Aspects of Process in an ESL Critical Pedagogy Teacher Education Course

Abstract

* The second and foreign language (S/FL) education literature has featured a number of discussions of the content of critical pedagogy (Crawford-Lange, 1981; Pennycook, 1990a, 1990b, 1994), though there are few accounts of the processes involved in implementing it in a S/FL teacher education context (but see Auerbach & Wallerstein, 1987). In this brief account of our use of these ideas in S/FL teacher education, we would like to raise the profile of critical pedagogy in ESL/EFL a little higher and provide some suggestions particularly related to classroom processes that we hope will be of use to others working in this area.' Critical pedagogy is an approach to teaching and curriculum informed by critical social theory that seeks to understand and critique the historical and sociopolitical context of schooling and to develop pedagogical practices that aim not only to change the nature of schooling, but also the wider society (Pennycook, 1990b, p. 24).2 A key distinction is made (originally by Freire, 1970) between two types of