Historical background of critical pedagogy

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DEMARCATIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The research was limited to the third year diploma students in their final year residential phase in teacher education colleges in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. The third year students had stints of acquiring both declarative and procedural knowledge about education and were in a better position to critique text than any other students at any level in teacher education. The conceptual focus of the research was to explain the circumstances and how they contribute to critical literacy of these teacher education students. This research study like all other researches was vulnerable to some restrictive conditions which required the researcher to be wary about. The restrictive conditions were concerned with the selection of the sample and the crafting of the data generation/collection instruments.

Critical concepts of the study

The focus of the literature review was mainly on two issues. The first one was the conceptualization of the term critical literacy and the second issue was on some factors that influence students‟ perceptions of critical literacy. Critical literacy is the core concept in this research and should be clearly conceptualized. There are some misconceptions that commonly arise since critical literacy can be confused with similar concepts such as critical thinking. The literature that is done in this chapter wads off such misconceptions. For a comprehensive conceptualization of critical literacy, there are some things that have to be considered like; an analysis of the concept, explications of the constitutive parts and a contextual synthesis of the parts. Such a process enables an evaluation of the essence of critical literacy in teacher education institutions.

Critical literacy

Literacy used to be known as the acquisition of the 3Rs that are reading, writing and arithmetic (Haralambos, 1985: 174; Giddens 1994: 426). Nowadays, literacy is no longer seen as a technology or a set of cognitive skills to be developed by individual minds, but as a socio-culturally situated practice involving the on-going negotiation of meaning in continuously contested sites of meaning construction (de Souza 2007). In other words, literacy is a social action through language use that develops students as agents inside a larger culture (Shor 1997: 58). Thus more recently the meaning of the word „literacy‟ has been extended from the original connection with reading and literature to any body of knowledge – for example there is computer literacy, information literacy, critical literacy, etc. Critical literacy is the deepest level of literacy there is (Molden 2007: 51). The deepest level of literacy (critical) thus needed to be studied in the Zimbabwean context, focusing on teacher education students in Masvingo Province

Religious orientation in relation to perceptions of critical literacy

One‟s religious orientation is greatly imbedded in historicism. Historicism lays great stress on the problem of change. Thus historicism pays tribute to essentialism (Corvi 2005: 54). Essentialism considers that there are some aspects of life that are 31 essentially permanent. With historicism, different historical epochs are rationalized in ways that seem like there is permanence in human life. For example, historicists viewed history as a manifestation of God‟s will. Religious authority and political power make the learners of faith believe that they know the will of God and that they are the instruments of God to confront evil and to build God‟s Kingdom on earth (Webb 2003).

Gender orientation in relation to perceptions of critical literacy.

The issues about gender are informed by critical feminism. Critical feminism is a feminist theory informed by critical theory that studies gender issues within a context grounded on a concern with power, ever-shifting positionalities and socially constructed knowledge (Kincheloe 2008: 68). Positionality is the place individuals find themselves in the social web of reality. Positionality is concerned with race, class, gender, sexuality, language, colonialism, physically related issues and religion (Kincheloe 2008: 115). Thus critical feminism always examines gender within a context informed by the way women and other people have been oppressed via the ever shifting positionalities. Critical feminism always exposes an exploiting class of men that stigmatizes women as inferior so as to justify the exploitation of women (Leonardo 2005: 27).

Monological teaching techniques of lecturers in relation to critical literacy

Critical pedagogy has offered important and radical alternatives to functionalist teaching (Leonardo 2005: 74). Teaching is no longer referred to as inculcating knowledge, skills and attitudes that reinforce the status quo. The notion that teachers should make society function smoothly in any prevailing socio-political circumstances should be considered with scepticism. Freire (2000) proposes a system in which students become socially aware through critiquing of multiple forms of injustice. The awareness cannot be achieved if students are not given the opportunity to explore and construct knowledge. In other words when the teacher employs the banking concept of education, the learners are not essentially challenged to think authentically about the prevailing situation (Coffey 2011).

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

• DECLARATION
• ABSTRACT
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
  • 1.1 Introduction and motivation
  • 1.2 Research problem and its setting
    • 1.2.1Motivation
    • 1.2.2 Problem statement
  • 1.3 Aims of the study
  • 1.4 Definitions of key concepts
    • 1.4.1 Critical literacy
    • 1.4.2 Banking concept of education
    • 1.4.3 Conscientization
    • 1.4.4 Perceptions
    • 1.4.5 Power
    • 1.4.6 Text
  • 1.5 Demarcations and limitations of the study
  • 1.6 Significance and contributions of the study
  • 1.7 Plan of the study
  • 1.8 Summary
• CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Critical concepts of the study
  • 2.3 Critical literacy
  • 2.4 Self theories of learners in relation to critical literacy
  • 2.5 Religious orientation in relation to critical literacy
  • 2.6 Gender orientation in relation to critical literacy
  • 2.7 Monological teaching techniques in relation to critical literacy
  • 2.8 “Ubuntuist/Unhuist” ethical orientations in relation to critical literacy
• CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 What is critical pedagogy?
  • 3.3 Historical background of critical pedagogy
  • 3.4 Critical pedagogy as discourse
  • 3.5 Critical pedagogy as methodology, genealogy
  • 3.6 Critical pedagogy as conscientization
  • 3.7 Critical pedagogy as ideology
  • 3.8 Reflections of critical pedagogy as class struggle
  • 3.9 Role of critical pedagogy in critical literacy
  • 3.10 Conclusion
• CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Mixed methodology
    • 4.2.1 Qualitative research methodology
    • 4.2.1.1 Research paradigm
    • 4.2.1.2 Research design
    • 4.2.1.3 Data generation methods and instruments
    • 4.2.1.4 Report on trustworthiness
    • 4.2.1.5 Population, sample and sampling procedures
    • 4.2.1.6 Data generation and analysis
    • 4.2.2 Quantitative methodology
  • 4.2.2.1 Research instruments
  • 4.2.2.2 Report on validity and reliability
  • 4.2.2.3 Population, sample and sampling procedures
  • 4.2.2.4 Data collection and analysis
  • 4.3 Research ethics
  • 4.4 Conclusion
• CHAPTER FIVE DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS
  • CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF CRITICAL LITERACY IN MASVINGO PROVINCE, ZIMBABWE.