Our mission and vision at Radical Pedagogy Institute is to foster meaningful connections amongst educators, help them to obtain the political knowledge needed to organize for change within their communities, and to provide a space to learn with and from one another about how to use radical pedagogy to re/humanize PK-12 education. Since the terms “radical pedagogy” and “re/humanize” may be new (or used in a different sense) for some folx, this post is dedicated to providing a glimpse into what we mean when we use these terms.
Radical Pedagogy
We view radical pedagogy as an umbrella term for any pedagogy that disrupts normative structures, works against oppressive systems, and centers the humanity of all students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups. There are several pedagogical approaches and theories that fall under our umbrella term of “radical pedagogy” — including (but not limited to) critical pedagogy, anti-racist pedagogy, queer pedagogy, DisCrit, and culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogy. A brief summary of each of these pedagogical approaches/theories is outlined below.
Critical Pedagogy
Critical pedagogy is often attributed to the work of Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Critical pedagogy “applies the tenets of critical social theory to the educational arena and takes on the task of examining how schools reproduce inequality and injustice.”1 Freire refers to the traditional lecture-style approach to teaching and learning as a “banking concept of education,”2 which brings to mind the image of students as a bank account, waiting for information to be “deposited” from the teacher (i.e., a very passive view of learning). Instead, Freire encouraged a reimagined model of education, one in which students were encouraged, even expected, to question the social conditions of their world, especially those of particular relevance to their everyday lives and communities. A key concept of Freire’s model of critical pedagogy is that of praxis. Freire defines praxis as “the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it.”2 This is viewed as a continuing cycle in which educators facilitate instruction in which students reflect upon and critique societal power structures to obtain a critical consciousness that inspires some form of social action of inventing and re-inventing their worlds. After this stage of re-inventing, students move back into the process of critical reflection (what Freire termed concientización). In the below video, Dr. Julio Cammarota elaborates on the concepts of critical pedagogy.
Anti-Racist Pedagogy
Anti-racist pedagogy, grounded in Critical Theory, goes beyond the multicultural approach that many of us learned in our pre-service teacher training. It is more than cultural appreciation and diversity days. Anti-racist pedagogy has both teachers and students explore the historical and contemporary function of racism in society, and gain a basic understanding of how to recognize and address “issues of race, ethnicity, power, and class”3 as it pertains to teaching and learning, as well as other areas of civic life. This approach to teaching and learning also requires teachers to consider their own racial identity and biases and how these impact their pedagogical practice (which includes instruction, but also discipline, classroom discourse, group dynamics, social relationships, etc.). This understanding is used to challenge dominant narratives, and to help teachers move beyond biases and form meaningful, authentic social relationships with their students. Such relationships are the foundation of creating classroom spaces and practices that “focus to promote social justice for the creation of a democratic society in every respect.” 3 To learn more about anti-racist teaching practices, we highly recommend checking out the 2020 Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching series by PBS. The first episode of the series, which features Dr. Bettina Love, Julia Torres, and Loira Limbal, can be viewed below.
Queer Pedagogy
Queer pedagogy is derived from Queer Theory, a field of Critical Theory. Queer Theory is often described as difficult to define because its sole focus is that of disrupting “normative processes that structure lives, actions, language, power and knowledge.” 4 One such process is that of defining and categorizing people, concepts, identities, and so on. Essentially, those that ascribe to Queer Theory are committed to challenging various forms of binary assumptions (e.g., male/female, smart/dumb, heterosexual/homosexual, easy/hard, rational/emotional, etc.) and societal “norms.” Queer Theory differs from traditional Gay and Lesbian Studies because it does not ascribe to an assimilationist view. Instead of advocating that queer folx should be considered as part of the social norm, queer theorists hold that there should be no social norm. Queer pedagogy applies these tenets of Queer Theory to pedagogical practice. It requires teachers and students to adopt a questioning stance to consider what normative structures are at play in a given text, situation, problem, concept and so on. It requires a consideration of what perspectives are missing and how considering other perspectives or making different assumptions might impact our understanding and outcomes. Below is a short segment of a talk that Radical Pedagogy Institute co-founder Dr. Brandie E. Waid gave on queer pedagogy in the mathematics classroom.
