Language - Essay Example

Critical Pedagogy, power and Instructional language Name Institution Course Instructor Date of Submission Critical Pedagogy, power and Instructional language Introduction Language in a multicultural setting that globalization is occasioning has led to relationships of dominance. The use of language by people from different cultural contexts may lead to the manifestation of biases that may have implications on how people relate. This is especially the case with language that is dominant. There is a shift of thought and perceptions of phenomena in the current age towards an appreciation of empiricism and analytical judgment. This shift has led to sensitivity in the way people react to situations and how they perceive them. In this sense, every phenomena, structure or substance of the content of society is seen through a penetration deep beneath its appearance. The motivation of this is the fact that most of the things that exist in the society carry more significance than can be superficially perceived. It is based on this fact that people have started to develop a critical approach in understanding them. “Critical” is the watchword that encapsulates perceptions that dissect all the issues pertinent to the various dimensions about a matter (Morgan & Ramadhan 2005, 157). This is because in most of the circumstances, a narrowed perception of phenomena may blur the sight of other implied meanings in structures and phenomenon. The word critical in it carries three essential elements, that of assessment, analyzing and judging. By analysis, a matter or subject is broken down to its component parts, then assessed for the qualities and based on which a judgment of worthiness or unworthiness passed. The aspect of criticism is meant to expose every dimension about a subject with their adhering implications and with this come to suggest the most appropriate way to exercise aspects of society. Critical Pedagogy, Multiculturalism and Literacy However, this was the case when people had not become critical about what it was the expressions describing the black race were propagating. It was only when people developed the sense of questioning language and what it expressed that there came need of conciliating ethnicities through alignment of academic disciplines along critical lines. Critical disciplines arose after people got a sense that not everything found in language stood for gospel truth. It had to be subjected to certain tests in order to be considered true (Pennycook 2001 49). This is when pedagogical responses such as critical literacy, pedagogy, and critical multiculturalism developed. They developed out of a desire to correct the use of language to legitimate power on false grounds. Critical multiculturalism understands language from the various cultural contexts in order to understand its meaning. This means that a one sided view of issues that touch on multiculturalism is implausible and generates falls inferences (Kubota 2004 45). The issues of power and cultural exclusion emanate from socialization that is based on wrong perceptions. Education being one of the agents of socialization had to pick up a critical orientation so as to ensure that the content that is imparted in learners does not foster societal misconceptions such as stereotyping and racial profiling. Any matter in the curriculum that appeared to encourage stigmatization due to variation of diversities in the populations was screened through critical analysis. This was to ensure that instruction in school empowers all of those who attend school and that education is used to impart racial, ethnic and gender sensitive language. Critical literacy is also aimed at transcending the minimum standards of literacy by enabling an analytical use of language in order to exercise power legitimated by fairness and balance. Power can be established on wrong grounds that may lead to exclusion of certain sections of the populations from benefitting fully from their environment (Kubota 2004 43). This kind of power places one section of society over another based on perceptions that are not subjected to analytical demystification through critical thinking. These responses are therefore a key to the establishment of fair systems free of oppression. Races and the various diversities will all be empowered to participate and benefit from the nourishments of society equally and without discrimination. Discussion and Illustrations This is what is required in perceiving the word power. A critical perception of power will unveil hidden dimensions about the subject that have great implications on society. The relation among people is dictating by the forces of power (pennycook 2001, 17). Power defines trends of superiority and inferiority and hence may have great implications on the way society is structured. The application of the concept “critical’ to power unveils the fact that it has implications that cause trends of; disempowerment, exclusion, polarization and dominance (Reagan 2006, 3). Out of power, such sensitive social and political aspects as marginalization and unequal access come into being. However, this is only got sight of if power is perceived from an introspective and analytic lens that permeates deeper into it. The three elements of criticism, analysis, assessment and judging count towards a holistic view of the whole embodiment of the word power. Without being critical and breaking the word into its components, it will be difficult to perceive it as being causative in occasioning other societal phenomena that can put some sections of the population to an advantage while the other sections are left to struggle for a place (Fairdough 1995, 164). Power determines the interactions at the very basic level of the constellation of society – family. At the work place, ranks determine who is legitimately more powerful. This goes way up to the international level where the community of nations classifies some states as inferior or superior due to the substance that makes up the word power (Ragan 2006, 08). It therefore makes sense that what is inculcated into people through the various avenues of socialization depicts power in its supposed neutral sense without depicting some group as being inferior or superior to the other (Clark & Ivanic 1997 58). One way is through the use of language that is rid off negative notions of power relations among the diversities of the populations of the world. Power is one of the words in the world that is held in high interest. As explained earlier, the world has