London Met decoded: critical theory and practice
It is an exciting time to be at London Met with staff emboldened, sharing values of emancipation and social justice as part of their teaching and learning practice. Influenced by Paulo Frieire’s philosophical approach to education from his seminal works Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) and Disrupt the Discourse (due for launch Summer 2021), is an online multimedia resource inspired by critical pedagogy and social justice values. Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education and social movement which applies critical theory concepts and traditions to the field of education and the study of culture. It insists that issues of social justice and democracy are not distinct from acts of teaching and learning. The goal of critical pedagogy is emancipation from oppression through an awakening of the critical consciousness, based on the Portuguese term conscientização. When achieved, critical consciousness encourages individuals to self actualise in order to effect change in their world through social critique and political action.
Our local context
As a proudly diverse, London-based university we seek to promote the values and practices of an equitable and inclusive learning community. We are inviting academics and teaching staff to engage in new, fresh and exciting ways of looking at the world through the lived experiences of our students. New ways that disrupt traditional discourse through the lens of critical theory and praxis.
The Disrupt the Discourse project intends to help lecturers to find creative ways to collaborate with students as part of learning and teaching by encouraging students to question the status quo and develop their capacity to be agents of positive social change. The resources will help you to become more cognisant of how critical theories can help to recognise and dismantle issues of racism, sexism and oppression that manifests in the social inequalities that divides our society.
A resource of critical digital content
The resource will take the form of an online space of digital content and multimedia exploring themes of critical race theory, intersectionality, decolonising, feminism and queer theory to name a few. All in a bid to support you in introducing these ideas and concepts as part of your pedagogy. This resource will consist of podcast interviews, articles, webinars as well as live-streamed intimate conversations with some of our leading academics, community partners and activists. This resource will provoke, challenge and stimulate debate about the world we live in and our role within it.
Taking collective action
Learn and be inspired by your peers and thought leaders on the different tenets of critical theory. Join us for live discussions and debates as we explore how we can use, apply and implement critical theory as part of our practice. Be part of a community of practice across the institution, where you will get to work with other colleagues from different disciplines and who share the same values of building an equitable and inclusive society.
How can you get involved?
Share your specialist area of research relating to critical theory or present a case study on how you have included these theoretical approaches as part of your learning and teaching and then together we will transform them into new digital knowledge. We are so inspired by what we can co-develop through collaboration which combines research, teaching innovation, civic action and using technology to create digitally critical content as part of an online resource.
Kevin Brazant is the project lead. You can email him for more information or express an interest in getting involved.
References
Freire, P (1970), Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum