Critical whole language pedagogy: Journeying into social action

During the last decade, educators have begun to seek ways in which critical theory and whole language philosophy might compliment one another to create a critical, holistic pedagogy. Both critical pedagogy and the whole language approach theoretically give students an active role in curriculum development and implementation by focusing on students' interests. The goal of a combined pedagogy is to connect such curriculum to social issues that affect students' lives. This provides enormous potential for self-transformation and for changing oppressive social systems.; This text describes the efforts of one fourth-grade teacher to develop such pedagogy. Critical, holistic pedagogy was manifested in several ways. First, classroom routines and procedures and the general curricular framework illustrate the democratic principles underlying the teaching and learning that occurred in the target classroom. Students were involved in establishing both the physical and behavioral classroom climate and in directing what was to be learned and how it might be approached. Next, the teacher and researcher attempted to help students identify taken-for-granted assumptions about different kinds of learning environments and investigate how those environments position teachers and students. While these efforts revealed students' tendencies to dichotomize teaching practices, textbooks, and teachers as either good or evil, they also served to help students critique their schooling experiences. Finally, students' concerns about a school-wide reward program led the class to withdraw its participation from the reward program and to suggest alternatives that they viewed as less competitive and more supportive of collaborative learning efforts.; Whereas dialogue was critical for establishing and enacting a critical, holistic pedagogy, they did not occur among the teacher-participant and other faculty members, at least partly because each was operating from a different frame of reference. The study thus illustrates the importance of critical examination of all practices, even those which seem liberatory, in order for self-transformation and systemic change to occur.