led to the classification of nations into clusters of those that are most powerful and those that are less. Similarly, ethnicities, races and cultures have been clustered on the delineations of power to create superior and inferior ones. These trends of stratifying nations, ethnic groups, races and cultures are perpetuated through education (Fairdough 1995, 169). Language has been used as the articulator of power in its various manifestations. This is why there is a need for a cutting understanding of language and power through application of criticism and pedagogical scrutiny. This being the case, those who hold stake in the educational sector have to elicit certain responses that will rid the issue of language propagating notions that exalt sections of the population above the others. This should start by using accommodative language that recognizes the equality of all. This should start at the primary socialization institution of the family (Pennycook 2001 34). Parents should accustom their children to language that puts all the persons that are part of the family on the same wavelength. Parents have been known to use language that empowers boys at the expense of the girls. This anchors the roots for the continual ravaging of the seeds of gender disparity and chauvinism. Girls are relegated to the second rank that play subordinate role to boys. Women talked with remarkable gentleness and given verbal signals that lull their efficacy while the aggression that boys receive stimulates their efficacy to rise up to occasions (Morgan & Ramadhan 2005, 159). Analysis of the language used at the family level point to trends of empowerment of boys at the expense of girls. They are encouraged to face hardship differently. A critical dissection of this through discourse analysis will show that the language at the family level inculcates different charges of power in the two genders. The application of critical brings about an analysis of the language, assessment of its implications and a judgment. The criticism exposes the fact that there is more to language in terms of its implications than is usually thought of it. Educators, workers, parents In perpetrating trends of dominance and superiority complex, workers, parents and educators need to develop a critical perception of language in its implied sense of power. Workers need to understand the effect of what they say in boosting each other’s esteem. Educators also need to understand that language carries aspects of chauvinism, stereotyping and relegation of ethnicities. Educators need to accustom students to language that does not evince sentiments of suppression to certain people (Reagan 2006, 14). Language needs to be seen in light of how it presents people and the impact it will have on people if they come to internalize its meaning. At the work place where there are people from various genders and ethnic groups, it only is critical that gender, ethnic and multicultural sensitivity be exercised in how language is used. The people who do not exercise this only help to talk down their colleagues who shrink and get feelings that they are not good enough (Fairdough 1995, 175). They therefore do not freely express their abilities in due inadequacy that emanates from insensitive language. Employers are not supposed to refer to their workers using terms that relate to stereotypes associated with the races or ethnic groups they come from. There are instances when employers in multi-racial countries like America term minority races in offensive ways. In America, blacks were referred to as “boxers”. They came to be associated with professional sporting and any ones who were in intellectual and academic disciplines were referred to with the same extension of Michael Jordan’s punching exploits. When this was the case, black Americans internalized this and started thinking of themselves as incapable in academic circles. Children from black families therefore treated basketball pitches as classrooms and classrooms as basketball pitches. This meant that not so many black Americans were found in technocratic professions. By making a language of racial suppression and disempowerment commonplace, the black race was condemned to subordination as only providers of entertainment to the whites (Kubota 2004, 40). The exorcism that went about in America to fight racial profiling through the use of hate speech and language that depicted races along power lines helped to reverse the statistics of those in employment. This means that workers should empower each other to reach for their highest potential possible through language that does not paint them incapable or daft. The people who have the most impact are educators who instill esteem and motivation in the learners (Reagan 2006, 18). They should ensure that they do not treat the students and learners in their hands differently or portray them in light of the weaknesses supposed of the races or ethnicity they hail from. Instead, their comments to children, examples and remarks on their performance should aim at instigating effort and enabling them reach for higher levels of achievement (Morgan 1998, 56). This means that issues about language and power can be critically addressed in a concerted way from the parents, educators and to the time they get to the workplace. This will rid language of its power to deride the potential and abilities of people from diverse backgrounds. Language is one of the strongest tools through which people make themselves relevant. Historical accounts of racial profiling, ethnic stereotyping and polarization exist which depict language as one of the tools through which animosity between a people who live side by side can be instigated (Clark & Ivanic 1997, 77). The apartheid regime is one of the epitomes of what power is when left to rage in any direction and form it will. The surest way through which power can be exercised by stepping on the head of others is when the means by which it is manifested are left unchecked. After the realization of the reality of the inhumane treatment Asian and other ethnic tribes were receiving through colonial and imperial shackles, there was a need to ensure that this is not left to recur into infinity (Morgan & Ramadhan 2005, 160). Colonialism was perpetuated through language that taught white children to believe that their black counterparts were less of human and were in their rightful place as servants to them. Thus, the hyperbolic negative sentiments of the silly continent of Africa were captured in expressions such as “the