Foundations of Education: Assignment 2.

Name: Jessica Young

Student Number: St10477894

Programme Code: PGCE

Module Code: FOED 7112

Date of Submission: 11-04-2025

I hereby declare that I did not plagiarise the content of this assignment and that
this is my own work.

Assignment submitted via Turn-it-in: ✘

Table of Contents

Question 1...................................................................................................................3

Grade and subject................................................................................................... 3

Teaching and Learning strategies...........................................................................4

Activities.................................................................................................................. 5

Question 2...................................................................................................................7

Introduction:.............................................................................................................7

Critical pedagogy’s key principles............................................................................7

Implications of critical pedagogy on educational transformation..............................8

Reflection on applicability of critical pedagogy........................................................9

Conclusion.............................................................................................................10

References:...............................................................................................................11
Question 1.

1.1. Grade and subject

Grade: 8

Subject: English home language

Topic: Transactional writing: Directions / instructions for folding an origami star.

(Department of Basic Education, 2011).

Grade 8 is a crucial and formative year for students as they are transitioning
between Primary and high school, this adjustment is difficult for many due to prior
learning experiences. As Dewey (1998) states, education requires greater action for
the improvement of the social race, and the only way that can occur is through
participation by the individual. The chosen lesson for grade 8s is perfectly suited for
applying pragmatism due to the practical nature of the lesson. Teachers need not
assume that students’ previous education emphasised the importance of experience
and action, thus should ensure these principles are enforced in their classroom, to
better prepare students for further education. Furthermore, pragmatism is applicable
to the English classroom overall due to its emphasis on growth and development
taking place through interaction and environment due to the traditionalist teaching
style overtaking English language classrooms.

1.1. Lesson objectives

1. By the end of the lesson students will be able to verbally explain their
instructions, showing effective communication.

2. By the end of the lesson students will be able to collect and analyse data
constructively to produce their instructions while critically evaluating
information.

3. By the end of the lesson students will be able to produce a neatly organized
and easily understandable set of instructions.
(DBE, 2011)

Due to possible shortcomings of prior education, it is critical that teachers now apply
pragmatism to their lessons to equip students for future education. Through this
pragmatic approach students will have a more practical and involved approach to
English class to stimulate their problem-solving and communication skills. By
fostering these skills teachers will continually shape the individuals’ strengths in
education and further to soon develop a coherent society as mentioned by Dewey
(1998). Moreover, the topic chosen will create an experience-based classroom
emphasising multiple key principles of pragmatism such as, importance of
experience, growth and development occurring through interaction and environment,
and importance to action. By creating this classroom dynamic teachers will correct
any issues of the past and prepare students for further education.

1.2. Teaching and Learning strategies

Group work

As Killen & Hattingh (2022) posit, small group work enforces students to develop
their communication skills relating to academic content, this strategy develops two
important skills simultaneously. Group work also allows students to share multiple
perspectives through their discussion and foster engagement with the content.

Experimental learning

While the general curriculum is not structured in an experienced based learning

manner, it is important that students do still get exposed to educational content via
experimental learning. During this lesson, students will be given their own origami
star and the opportunity to investigate it, they will be instructed to take it apart and try
and put it back together. As highlighted by Killen & Hattingh (2022) this approach
creates a hands-on approach for students’ learning allowing them to possibly create
problems that then would need to be solved using critical thinking.

These strategies will increase the student’s participation in learning, adjusting what
they have known previously where the teacher just lectures the English lesson of the
day. The history of English teaching fails to incorporate pragmatism in its values, a
key trait that will be changed by these strategies. Pragmatism, as stated by Dewey
(1998) education can only be developed effectively through the stimulation of the
students’ capabilities through the requirements of the situations they find themselves.
In these above strategies, students will be presented with an issue, folding an
origami star, and through teaching in a pragmatic way and the students power they
will confidently leave the lesson having learnt a new skill and an educational topic.
Teachers should apply these methods while ensuring students that do not want to
participate or show no interest in the activity are motivated to participate, if the
student refuses teachers should not abandon the cause but rather believe that
change can occur. Additionally, teachers need to emphasise experimentation, action,
experience and interactions.

