Resumen de Pedagogies of Naming, Questioning, and Demystification: A Study of Two Critical U.S. History Classrooms
While the conceptual work on critical pedagogy is undeniably rich, few empirical studies have examined its applications in K–12 classroom settings and impacts on students. Based on ethnographic research in 2 public 11th grade U.S.
History classrooms with critical teachers, this article describes 3 pedagogies that enhanced students’ critical consciousness and agency to act on the world: naming, questioning, and demystification. These pedagogies emerged via dialogical relations between each teacher and her particular students, in 1 particular time and place. Thus, they are not presented as models to be applied elsewhere but rather as generative examples that educators can use to consider critical pedagogy in their own contexts. In addition, the study reveals how a standards-based U.S. History curriculum—constraining though it may be—can play a role in emancipatory pedagogy. Through centering instruction on students’ immediate social realities, but tying these to historical antecedents, including histories of oppression and resistance, the teachers empowered their students to name and question contemporary hegemonic forces.
