A Study On Mclaren's Critical Pedagogy

Peter Lawrence McLaren(1948-)is one of the representatives of western Marxist education theory,one of the main founders of critical pedagogy in the United States,and one of the main advocates of critical pedagogy worldwide.His achievements in critical education theory and practice are outstanding,and his ideas on pursuing alternative forms of capitalist society through education are worth studying and discussing in depth.This paper taking McLaren's most famous and representative work--Life in School as the clue,explains,analyzes and evaluates McLaren's critical pedagogy theory and practice from four aspects: the emergence and development,the theoretical origin and core theoretical weapons,the themes,the positions and characteristics of McLaren's critical pedagogy thoughts.Finally,it summarizes the formation mechanism,influence,enlightenment and limitations of McLaren's critical pedagogy thoughts,as well as the research limitations and prospects of this paper.Specific research contents mainly include the following aspects:First,the hatred of capitalism is accompanied by the whole process of the emergence and development of McLaren's critical pedagogy thought.The life,study,social experience and work experience in his childhood,adolescence and youth before writing Life in School are the embryonic period of McLaren's rebellious and critical thought.The first edition of Life in School was published in 1989 as a reflection and defense of the primary school teaching experience and his first work--Cries from the Corridor.In this period,McLaren became a postmodernist of Marxism and always insisted on keeping close contact with the analytical form of Marxism when he looked at the efficacy of post-modernist thought.The second and third editions of Life in School were published in 1994 and 1998,a period in which McLaren's work underwent a change of direction.Tired of the moderate and reformist politics of postmodernism,he began to bring Marxist Humanism,class struggle and politics back to the core of education study.From 2003 to 2014,the fourth edition to the sixth edition of Life in School were published,and McLaren's thoughts were more radical.His focused on the revolutionary critical pedagogy,and he clearly advocated the thorough reform of critical pedagogy.From the post-Life in School years of 2013,liberation theology became a focus for McLaren,who argued that science and religion should unite against their common enemy-capitalism.Secondly,the theoretical origin and core theory of McLaren's critical pedagogy thought.McLaren's critical pedagogy theory is based on several theories,such as Marxist thought--the use of historical materialism,dialectics,class conflict theory,labor theory,materialization and alienation and other ideas to pursue human freedom and liberation as the center;American progressivism and social reconstruction thought--seeking alternative to capitalist system,carrying out social reconstruction and realizing true democracy;the critical theory of Frankfurt School--to make the powerless more capable and empowered to change social inequalities and injustices;Postmodernism--postmodern anti-essentialism can strip away the deep-rooted ideology in traditional thoughts such as gender role,nature of human nature and racial prejudice,while post-modern anti-positivism can challenge the myth of scientism that believes in objective truth in school education;Paulo Freire's thought of emancipated pedagogy--establishing the relationship between pedagogy and political science,highlighting the political aspects of pedagogy,and giving positive emancipating significance to education;Henry Giroux's critical pedagogy thought--critical pedagogy must be able to effectively criticize the dominated hegemony and achieve the goals of self-reflection,self-liberation and social liberation,and must have both language of critique and language of possibility.Marxist humanism is committed to democratic socialism,aiming to create a better life for the inhabitants of the world(human and non-human),and finally to realize the ideal of a socialist social form replacing capitalism.McLaren took Marxist humanism as his ideal of critical pedagogy and the concept of Marxist as a weapon to criticize the exploitative relations under global capitalism.Third,the pursuing for alternative forms of capitalist society is the main idea of McLaren's critical pedagogy.McLaren made a merciless and profound criticism and expose of the capitalist globalization that rationalized exploitation and oppression,the privatization and marketization of education caused by neoliberalism,the standardized test that aggravated the objectification and alienation of human beings and class duplication.McLaren believed that the revolutionary critical pedagogy he advocated was a practical philosophy to realize alternative forms of capitalist society.Because the goal of revolutionary critical pedagogy is to abolish classes and establish a new society;The revolutionary critical pedagogy is a philosophy,a sensitivity,a way of understanding the world we live in.The revolutionary critical pedagogy is carried out in the imagination of socialism,and it is the philosophical direction that helps us realize the teaching practice of social,cultural and gender equality.McLaren's revolutionary critical pedagogy argues that the practices of resisting and substituting capitalism include: developing critical consciousness in the struggle and action--not through self-consciousness to achieve critical struggle,but through the struggle to have critical consciousness;questioning and exposing--can create necessary educational conditions for the development of revolutionary ideas and a set of practices that can make people consciously oppose this oppressive system;collective action--critical pedagogy should be extended beyond the classroom and become a new international and regional social movement;class struggle--to make the working class groups discover how the use value of their labor force is exploited by the capital,and how the initiative and power of the working class are denigrated by this form of determining power,so as to challenge capitalism in multiple aspects;exemplary revolutionary ICONS--Mr.McLaren sees Che Guevara,Paulo Freire and others as examples of Marxist humanitarian positions--as an emphasis on the symbolic value and exemplary role of ICONS,not idolatry of any kind,not doctrine or religion.Fourth,the standpoint,characteristics and evaluation of McLaren's critical pedagogy thoughts.Compared with the thoughts of Henry Giroux,Michael W.Apple and other major critical educators in North America,Marxist humanitarian position advocated the certain replacement of capitalist social forms through education,while Henry Giroux,Michael W.Apple and others advocated the reform of capitalism through education.McLaren's thought of critical pedagogy embodies the characteristics of persistent questioning and hope,and giving consideration to both theory and practice.The academic circle has fully recognized McLaren's academic achievements and contributions,his status as a scholar and teacher,revolutionary passion and action,etc.Moreover,he has received a considerable number of awards from all walks of life around the world.Of course,McLaren has also got a lot of criticism and attack.In any case,McLaren's combination of knowledge and action,being a dedicated intellectual and refusing to stand still can set an example for educators all over the world.The final part is the conclusion.The formation of McLaren's critical pedagogy thought is jointly facilitated by internal and external factors.The internal factors include his personal experience and the influence of others,diligence,and loyalty and love for education.The external factors include the serious negative consequences caused by capitalist globalization and the domestication of previous critical pedagogies.McLaren's critical pedagogy thought represented by Life in School has exerted an important influence and enlightenment on current educational theory and practice.But it has its own limitations.Maclaren's revolutionary critical pedagogy thought based on marxist humanism is not the same as the marxist historical materialism educational thought in China,so we need to critically examine its function,select its essence and discard its dregs.Although this paper attempts to make a systematic review of McLaren's thought of critical pedagogy,compared with the richness and depth of McLaren's thought,the depth and breadth of analysis need to be strengthened.Further research on relevant issues is needed in the future.