Critical Pedagogies

This course is a collaborative inquiry into theoretical principles and practical knowledge that are essential to understand issues of diversity and inclusion in education. By engaging in critical literacy, we investigate how the educational experiences we construct with students invariably are informed by both our explicit and implicit theories of practice and our hidden beliefs. Together, we will immerse ourselves in a series of activities as a way to audit our understanding of diversity and inclusion and to engage in culturally sustaining pedagogy. Why does diversity matter? There are over seven billion people in the world and we each have a different story to tell. Studying diversity-and the ways we recognize and define diversity-is an opportunity to learn about our world. Building up our knowledge resources about the experiences of others better prepares us for when we encounter people whose worldview is different from our own. Unless we live in a bubble, we will have these encounters. It is essential that educators acknowledge that we select this profession to serve students and their families. In order to do this, we must become self-aware so that we can begin to untangle social constructions of identity that otherwise appear normal or commonsense to us. This reflective practice provides space to consider how our perspectives can limit or enhance interactions with students. Topics explored • Definitions of diversity and inclusion, how they vary and how they are implemented; • Identity categories and intersectionality; • Curriculum that recognizes and welcomes diverse populations, and • Teacher accountability regarding diversity and inclusion practices in the classroom.
Required Text Janks, Hilary et al. (2014).

This work aims to present reflections on the relationship established between Rural Education and the ways of thinking and building politics in society. This proposal invites us to reflect on the ways in which teachers, students, social movements, and the University have been building a panorama of the struggle for Education that encompasses since its genesis. work: "Educating is a political act: Education of the Countryside and its principles" we brought as thematic axes the categories of struggle, public policies, and pedagogical practices that permeate the principles of Countryside Education since the process of articulation of the struggles of social movements, the construction of public policies as well as their impacts on the pedagogical practices of schools in the countryside.
My contribution to this work was to organize the articles and edit the work with Alexandre Fraga de Araújo as well as to write a chapter together with Maria Isabel Antunes-Rocha on artistic practices denominated  "Mística" discussing this method as a pedagogical and political way.

Esta obra tem como objetivo apresentar reflexões sobre a relação que se estabelece entre a Educação do Campo e as formas de se pensar e construir a política na sociedade. Tal proposta nos convida a refletir sobre as formas com que professores, alunos, movimentos sociais e Universidade vêm construindo um panorama de luta pela Educação que engloba desde a sua gênese. obra: "Educar é um ato político: Educação do Campo e seus princípios" trouxemos como eixos temáticos as categorias de luta, políticas públicas e práticas pedagógicas que perpassam os princípios da Educação do Campo desde o processo de articulação das lutas dos movimentos sociais, a construção de políticas públicas bem como os impactos destas nas práticas pedagógicas das escolas do Campo.

This research focuses on conducting action research in collaboration with teachers in a private, international school in Egypt. It aims at empowering teachers as agents of changes through a process of developing school improvement plan. The research seeks mobilizing teachers and embarks on a case study of participatory action research for school improvement in Egypt, thus not only it contributes to literature in these areas but also represents a pioneering study in the Egyptian context. The researcher works in this school and is also a graduate of it. Thus her relationship with the school community extends over a period of 15 years. This has helped in building rapport between the researcher and the school practitioners. Similar to the researcher, 50% of the school teachers and administrators have been working in the school for over 10 years or are alumni of it. This in turn enabled the school to reserve its culture for decades. Aiming at supporting the school improvement, participatory action research is employed. The purpose of this action research is not only to gain knowledge but also to undertake actions, particularly by involving teachers in the reform process where their ownership of change evolves. The research followed qualitative approach and included emergent design of which regular meetings and focus group discussions were conducted with eleven teachers and surveys with open-ended questions were administrated to 68 teachers in order to assess the school performance and develop its improvement plan. In addition, the researcher used observation and kept a record of field notes. The research reveals the main areas of strength and improvement for the school. It also brought to life many of the concepts pertaining to the literature review such as democracy, reflection, positionality, trust, internal transformation, collaboration and resistance to change. These concepts have further been demonstrated in this research by mobilizing teachers as agents of change and sharing leadership responsibilities for the school improvement.
Key words: Teacher-leader, Action Research, School Improvement

In this chapter, I first discuss current understanding of style and register, as
well as prestige and stigma, and the way that these are related to, but distinct
from, questions of formality. Next, I describe a critical pedagogical SHL curriculum that incorporates Critical Language Awareness (CLA) of these sociolinguistic constructs. Thus, I present the results from a qualitative study utilizing an attitudinal survey to investigate students’ sociolinguistic attitudes during and after completing the two-course SHL sequence in a CLA-based
SHL program. The qualitative results from the attitudinal survey reveal that since the beginning stages of the program, students (n = 33) were able to differentiate categories of social stigmatization among particular linguistic forms. In addition, the data indicate that after students (n = 31) took more than one SHL course, there was an attitudinal shift from dominant sociolinguistic and culture ideologies to a deeper understanding of social meanings and behaviors informing language use and social perceptions. These results have profound implications for SHL education; they underscore the benefits of critical pedagogies that incorporate CLA combined with careful attention to students’ linguistic confidence and self-esteem.

Resumen
La reflexión sobre la producción audiovisual y sobre su estatuto debe preguntarse sobre las fórmulas que fundan la creencia en una transparencia de la representación en la imagen contemporánea, de modo que sirvan en el surgimiento de un nuevo tipo de espectador.El texto trata de resumir, en primer lugar, antecedentes que han precedido el pensamiento y la acción sobre las capacidades críticas del cine y la imagen fílmica. Son los casos de Deleuze, Giroux, Rancière o didHuberman desde facetas filosóficas y estéticas, y los de la praxis de autores como Roberto Rossellini o Peter Watkins.
En segundo lugar, describe las bases y posicionamientos teóricos del colectivo Cine sin autor (CsA) que, desde el activismo político en un marco de empoderamiento ciudadano, emplea el cine con objetivos pedagógicos, como modo de subvertir los modelos clásicos de productividad social.

Abstract
Theoretical thinking on audiovisual production and its statusmust think about the modes of the belief in transparency ofcontemporary image representation. First of all, the paperattempts to summarize the precedents of the reflection about criticalcapacities of cinema and film image. This is the case ofDeleuze, Giroux, Rancière or Didi-Huberman fromphilosophical and aestheticaspects, and the practice ofauthors such as Roberto Rossellini and Peter Watkins. Secondly, this text describes the theoretical bases and collective positions of Cinema Without Author(CsA): politicalactivism and acitizen empowerment framework combines with pedagogicalpurposes. Cinema without Author proposes a new way to subvert the classic models ofsocial productivity.

El ensayo destaca los aportes de las pedagogías críticas para repensar el papel de la universidad y sus maestros en la sociedad. Reivindica la autonomía, la crítica, la libertad académica y la recuperación del maestro como intelectual transformativo, con capacidad para pensar la sociedad y construir un discurso que conjugue el lenguaje de la crítica con el de la posibilidad; maestros que se perciban a sí mismos con capacidad y opciones para enfrentar constructivamente la complejidad del mundo social y potenciar desde su rol, con sus estudiantes la transformación del orden establecido.