In recent years, many programs and manuals for 'norm criticism´ have been produced for schools in Sweden. In this article, I situate norm criticism and norm critical pedagogics within discourses of values and norms, legal rights and policies through a close reading of the material produced for the Swedish pre-school. I explore the targets, modes,…

Power is a complicated and uncomfortable topic that affects everyone to varying degrees. A traditional view of power would be a force that someone wields over others. However, Michel Foucault's view of power turns it into a relationship between two or more individuals that becomes quite liberating (1994). Through power-relationships, freedom of…

There has been increasing effort in English as a second and foreign language education to incorporate a critical perspective, either highlighting the politics of English in terms of native-speakerism, standards, varieties, and accents or aiming to develop learners' critical awareness of issues pertaining to race, class, and gender. There has also…

Scraton's [1992. "Shaping up to womanhood: Gender and girls' physical education." Open University Press] ground breaking research highlighted how Physical Education (PE) contributed to the reproduction of gender power relations; more specifically, how three messages around motherhood, sexuality and physicality, reflected through PE's…

Education is increasingly becoming central to debates about how to promote peace in conflict-affected societies. Equitable access to quality learning, promotion of social justice through educational reforms and conflict-sensitive curricular and pedagogical approaches are viewed as peace supporting educational interventions. Drawing upon the…

English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and students are often pressured to use generic, globally published textbooks featuring 'inner-circle' social realities. While some studies look at specific instances of content that socially marginalizes their intended audiences, few attempt comprehensive examinations of the multimodal ensembles on…

Technology is here to stay and transfer our entire lives, including modes of communication and education. Its deep impact on our educational lives during the COVID-19 pandemic which forced education everywhere to go online cannot be denied. Technology-Mediated Language Learning (TMLL) otherwise known as Computer- Assisted Language Learning (CALL)…

Critical pedagogy, and the work of Paulo Freire in particular, understands the struggle for emancipation as involving the emergence, as historical subjects, of those who have been marginalized. In this regard, this tradition could be said to foreground a "politics of the subject" as central to its philosophy. However, scholars of…

In Bourdieu's early work on education, he declares that "All pedagogic action (PA) is objectively symbolic violence insofar as it is the imposition of a cultural arbitrary by an arbitrary power". This article rethinks Bourdieu's proposition. It questions whether all PA is symbolic violence and the very notion of a cultural arbitrary upon…

This essay focuses on three primary issues i. The conceptual resources offered by Spinoza to challenge the idealism and perfectionism underpinning much educational theory and dominant educational imaginaries; ii. His descriptions of a non-ideal, practical and systematic approach to developing understanding that could be applied to educational…

Through critical interpretation, this paper aims to critically think about some points of Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and its educational implications. Firstly, this paper explores the influence of life experiences and the Frankfort School on the development of Freire's critical pedagogy. Secondly, it aims to critically assess some points of…

This paper focuses on the limitations of the Eurocentric modernist framework that undergirds Freirean theory and critical pedagogy in relation to critical peace education, highlighting in particular the contributions of post-colonial and decolonial thinking. The paper posits that critical approaches to peace education need to consider these…

Place-based education (PBE) promises greater social and ecological justice at a time of great planetary need. This paper explores the experiences and beliefs of eight teacher educators from Canadian teacher education faculties who were invited to give their perspectives on PBE as they theorize and deliver it in their teacher education programs.…

Pedagogy within the field of disciplinary literacy can be shaped by those who use mathematics in their jobs. The authors draw on the results of a study that investigated language used by professionals who use mathematics in their jobs. The findings of the study suggest that professionals use language to determine the change requested by a client,…

This article explores local, national and global aspects of the new national curriculum in South Sudan as reflected in the lived experiences of secondary school teachers. We draw on analyses of the curriculum, semi-structured interviews with 21 secondary school teachers, and classroom observations. We emphasize the need for critical global…