Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach that draws its inspiration from larger critical theories and applies them to the context of education and teaching. The approach highlights the inherently political nature of teaching and recognizes it as a process that can either reinforce existing power dynamics and social narratives or alternatively disrupt those forces. With its roots in the work of Paulo Freire and The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2012), critical pedagogy challenges students, and instructors, to question assumptions and dominant narratives with the goal of reaching critical consciousness. Ira Shor, a practitioner, and critical pedagogy theorist have described the approach as:
“Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional clichés, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse” (Shor, 1992).
This approach is rooted in teaching and learning that supports the disenfranchised in recognizing the connections between their own lived experiences and the social systems and contexts that surround them. Critical pedagogy in its purest form is often practiced with students who are part of or immediately impacted, often negatively, by the topic of study. However, when we apply the pedagogy to undergraduate classroom settings we must recognize how the context differs from the more homogeneous settings in which the pedagogy and critical consciousness concepts were originally developed. Meaning, that in undergraduate classrooms we can expect to simultaneously have students who are marginalized by certain social systems and students who benefit from these social systems, even if they do not recognize it. Practicing critical pedagogy in these instances, then, requires attention to both sides of the spectrum and requires adaption of the practice from its more community-based adult learning roots. In the classroom, we may simultaneously be working to support privilege students recognize their social role in unjust systems, while meeting the needs of marginalized students who may, or may not, have already reached critical consciousness of the system. Despite this distinction, the tenants, goals, and key practices of the pedagogy can be effectively translated to these classroom contexts.
Incorporating critical pedagogy into the college classroom requires a focus on the goals of moving students from an acceptance of dominant narratives and social norms to a position of interrogating, analyzing and critiquing social paradigms (Freire, 2012; Hooks, 1994). Doing so allows students to see beyond the surface level of an issue, and teaches important analytic skills which can be applied to other contexts and topic-specific situations. Utilizing critical pedagogy in the classroom requires an instructor to guide students through first seeing that these narratives and norms exist, then into a phase of questioning and challenging through critical thinking, and ultimately encouraging students to act upon their learning. It is in this final piece, the active component, that critical pedagogy has the most potential to break down these narratives and norms that support unjust and harmful systems.
As an instructor of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations, I find the critical pedagogy especially important. These charitable forces and processes are often imbued by society as inherently good and moral. Consequently, the social narratives and assumptions about these systems run deep and are rarely challenged or questioned. However, good intentions can have negative consequences and bad intentions can be easily shrouded by “good” acts. As Richard Shaull (2012) explains “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world” (34). When we teach students about philanthropy and nonprofits we have a unique opportunity and space to practice critical pedagogy. These classrooms provide an opportunity to unpack normative beliefs and challenge students to consider the impacts and consequences of philanthropy and nonprofits, both good and bad. In turn, we have a chance to reform the harmful practices and outcomes that have been critiqued by practitioners and scholars of these systems (Incite!, 2017; Villanueva, 2018).
With this pedagogy and philosophical approach in mind, I have designed this unit on International Philanthropy & Nonprofits to challenge dominant norms of nonprofits as innately good, to highlight the role of white savior philosophies in practices, and to draw connections between these processes and neoliberal and colonial ideologies. My goal is for students to be able to critically analyze the ways that philanthropy and wealth impacts nonprofits, global systems, and communities in the majority world. One key approach that scholars have emphasized as a means of accomplishing this goal is the use of authentic materials that are timely and meaningful to students to illustrate the points or concepts to be critically analyzed (Ohara, Saft, & Crookes, 2001; Okazaki, 2005; El-Amin et al., 2017). With this in mind, I have incorporated the use of case studies and examples from a variety of cultural and social experiences to highlight the process and impacts of the content being studied. Further, the goals of critical pedagogy are reflected in the learning goals for this unit. Specifically, key learning goals include students being able to analyze power interests in society, understand power differentials, and recognize the interest of privileged groups in maintaining the status quo (McLaren & Kincheloe, 2007). These objectives are reflected in the learning goals outlined in future sections.