Critical Pedagogy and Language Teacher Education

Critical pedagogy calls for integrating social, political, economic, and religious issues within thesociety and demands taking calculated steps to transform the society into a better place. To thisaim, critical pedagogy (CP) regards education as a political not a neutral activity and theorizes thatthere exists a hidden curriculum within the society and hence within the classroom, as a microcosmof the society, which empowers certain groups of people and marginalizes others. Education canserve as a catalyst for social transformation by empowering learners to become active and criticalcitizens. From CP perspective, the classroom serves as the starting point for social transformationin which teachers should act as transformative intellectuals. Transformative teacher education isexactly where critical pedagogy and teacher education meet to empower teachers who havetransformation of undesirable social and cultural conditions through their own critical reflectionand creative action [Praxis] as their main objective and, consequently, to prepare fully humancitizens who participate in and for a democratic society. Despite carving a successful niche in theeducational phylum, critical pedagogy has not yet started to edge its way into the ideological andpractical dimensions of language teacher education. There still exist lacunae in our understandingof how a CP-informed teacher education looks like, and what potentials and limitations it mighthave. This study endeavors to first highlight the importance and need of incorporation of thecritical pedagogy’s principles into language teacher education and then provide a picture of how aCP-informed teacher education can be developed and implemented in the education context ofIran.

کلیدواژه ها:

Critical pedagogy ، Transformative education ، Critical language teacher education ، Praxis ، Hidden curriculum ، Social transformation ، Transformative intellectuals