Culture, Culture And Critical Pedateracy, By Antonia Darder

E. D. Hirsh, Jr. promotes the cultural literacy pedagogy, whereas Antonia Darder supports the critical pedagogy. Hirsh sets up his argument for cultural literacy by declaring that there are certain things that everyone in America should know and become knowledgeable of. Darder, on the other hand, describes how America needs to learn how to read the world and also learn how to take action about the more problematic situations in our world. This essay will discuss how each pedagogy is different, where they similarly connect, and why I find myself drawing closer to critical pedagogy in my future classroom. The biggest difference between cultural literacy and critical pedagogy is learning from experience; cultural literacy says that being knowledgeably

The critical pedagogy approach to teaching is also supported and implemented by Paul Freirian, a Brazilian educator and activist, whose approach “relies on the experiences of the students and implies a respect and use of the students’ culture, language, and dialect” (Darder, 2003, p. 366). By creating a student centered classroom, teachers are allowing valuable teaching and learning time for the students, who will assist and work with one another in order to engage and learn more than if their teacher was standing in front of the room and lecturing. Freire argues against classrooms that reflect a teacher and text centered classroom. This is problematic because if a teacher is teaching from the text book, teachers face the problem of being unable to relate to their students because of the differences in knowledge and experience. Student centered instruction in the critical pedagogy allows students to be open minded and participants in learning, therefore, it opens windows for students to opening and willingly share experiences. Most people learn by experience and connecting these experiences with others and to other things. Critical pedagogy also calls teachers to use “organic vocabulary”

When these thirteen years are over, not all of us will remember everything we learned and we will move further in life with whatever content interested us more or most. For example, I loved English because reading was my favorite hobby and I got good grades; I used to read everything we were assigned and ace almost all of my tests. This led me to become an English major, and now I am learning in-depth information about British Literature, United States Literature, Shakespeare, etc. I am using experience and interest to lead me to my future teaching career. Because this is against what Hirsh stands for, I see myself teaching with a critical pedagogy where it is more ideal to learn language through culture and experience and how we can take action on potential