“It has saddened me not to have heard your voice”: rethinking silence and critical Pedagogy

Abstract

Critical pedagogy, largely grown out of Paulo Freire’s theory, has great impacts on the U.S. literacy research and education. While advocates of critical pedagogy attempt to empower students from being silenced or oppressed, and to raise students’ awareness of Western hegemony and social injustice through a language of critique, feminist educational critics argue that critical pedagogy ignores feminist perspectives of the pedagogy, and essentializes personal “voice” This essay provides feminist critiques of “silence”, “personal voice”, and “empowerment” under the discourse of critical pedagogy. I suggest that a postcolonial feminist theory should be included to complement critical pedagogy for students’ empowerment and for addressing the conflicts between people of the marginalized group and the Western dominant culture.