1.3. Activities

Group work will be applied, during the introduction to the lesson, and will continue
throughout the lesson in pairs, students will be asked to discuss what they think
about origami and how it relates to English. This will be a class wide discussion.
Students will then be told that in their groups of 6 (due to classroom layout) they
need to choose pairs. Thereafter the teacher will hand a origami star and a square
paper to each pair telling them to investigate, discuss, take apart, simply do
whatever is necessary to figure out how to fold the square paper into the same star.

The group work strategy applies pragmatism by the key principle of having a deep
faith in democracy. Democracy during group work is applied when all members
participate and are valued and considered when making decisions. This is crucial in
classrooms, especially during group work to ensure that all students have an equal
opportunity to learn. During the discussion students will be prompted accordingly and
during pair work, monitored closely as a precaution. Furthermore, small group work
will give importance to action as students will discuss constructively with the class
and each other regarding the task and are still required to submit their own task, thus
students need to manage their actions and time accordingly.

The experimental strategy will be applied near the start of the lesson, when students
are given their origami stars and are told to investigate it to figure out how to fold a
new one. Teachers should have extra stars on hand to facilitate any accidental tears
or errors. This inspection of the stars will allow creative thinking and freedom in the
classroom to flourish. This approach will also apply key principles of pragmatism
such as emphasising the importance of experience, students will take apart the star
themselves and experience the difficulty of putting it back together and folding a new
one without any instructions, this will allow them to experience the need for the
lesson from a first-hand experience. Moreover, this strategy will improve growth and
development through interaction and environmental factors.
Question 2

Introduction

As Sihih (2018) mentions, critical pedagogy’s focus relies on the liberation of the
poor, creating education for liberation. Meaning that schools should be concentrated
on developing critical thinking and creative problem solving within learners rejecting
the concept that teachers simply bestow knowledge to deaf ears. In this essay
critical pedagogy will be analysed by its key principles and the implications of
transformation in education led by critical pedagogy.

Critical pedagogy’s key principles

Originally introduced by Paulo Freire in 1968 critical pedagogy was described as

education for liberation and education as freedom. Meaning that he viewed
education to be the only manner oppressed persons could gain critical insight
regarding their rights and that through education oppressors could better understand
they were oppressing those individuals, as Uddin (2019) states. Thus, instruction
was the core of the educational practice, creating a dialogic communication between
students and teachers regarding curriculum, lessons and learning strategies.

Critical pedagogy thus improved social progression and critical thinking in students
because it rejects narrative-based teaching. Critical pedagogy places the student as
the centre for knowledge and application rather than the teacher, in this approach
political activity and socio-cultural values are necessary to be evaluated to ensure
learning. Previous narrative-based teaching emphasised the teacher as the subject
of the learning process, with students being objects, critical pedagogy rejects this
and places the students at the centre. The student-centred approach creates a
dialogical communication structure between teachers and students allowing a
specific focus on topics relevant to students.

According to Sihih (2018) education techniques put forward by Freire were grounded
in critical literacy skills, preaching the ways that education can provide better tools
and construct better lives to fulfil their interpersonal destinies. This approach
collaboratively with the dialogic method ensured that education manifests freedom
with relevant and accurate problem solving depending on perspectives. Through
critical literacy skills, critical thinking and analysis develop accordingly to produce a
just society in which students and teachers alike have the freedom to create their
own reality, as posited by Ghaemi and Sadeghi (2015).

Further, critical pedagogy rejects the banking method, described by Sihih (2018)
occurs when the teacher deposits information on students, preventing
communication and interaction between students and curriculum only pursued
through receiving and filing the “deposits” of information. Rather as Uddin (2019)
states critical pedagogy strategizes to enhance students consciousness, judgement,
critical thinking skills and understanding through communication and active
engagement in the learning process.

Implications of critical pedagogy on educational transformation

To achieve the goal of DBE (2011) of preparing learners irrespective of their socio-
cultural traits effectively to be meaningful participants as citizens of a free country,
teachers have to apply critical pedagogy. Students thus require relevant learning with
active participation in their learning process to justly develop their opinion, position
and free themselves from oppression, this can only be achieved through learner-
centred learning and connecting the lesson to real-life situations. As Uddin (2019)
states teachers must reject keeping students busy in the classroom for the means of
creating a sound report card and rather instil that students should study to actualise
their destinies and participate in life- changing lessons.

