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Embrace Critical Pedagogy
Module 2: Getting DEI into Your Curriculum*
From Ways to Incorporate DEI into Your Courses By David Luke, Chief Diversity Officer, University of Michigan, Flint
Embrace Critical Pedagogy
Paulo Freire’s Paulo Freire’s classic book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, made explicit the connections between democracy and social justice, and teaching and learning. In his seminal work, Freire endorsed the belief that classroom instruction should challenge learners to interrogate systems of oppression, power structures, and patterns of inequality in society. Ask yourself the following questions:
- How is your classroom providing students with opportunities to grow in their knowledge of social justice?
- How is a holistic education grounded in critical pedagogy informing your approach to the classroom experience?
I would highly recommend reading or revisiting this seminal work and thinking about how it informs your classroom.
Exercise for the Classroom
In fact, it may be useful to share a brief excerpt from Pedagogy of the Oppressed that you find particularly helpful as an assigned reading to the class and discuss it early on in the course. Chapter one of the book provides a strong starting point. Ask students what they think and talk about how it informs your approach. In this way, students will be given advance notice of the way DEI and critical pedagogy will be incorporated in the class.
*Published 07/22. © 2022 Sage Publishing. All rights reserved. All other brand and product names are the property of their respective owners.