ERIC Number: EJ1078218
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1468-1366
EISSN: N/A
Learner Agency and Social Justice: What Can Creative Pedagogy Contribute to Socially Just Pedagogies?
Hempel-Jorgensen, Amelia
Pedagogy, Culture and Society, v23 n4 p531-554 2015
This article extends the ongoing debate about socially just pedagogy by arguing that disadvantaged learners' capacity to exercise learner agency, which is essential for learning but has been shown to be unequally constrained, can be more effectively enabled. This is accomplished by critically discussing the possibilities and limits of a selection of existing literature on socially just pedagogies, including Critical and Productive Pedagogies, for enabling learner agency. Using sociocultural theory of learner agency, the article argues that these pedagogies implicitly aim to support learner agency but are to varying extents limited in this respect. It is argued that through a dialogue with the research on pedagogy for Possibility Thinking, disadvantaged learners' agency can be significantly increased. The article argues that this could lead to extending learner agency from learning in the form of meaning-making and knowledge-construction to learners co-imagining socially just pedagogies and co-transforming existing unjust pedagogical practices.
Descriptors: Creative Teaching, Social Justice, Teaching Methods, Disadvantaged, Critical Theory, Sociocultural Patterns, Educational Change, Risk, Equal Education, Self Concept
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A