DisCrit
DisCrit, short for Disability Critical Race Theory, provides an intersectional framework to explore the interconnected function of race and disability in society. This framework provides a lens through which to understand “the lives of disabled youth of color” (who are disproportionately referred to special education) and “provide[s] far more nuance than…simply attend[ing] to one element of identity or form of oppression.” 5 The DisCrit framework consists of seven core tenets5:
- DisCrit focuses on ways that the forces of racism and ableism circulate interdependently, often in neutralized and invisible ways, to uphold notions of normalcy
- DisCrit values multidimensional identities and troubles singular notions of identity such as race or dis/ability or class or gender or sexuality, and so on.
- DisCrit emphasizes the social constructions of race and ability and yet recognizes the material and psychological impacts of being labeled as raced or dis/abled, which sets one outside of the western cultural norms.
- DisCrit privileges voices of marginalized populations, traditionally not acknowledged within research.
- DisCrit considers legal and historical aspects of dis/ability and race and how both have been used separately and together to deny the rights of some citizens.
- DisCrit recognizes Whiteness and ability as property and that gains for people labeled with dis/abilities have largely been made as the result of interest convergence of White, middle-class citizens.
- DisCrit requires activism and supports all forms of resistance.
The embedded video below, a talk by Dr. Subini Annamma, illustrates some of the ways in which DisCrit might be used to understand the experiences of multiply marginalized students and to work towards a re/humanized schooling for those students.
Culturally Relevant and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
Culturally relevant pedagogy, as described by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, consists of three tenets: academic achievement, cultural competence, and socio-political consciousness. All three of these must be present to engage in truly culturally relevant pedagogy that benefits all students. Academic achievement is not about standardized tests, but about providing all students with challenging, meaningful classroom experiences that show students how to engage in critical thinking. Cultural competence refers to a teacher’s ability to deepen (and leverage) their understanding of their own culture, as well as at least one other culture (becoming bi-cultural). Socio-political consciousness is about helping students understand how their learning is useful for their communities and greater democratic society. Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings elaborates upon and provides examples for each of these tenets in the below video.
Culturally sustaining pedagogy, sometimes referred to as “culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0,” is similar to culturally relevant pedagogy in that it follows a similar assets-based philosophy of pedagogy. Culturally sustaining pedagogy, however, also asks teachers to move beyond affirming and connecting to students’ lived experiences towards a pedagogy that acknowledges the ever-changing and nuanced nature of culture and works to sustain students’ cultures. Some of the key features of culturally sustaining pedagogy are as follows 6:
- Valuing community languages, practices, and ways of being.
- Schools are accountable to the community.
- Curriculum that connects to cultural and linguistic histories.
- Sustaining cultural and linguistic practices, while providing access to the dominant culture.
The concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy is also sometimes referred to as culturally revitalizing pedagogy, particularly in the context of Indigenous learners. In such contexts the term “sustaining” has been replaced to “revitalizing” to honor the need to reclaim the cultural and community knowledge that was lost to Indigenous learners as a result of colonization. The below podcast briefly elaborates on what culturally sustaining pedagogy might look like in PK-12 settings.
Re/humanizing
In addition to our focus on radical pedagogy, a core mission of the Radical Pedagogy Institute is to re/humanize educational experiences for all PK-12 students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups. This concept of re/humanizing stems from the work of Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez in rehumanizing mathematics education. According to Gutiérrez, the term rehumanize tends to imply that mathematics schooling is dehumanizing for PK-12 students, which some might find extreme. However, Gutiérrez argues that, particularly in mathematics, when it is repeatedly communicated to students that parts of themselves are irrelevant to their learning of a subject, that is an incredibly dehumanizing experience.
Gutiérrez’s description of the dehumanization students experience in mathematics brings to mind the words of poet Adrienne Rich, “When those who have the power to name and to socially construct reality choose not to see you or hear you…when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked in the mirror and saw nothing.” 7 Such dehumanization and psychic disequilibrium is not unique to mathematics, as is evidenced by the work of the creators of #disrupttexts in ELA, curriculum projects or books such as the 1619 Project, Lies My Teacher Told Me, and A People’s History of the United States; shifting content focuses to topics such as environmental justice and racism/sexism in health, genetics, and biology (e.g., the stories of Henrietta Lacks and Rosalind Franklin); and the overall emphasis on (and backlash to) anti-racist and LGBTQ+ inclusive education initiatives across all disciplines and grade levels. So if this idea of rehumanizing applies across content areas, how do we begin the process of re/humanization? Gutiérrez identifies 8 dimensions of rehumanizing mathematics, as shown on the left side column8 below. In the column on the right we have generalized a few of Gutiérrez’s dimensions to apply across content areas/grade levels (some did not need generalizing).
