Why doesn't this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy
Abstract
Elizabeth Ellsworth finds that critical pedagogy, as represented in her review of the literature,has developed along a highly abstract and Utopian line which does not necessarily sustain the daily workings of the education its supporters advocate. The author maintains that the discourse of critical pedagogy is based on rationalist assumptions that give rise to repressive myths. Ellsworth argues that if these assumptions, goals, implicit power dynamics,and issues of who produces valid knowledge remain untheorized and untouched, critical pedagogues will continue to perpetuate relations of domination in their classrooms.The author paints a complex portrait of the practice of teaching for liberation. She reflects on her own role as a White middle-class woman and professor engaged with a diverse group of students developing an antiracist course. Grounded in a clearly articulated political agenda and her experience as a feminist teacher, Ellsworth provides a critique of
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Even teachers with a feminist identity and who wish to combat sexist ideologies are not free of these learned and internalized oppressive gender norms.
“Additionally, Ellsworth (1989) claims that even teachers with a feminist identity and who wish to combat sexist ideologies are not free of these learned and internalized oppressive gender norms.”
From The influence of school textbooks on the configuration of gender identity: A study on the unequal representation of women and men in the school discourse during the Spanish democracy (2022) · cites this paper as Ellsworth, 1989
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“These gendered and masculinized assumptions behind critical pedagogy are important to critique in order to move towards more relational and partial perspectives within classroom pedagogies (Ellsworth, 1989).”
Background
- Authors
- Ellsworth, E.
- Corresponding author
- Ellsworth, Elizabeth
- Venue
- Harvard Educational Review
- Publisher
- Harvard Education Publishing Group
- Published
- 1989-09-01
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 297-325
- ISSN
- 0017-8055 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-5045
- OpenAlex
- W2147168459
- Cited by
- 2,759
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 65 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 100 · 2020: 97 · 2019: 112 · 2018: 136 · 2017: 105 · 2016: 101 · 2015: 137 · 2014: 107 · 2013: 113 · 2012: 99
- FWCI
- 206.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Harvard Educational Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Critical and Liberation Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Race Theory in Education
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies
- Keywords
- critical pedagogy, rationalism, domination, anti-racist education, feminist pedagogy, knowledge production
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