In Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English
Classroom, Duncan-Andrade and Morrell write about how a change toward more
student-oriented pedagogy will produce better-educated and well-rounded
students. It certainly sounds interesting and I do have a few reservations with
the way the authors put their ideas forward, but the other portion that caught
my attention was the year in which it was published: 2008. In 2008, I was a
sophomore in high school, so I can compare my own experiences with what
Duncan-Andrade and Morrell are writing about.
I can wholeheartedly say the wonderful changes the authors
of this piece are advocating for were nowhere to be found in my high school. My
high school valued traditional/classical curriculum and obedience to the
system. There was very little discussion about current events or potential
deviations from preapproved curriculum in order to better reach the student
body. Heck, our history textbooks did not cover anything after 1994. It served
as a good marker for how the school operated, because it certainly did not feel
as if curriculum had changed in that school for a good fourteen years. It is a
little bit jarring to see people putting forward these ideas on pedagogy when I
have zero experience with said ideas and do not have a decent framework to view
it from.
I would like to touch on how the authors put forward their
ideas on how use popular culture, mainly because I disagree with it.
Personally, I don’t think popular culture is worth much at all (neither is the culture
of America’s elite, but that’s another point entirely). Duncan-Andrade and
Morrell almost come across as idolizing popular culture instead of carefully
and thoughtfully using it. Popular culture can be extremely toxic and
problematic when applied haphazardly. I realize that the authors were far more
careful in their applications of popular culture in the classroom, but I had to
draw that from inferences. Plus, drawing from popular culture can politicize a
classroom and deepen the divide between students just as easily as help them to
realize how they should empathize with each other. Teachers should use popular
culture to connect with their students, yes, but a teacher’s ultimate goal
should be to help students move beyond their own cultures and view cultures as
they truly are. Duncan-Andrade and Morrell indeed write about how students need
to provide counter-arguments against the elite’s culture, yet they ultimately
do not go far enough and should help students realize they are subject to their
own culture’s flaws as well.
Tldr: I cannot relate too well with the Duncan-Andrade and
Morrell and their ideas due to my own high school experiences. Popular culture
is not as great as the authors make it out to be and students need to be aware
of its pitfalls.
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