Dimensions of Rehumanizing Mathematics
Participation/Positioning – authority shifts from text/teacher to other students; students as meaning makers.
Cultures/Histories – students reconnecting with their own histories or ancestors/roots.
Windows/Mirrors – students being able to see themselves in curriculum and in others.
Living Practice – understanding mathematics as something in motion; students thinking of maths as a verb, not a noun.
Broadening Maths – Decentering of Algebra/Calculus/Number Sense, symbolic representation and favoring the general case to make room for other forms that allow students to see more qualitatively or other forms that would count as maths.
Creation – students inventing new forms of mathematics not just reproducing what has come before.
Body/Emotions – Invitation to and examples that draw upon other parts of the self.
Ownership – mathematics as something one does for oneself, not just for others (e.g., school), questions and answers are useful/reasonable for one’s own purposes, desire to “play” or “express oneself” through mathematics.
Dimensions of Re/humanizing PK-12 Education
Participation/Positioning – authority shifts from text/teacher to other students; students as meaning makers.
Cultures/Histories – students reconnecting with their own histories or ancestors/roots.
Windows/Mirrors – students being able to see themselves in curriculum and in others.
Living Practice – understanding knowledge as something in motion; students thinking of knowledge as a verb, not a noun.
Broadening Knowledge/Learning – Decentering of canonical understandings/concepts and favoring the general case to make room for other forms that allow students to see other forms that would count as knowledge.
Creation – students inventing new forms of knowledge not just reproducing what has come before.
Body/Emotions – Invitation to and examples that draw upon other parts of the self.
Ownership – knowledge and learning as something one does for oneself, not just for others (e.g., school), questions and answers are useful/reasonable for one’s own purposes, desire to “play” or “express oneself” through knowledge and learning.
We should also note that Gutiérrez uses the verb rehumanize without a backslash, while we use it with a backslash (re/humanize). As noted on our homepage, “we intentionally use the term ‘re/humanize’ with the backslash for two reasons. First, we honor that many Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students come to schools having already engaged in truly humanizing educational experiences at home with their family or other members of their community. Our goal for those students is to rehumanize their PK-12 education through the use of radical pedagogy. We also recognize that for some students, e.g., some queer students, such identity-based cultural experiences/communities may not be available, in turn limiting their access to truly humanizing educational experiences. For those students our goal is to humanize educational spaces and experiences through the use of radical pedagogy.”
To learn more about Gutiérrez’s conceptualization of rehumanizing mathematics, please view the below video.
Growing Together in Our Shared Understanding
As we begin to learn and grow as a community of educators at the Radical Pedagogy Institute, we expect that our understandings of radical pedagogy and re/humanizing will continue to expand, shift, and evolve (as they should). We are excited to be on this journey with like-minded educators. If any of this resonates with you and you are not currently a member of our community, we encourage you to reach out to inquire about our membership options. Another action you can take is to use our searchable database of radical pedagogy resources to expand your understanding and practice.
We look forward to the opportunity to engage with you about these ideas and others that will lead us to a re/humanized PK-12 education experience for all students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups.
En Communidad,
Brandie E. Waid and Leah Z. Owens
References (In addition to the embedded videos)
- Beck, A. (2005). A place for critical literacy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(5), 392-400. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.48.5.3
- Freire, P (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin Books.
- Blakeney, A.M. (2011). Antiracist pedagogy: Definition, theory, purpose, and professional development. Journal of Curriculum & Pedagogy 2(1), 119-32. doi: 10.1080/15505170.2005.10411532
- Gunckel, K.L. (2009). Queering science for all: Probing queer theory in science education. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 25(2), 62-75.
- Annamma, S.A., Ferri, B.A., & Conner, D.J. (2018). Disability critical race theory: Exploring the intersectional lineage, emergence, and potential futures of discrit in education. Review of research in education 42(1), 46-71. doi: 10.3102/0091732X18759041
- California Department of Education. (2020, December 24). Culturally sustaining pedagogy. cde.ca.gov. https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ee/culturallysustainingped.asp.
- Rich, A. (1994). Blood, bread, and poetry: Selected prose 1979-1985. W.W. Norton & Company.
- Gutiérrez, R. (2018, March 10). Rehumanizing mathematics: A vision for the future. [Recorded Conference Presentation]. Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics (IPAM) YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/D266LYIigS0.