dark continent”. This legitimated the mistreatment that Africans received through slavery when they were handled as but commodities of trade just as Gold and silver. Language has been the tool through which the white race has asserted its superiority over any other races (Fairdough 1995, 180). Derogatory remarks that mocked the complexion of Africans made for favorite literature and the jungle of Africa, a habitat for black savages formed the substance of pamphlets that became bestsellers. Benefits of applying critical pedagogy and literacy A critical approach to education carries some benefits to society. These benefits emanate from the sensitivity that is instilled in people. Education is one of those avenues through which some of the misconceptions arising from a lack of analytical intellectual powers are falsified (Morgan 1998, 78). Critical education instills into people the power to question their beliefs and assumptions about their culture and that of others. Most of the people hold onto perceptions about others and their cultures in a prejudiced way. When education is critical, they come to question these perceptions, the language they use and how it may have an impact on themselves and on others. Critical education also demystifies some of the wrongly held opinions about people from the “other side of the world” (fairdough 1995, 223). The Eurocentric notion of Africa held that it was a continent of savages who were still in their early evolutionary stages. They therefore used language that dehumanized Africans in every way possible. This was due to the derogatory language that depicted the continent as backward. It was positioned the last and this Eurocentric perception made people who had not visited the continent to imagine the people hailing from it intellectually incapable. However, when education is made critical, such like literature makes it plausible to subject biased literature to intellectual tests, questioning its veracity. If it is not for the critical ability that education inculcated, blacks and other races that are not white would still be held bound in the shackles of imperialism (Fairdough 1995, 225). With critical education, people from all cultures are given space, are spared of the irrational opinions that mar them with dehumanizing qualities and hence help in achieving the respect that befits all human species. The world is now brought together under the because of the critical response to issues of language and power (Reagan 2006 18). The English language has been the one that has most served imperialists interest. However, it is being reworked to accommodate the right of all genders, races and ethnicities to be portrayed as equal. Challenges to critical pedagogy and literacy While education has made milestones in achieving critical standards, there are still challenges that inhibit total realization of these standards. This comes from the preconceptions that most of the people have been brought to internalize about phenomena in the society. They have been trained to perceive themselves in a particular way and this is extended to influence their way of analyzing educational issues critically. They apply their own biases and alignments in assessing issues which affects their perception of others and their cultures (Pennycook 2001, 44). Some of the educational misconceptions also inhibit critical education as they shape the reasoning of people especially those that exist in literature. The authority of written literature is powerful enough to influence the judgment of issues by people (Morgan 1998, 135). This is the reason as to why most of the people go through all the levels of education yet hold on to biased perceptions of others and social issues. The cultural impact of people and the background they stem from has a great influence on them such that the critical orientation of education is virtually jeopardized. The curriculum implementation process, instructing and the creation of policy can also be challenged such as not to attain critical levels if the people involved stamp their biases on it (Kubota 2004 37). These biases get passed on to successive generations of learners and hence affecting critical learning. The biggest challenge of critical pedagogy is the favoring by people of the content that only supports their belief system. They don’t question what they hold as true and reject anything other than that which is consistent with their socialized and internalized beliefs. Conclusion Overall, there is a need for pedagogical shift to take up a critical orientation. This is because of the fact that education is in this day and age is the most instrumental agent of socialization. With a need to integrate the various diverse groups, cultures and beliefs of people into an acceptable set of knowledge, education needs to overcome the tendency to perpetrate biases of prejudice against others. The response of curriculum developers to have the critical dimension embraced is one of the ways through which society will help in exorcising the racial, ethnic and gender perceptions that were founded on skewed beliefs. In creating a balanced curriculum that is inclusive, objective and facilitates a logical perception of life and phenomena criticism is necessary (Penacook 2001 28). The need for critical alignment of pedagogy was because of the oppressive perceptions that limited certain ethnic groups, races and the female gender. An example is how the gender roles assigned to males and females in society were imprinted in the curriculum as well with the female gender painted as subordinate to the male. The same was the case with the racial perceptions that placed Africans at the bottom of the superiority ladder with whites painted as ingenious and dominant over rest. These perceptions served as challenges to the critical response to pedagogy as the preconceptions of people infiltrate into the way curriculum is developed and implemented. However, critical multicultural studies, pedagogy and others that have been oriented to be critical are helping to rid education of prejudice, bias and stereotyping. Bibliography Clark, R. & Ivan, R. (1997). The Politics of Writing. London: Routledge. Fairdough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman. Kubota, R. (2004). Critical Multiculturalism and Second Language Education. Pp. 30-52.Top of Form Bottom of Form Morgan, B. , & Ramanathan, V. (2005). Critical Literacies and Language Education: Global and Local Representatives. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , 151-169 Read More