learning and critical discussions independently and collaboratively with others . How can we facilitate these important teaching and learning activities in online settings to promote critical pedagogic practices in the time of COVID-19 and into the future ? This question is important to consider , since the pandemic has radically transformed the ways we teach , learn , and interact with one another . Indeed , many higher education institutions are set to take a more blended approach to teaching and learning from now on because of the lessons we have learned from the pandemic ( Maguire et al . 2020 , 6 ).
This article focuses on my experience of teaching a first-year core module in English Literature online during COVID-19 in attempt to grapple with this question . In doing so , the article advocates for the use of learning technology – specifically the collaborative annotation tool Talis Elevate – to create critical pedagogic practices that produce more inclusive , dialogic , and socially-engaged spaces of learning in an online environment , ones that are attentive to the politics of subject matter ( i . e . social issues in literary texts ) and the ways that students learn about that subject matter ( i . e . teaching and learning practices ).¹ The creation of democratic , collaborative , and politically aware learning communities within an English Literature context , as this article will demonstrate , has the pedagogical potential to empower students as active participants in shared learning processes , as well as to engage them in ‘ deep learning ’ and critical analysis of injustices in the literary texts and society more broadly .
To explore these issues , the article begins with a brief introduction to critical pedagogies and some of the challenges presented by the emergency transition to online teaching and learning in the wake of the pandemic , before introducing Talis Elevate as a pedagogical intervention that helped to address these challenges . After outlining my method of integrating Talis Elevate into online seminar teaching to promote critical pedagogies , the article discusses the pedagogical implications of using Talis Elevate for these purposes . It concludes by reflecting on some of the limitations that emerged from my engagement with Talis Elevate in a fully online education context , in the process proposing potential solutions that can enrich student learning and foster inclusive teaching practices in online or blended learning environments going forward .
Critical pedagogies : Definitions and challenges
Critical pedagogies can be broadly defined as pedagogies that view education and social justice as intrinsically linked . Critical pedagogues such as Paulo Freire ( 1968 ) and bell hooks ( 1994 ) approach teaching and learning as opportunities to foster agency and awaken what Freire calls ‘ critical consciousness ’, through which we become attuned to social injustices . From this perspective , teaching and learning are not ideologically or politically neutral activities ( hooks 1994 , 170 ); rather , for critical pedagogues , they enable students and educators to work together to identify and address inequalities in policies and practices within and outwith higher education .
Freire famously outlines his vision for critical pedagogy in Pedagogy of the Oppressed ( 1968 ). In this groundbreaking book , Freire argues against the traditional banking model of education , which treats students as ‘ empty vessels ’ into which knowledge is deposited , memorised , and regurgitated ( 2014 , 72 ). In doing so , he puts forward a case for ‘ problemposing education ’ where ‘ people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves ; they come to see the world not as a static reality , but as a reality in process , in transformation ’ ( 83 ). Freire ’ s words are echoed and developed by hooks , when she advocates for an ‘ engaged pedagogy ’ that promotes ‘ self-actualization ’ to enable ‘ people to discover who they are and to find their voice ’ ( hooks , quoted in Troutman 2020 , 307 ). By creating opportunities for students to find their voices , engaged or critical pedagogic practices become bound up with processes of emancipation through which people are liberated from oppressive structures and ideologies perpetuated by banking education . These processes have the potential to create politically engaged learning communities , where students and educators along class , gender , and racial lines are empowered to engage in critical discussions , pose questions , and share knowledge to contest oppressive structures in education and society more generally . In doing so , critical pedagogic practices promote democracy in and beyond the classroom by guiding students and educators to reflect critically on inequalities in the environments in which we live and work .
The need for critical pedagogic practices remains as urgent today as it did fifty years ago when
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