Integrating Writing and the Teaching Assistant to Enhance Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

This paper begins by developing a model of critical pedagogy which includes components of both critical thinking and social critique and discusses how to operationalize that model by using writing and a teaching assistant. The second part of the paper describes an experimental course based on this model, taught twice in a two-year period at a mediumsized state university. The paper concludes with an evaluation of this experiment for improving students' skills of critical thinking and of social critique, the benefits and costs of the experience for the teaching assistant, the benefits and costs for the faculty educator, and the practicality of the experiment.