Applied critical pedagogy: perspectives on teaching professional practice in HE

This presentation will examine perspectives from two HE institutions where Critical Pedagogy underpins the teaching, learning and assessment practices of students undertaking BA (Hons) Degrees in Community Development and Community Education. It will share problem-posing practices that assist in improving pedagogical criticality and professional reflexivity.

The presentation will explore how we teach critical emancipatory practice within contemporary neoliberal frames that regulate and impact on professional standards in both youth and community development practice and in HE. In the context of austerity driven policies that stigmatize and individualise communities, this presentation exemplifies processes through which our students become prepared to consciously engage in critical emancipatory practice. Rather than to ‘accept the orthodoxies that sustained prejudice and inequality’ (Beggan and Coburn, 2018) the application of critical pedagogy, in these HE contexts, helped to create counter-narratives to dominant and
constraining discourses.

Adopting participatory and alternative strategies in teaching, learning and assessment within HE demonstrated how the use of study visits, social media technology, and peer teaching enabled students to reflect on their existing world view and current practice. This helped them to re-imagine their role in taking forward a critical pedagogy for emancipatory practice (Coburn and Gormally, 2017), and to consider why it is important and how it might look!