Critical didactics: characteristics and objectives

Critical didactics, or critical pedagogy, is a philosophy and a social movement that applies critical theory concepts to the teaching-learning process. Being a philosophy, it offers a series of theoretical perspectives that problematize both the contents and the purposes of pedagogy. Likewise, being a social movement, it problematizes the very act of educating and is promoted as an inherently political perspective.

In this article we will see what critical didactics is and how it has transformed educational models and practices.

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Critical didactics: from education to consciousness

Critical pedagogy is a theoretical-practical proposal that has been developed to reformulate the traditional notions and practices of education. Among other things, he proposes that the teaching-learning process is a tool that can foster critical awareness, and with this, the emancipation of the oppressed people.

Critical pedagogy is the theoretical basis of educational practice; and didactics, for its part, is the discipline in which said base is specified. That is, the didactics

it becomes visible directly in the classroom and in the contents that are taught, while pedagogy functions as the ideological support (Ramírez, 2008). Both processes, theoretical and practical, are understood from this perspective as the same process, so their characteristics are usually included in the same way under the terms of "critical didactics" or "pedagogy criticism".

Its theoretical basis

At an epistemological level, critical didactics starts from considering that all knowledge is mediated by the categories of understanding (Red, ), with which it is not neutral or immediate; its production is included in the context and not outside of it. While the educational act is fundamentally an act of knowledge, critical didactics takes into account its consequences and political elements.

The latter also requires thinking that the school of modernity is not a creation that transcends history, but rather is linked to the origins and development of a specific type of society and State (Cuesta, Mainer, Mateos, et al, 2005); with which, it fulfills functions that it is important to make visible and problematize.

This includes both the school contents and the emphasis on the subjects they teach, as well as the pedagogical strategies and the relationships that are established between teachers and students. It specifically promotes a dialogical relationship, where in an egalitarian dialogue strongly focused on the needs of students And not just from the teacher.

Likewise, the effects that teaching practices may have on students are considered, especially those who have historically been left out of traditional education.

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Paulo Freire: precursor of critical pedagogy

At the end of the 20th century, the Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire developed a pedagogical philosophy in which he defended that education is a tool that must be used to deliver from oppression. Through this, it is possible to create critical awareness in people and generate fundamentally community emancipatory practices.

Freire tried to empower students in the ability to think critically about their own situation as students; as well as contextualize this situation in a specific society. What he sought was to establish connections between individual experiences and the social contexts in which they were generated. Both her theory of the pedagogy of the oppressed, as well as her model of community education, represent a large part of the foundations of critical didactics.

6 theoretical assumptions of pedagogy and critical didactics

According to Ramírez (2008) there are six assumptions that must be considered to describe and understand critical pedagogy. The same author explains that the following assumptions refer to both the theoretical support of critical didactics and the educational activities that are generated from them.

1. Promote social participation

Following the community education model, critical didactics promote social participation, beyond the context of the school. It includes the strengthening of a democratic thought that allows to recognize problems and alternative solutions together.

2. horizontal communication

It is about promoting equality of conditions between the will of the different subjects that are involved in the teaching-learning process. Thus, the hierarchical relationship is dissolved. and a process of "unlearning", "learning" and "relearning" is established, which also influences subsequent "reflection" and "evaluation".

One of the examples of didactic strategies in particular, and within the context of the classroom, are the debates and the consensus that are applied both to think about specific social problems, and in the structuring of plans of study.

3. historical reconstruction

Historical reconstruction is a practice that allows us to understand the process by which pedagogy has been established as such, and also consider its scope and limitations of the educational process itself, in relation to political and communication changes.

4. Humanize educational processes

It refers to the stimulation of intellectual abilities, but at the same time it refers to sharpening the sensory apparatus. Is about create the necessary conditions to generate self-government and collective actions; as well as a critical awareness of the institutions or structures that generate oppression.

It recognizes the need to locate the subject in the framework of social circumstances, where education is not only the synonym of "instruction"; but rather a powerful mechanism for analysis, reflection and discernment, both of one's own attitudes and behaviors, as well as of politics, ideology and society.

5. Contextualize the educational process

It is based on the principle of educating for community life, looking for signs of collective identity that challenge cultural crises and values ​​based on segregation and exclusion. In this way, the school is recognized as a scenario of criticism and questioning of hegemonic models.

6. transform social reality

All of the above has consequences at the micropolitical level, not only within the classroom. The school is understood as a space and a dynamic that collects social problems, which makes it possible to propose concrete paths to find solutions.

Bibliographic references:

• Rojas, a. (2009). Critical didactics, criticizes critical banking education. Integra Educativa, 4(2): 93-108.
• Ramirez, R. (2008). critical pedagogy. An ethical way of generating educational processes. Pages (28): 108-119.
• Cuesta, R., Mainer, J., Mateos, J. et al. (2005) Critical Didactics. Where need and desire meet. Social conscience. 17-54.