Review: a reflexive journal on critical pedagogy

Lin, A. M. Y. (2004). Introducing a critical pedagogical curriculum: A feminist

reflexive account. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 271-290). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brief summary


This paper is a reflexive diary of a professor educating teachers in Hong Kong. Beginnig with her introduction to her course on critical pedagogy, the author confesses her difficulties, realizations, frustrations and new findings on critical pedagogies in the realm of language teaching.
The course the author had created was labelled as "language, culture, and education" albeit it had originally been a theoretical course on critical pedagogy. Coupled with the author's failure to estimate the students' current level, the frustration felt on the students' shoulders when faced with the reality in school became worse. The students, who were teachers in secondary schools thenselves, were critically observing the oppressive regime and find ding ways to work out what they have learned.
In addition, the course was also an opportunity for the author to retrospect upon her life as a teacher-educator. She calmly says, "To be honest, I was caught up in this sense of frustration and helpless myself ... How ineffective my critical curriculum was in the face of teachers' sufferings agonized and almost paralyzed me".


Reflection


This easy-to-read article gave me insights of how thr critical pedagogies in reality are complicated. From the very beginning, the course title, was embarassing for me because the title itself was implying that critical pedagogies could not emerge as they are, in Hong Kong context. It was something that should be hidden under the label of "mainstream", I felt.
In addition, her honest confession helped me understand the hands-on issues on critical pedagogy. Without any doubt, critical pedagogy has its nature in practice, not theory. How teachers get depressed while they practice critical pedagogies in reality? And why? This article obviously provides the answer.
I was pleased while I was reading this, thanks to her honest reflection and descriptions. It is my first time to read an article such as this, which is full of experiences and humanistic affections.