Critical thinking and critical literacy analysis is at the forefront of critical pedagogy
and thus schools should not only foster these skills but present students with ways
and factors they could liberate themselves from oppression but change their
surrounding environment without taking violence to political power. These skills are
necessary to foster a just society and are meaningful in further education such as
high school and tertiary education. Without this constructive development students
will be unable to perform in schooling and take on a passive role in society, as
Ghaemi and Sadeghi (2015) states.

Critical pedagogy emphasises humanising the praxis of education, meaning that

teaching is a human act. As humans we have a primal instinct to teach, learn,
discover and create, through the traditional teaching and learning methods this
primal instinct was ignored thus creating students that could not transform the world.
Yet it critical pedagogy Sihih (2018) states students and teachers can empower
themselves through student’s manifestation of freedom. These manifestations as
highlighted by Sihih (2018) has multiple methods of achievement such as a non-
dogmatic education and the creation of a free atmosphere within the education
environment. While these methods appear to be simple and easy to apply varying
contexts limit teachers from effectively allowing critical pedagogy. Considering the
South African context of teaching, it is near impossible to implement the non-
dogmatic approach, this approach simply means willingness to consider multiple
interpretations of content allowing for inquiry and critical thinking while being flexible
in terms of curriculum. This approach would pose many difficulties due to the long
standing socio-cultural issues of South Africa and disregards prior education
methods that have caused students to take an apathetic approach to learning. This
poses a unique difficulty to teachers as they may not have the time or opportunity to
enforce critical pedagogy due to the context of their students.

While critical pedagogy emphasises freedom Sihih (2018) asserts that freedom does
not mean chaos. Sihih (2018) claims that even through freedom has been an instinct
within humans since the dawn of time there has to be a joint fight for freedom in line
with authority. Critical pedagogy is the pedagogy of the oppressed due to its focus on
critical skills yet students are still required to understand and function productively
with authority. Thus Freire presents the problem-posing/ problem-solving method,
believing it would assist in critical thinking while challenging the world and preventing
students from oppressing authority. Sihih (2018) further states that it is only through
restless and true inquiry that knowledge can emerge productively to create a world
with each other and then only can individuals truly be human.

Reflection on applicability of critical pedagogy

While critical pedagogy will empower students to challenge their oppressors and
carry many advantages, the disadvantages should be recognised before applying
critical pedagogy blindly. Due to the varying socio-cultural contexts of the world each
teacher should consider relevant factors that could cause chaos through critical
pedagogy prior to simply allowing the class to select their curriculum and be given
the freedom to associate any topic with a real-life experience.
Conclusion

Using critical pedagogical approaches in the classroom will effectively create a just
society, with less oppressors yet teachers should consider the varied backgrounds
and specific needs it generates for the classroom to ensure students benefit strongly
from the dialogical approach that critical pedagogy puts forward.

Word count: 1025

References:

Department of Basic Education. 2011. Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement

Senior Phase Grades 7-9: English Home Language. Pretoria: DBE. [Online]
Available at: https://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/CD/National
%20Curriculum%20Statements%20and%20Vocational/CAPS%20SP
%20%20HL%20%20ENGLISH%20GR%207-9%20%20web.pdf?ver=2015-
01-27-155553-090 [Accessed 6 April 2025]

Dewey, J., 1998. The Essential Dewey. Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Ghaemi, F., and Sadeghi, P., 2015. Critical pedagogy: Concepts and principles;
International Journal of English and Education. [e-journal] 4(2) pp. 244-249.
Available at: https://www.ijee.org/vol-4-issue-2/ [Accessed 9 April 2025]

Shih, YH., 2018. Some critical thinking on Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy and its
educational implications; International Education Studies. [e-journal] 11(9)
pp.64-70. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1189530.pdf
[Accessed 9 April 2025]

Uddin, MS., 2019. Critical pedagogy and it implication in the classroom; Journal of
Underrepresented and Minority Progress. [e-journal] 3(2) pp. 109-119.
Available at: https://www.ojed.org/jump/article/view/1788/898 [Accessed 9
April 2025]