The purpose of the present paper is 1) to clarify the concept of critical pedagogy within EFL classrooms, based on the directions and issues of critical pedagogy in general as well as 2) to define the meaning of Korean high school English teachers and...
The purpose of the present paper is 1) to clarify the concept of critical pedagogy within EFL classrooms, based on the directions and issues of critical pedagogy in general as well as 2) to define the meaning of Korean high school English teachers and students' experience of the critical pedagogy within EFL classrooms, 3) to identify its structure, 4) to devise its educational intervention by applying an educational ethnographic approach which is based upon a qualitative research method, and 5) to suggest practical ways to apply critical pedagogy within EFL class as well as educational interventions to implement it.The sampling for this study has been carried on November, 2005 with a sample of 12- 6 local high school English teachers and 6 high school English learners.Data were collected by face-to-face in-depth interviews. In addition, to prevent material omission, this study used a recorder with the permission of informants.The analyses of collected data were mainly based on Spradley(1980)'s research method.The results analyzed as domain, taxonomy and component were as follows:The first domain found was 「learning of critical thinking」; the taxonomies included “logical assessment skills', 'factual assessment skills' and 'comparison and assessment skills of the viewpoints'. In particular, the sub-taxonomies under 'logical assessment' included 'clarifying the concepts in the statements', 'confirming the coherence or the contradiction among the statements', 'finding the premises and composing them in the shape of the reasoning' and 'searching for the logical errors'. In addition, the sub-taxonomies under 'factual assessment skills' included 'clarifying the meaning of the statements', 'distinguishing the facts from the opinions', 'deciding the reliability of the information sources' and 'conforming the check of the statements'. Finally, the sub-taxnomies under 'comparison and assessment skills of the viewpoints' included 'understanding the hidden assumptions or the premises', 'confirming the proprietiness of the principles in reasoning', 'deciding the applicable range of the principles', 'considering the other principles' and 'deciding the results'. This results showed that most of the critical thinking skills which Lee, Myeong-Ah(1993) had categorized in the previous study could be applicable to this new field of critical pedagogy within EFL classrooms.The second domain found was 「learning of critical disposition」; the only taxonomy was also 'learning of critical disposition.'The third domain found was 「learning of other educational skills」; the taxonomies included 'learning cooperative skill', 'content-summary skill' and 'creativity‘.Based on the above results, it was confirmed that the three theoretical models such as 「learning of critical thinking」, 「learning of critical disposition」 and 「learning of other educational skills」, mutually interact, and closely link with the others. This result was reconfirmed by the second analysis which the same researcher conducted in half a year, on May, 2006.It conveyed significant insights and the need for educational interventions in current Korean high school EFL education as follows.First, there is a demand for including the goal of critical pedagogy as a more concrete goal in the new English national curriculum.Second, there is a demand for encouraging teachers to educate the importance of critical disposition as a main component of critical pedagogy to promote its effectiveness in EFL class.Third, there is a demand for developing well-designed teaching and learning activities to enhance other desirable educational skills such as cooperative skill, content-summary skill and creativity in EFL class implementing the critical pedagogy.Fourth, there is a demand for assisting EFL teachers in terms of teacher training programs as well as other educational administration which may affect the incorporation of critical pedagogy in class.Fifth, there is a demand for providing a web database in which EFL teachers can share their experiences and information regarding their success or failure of implementing critical pedagogy.Based on these results, the present paper suggests practical ideas to apply critical pedagogy to the areas of English subject such as reading, writing, speaking, listening, culture, grammar and vocabulary in more integrated ways.