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Critical Pedagogy web

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This is not a normal web page, so don't read it like one.

This is a site whose goal is to encourage dialogue on issues of critical pedagogy.  For this to work, please don't view it as a static platform for my views, but take an active part in the project and contribute your ideas.

The purpose of this web is to bring together different theories of Pedagogy and related fields with their concrete application in education and society.  This project grew out of an early research paper that i did in college on hypertext technology in the classroom.  The paper itself was horrible -- really poor research, but the ideas within it were decent, and I thought, worth pursuing.  But before I say anymore, this would be a good place to talk about why i chose this format -- why hypertext, and rather than restate what has already been better said somewhere else, why not just go there.  (please read at least the first 4 sections, they're short, and Landow states it far better than i ever could).

    So that's why I'm using this formatThat, and the fact that i believe that knowledge is inherently social.  I draw this idea from the work of Paulo Freire As he points out, praxis is a social act, based on the idea that people act on the world, and through that action come to know the world, while we change it.  This then would appear to be both theory and practice.   I would like to apply this idea of praxis to pedagogy, to the ways that we act on theory in the classroom.  However, "praxis is social, and is therefore based on social knowledge.  If we want to create radical, transformative knowledge, we have to engage knowledge, and create knowledge in social spaces.  We cannot create this knowledge alone, and expect to have any power because alone we have no power.  It is only when we engage in the collective process of understanding and creating reality that we start to have the power with which we can change society"*

  So, this is going to be a web of pages, some interconnected, some not, that will hopefully allow readers to explore thoughts and ideas, look at theories, the different ways that they are connected, respond to other readers and learn from that process and each other.  In other words, I want this to be a social space where we can explore our pedagogical praxis.  To that end readers are welcome and encouraged to submit links of their own, of whatever nature they choose, and I'll try to include them in as timely manner as possible.

    My goal then is to create a place where we can explore different ideas about education and pedagogy, in order to create new ways of teaching that work in the world that we live in -- and that encourage ourselves and others to change that world for the better.
 


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* This quote is taken from a paper that I presented at the "Activism and the Academy Conference" at George Washington University last March.  Full text available here -- (still a draft).