Critical Pedagogy between Theory and Practice

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102). This special issue belongs to the section "Higher Education".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2025) | Viewed by 2707

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
SPAIS, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK
Interests: critical pedagogy; recognition in pedagogy; multiculturalism, religion and politics; ethnicity and racism

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Guest Editor
School of Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
Interests: comparative political theory; the history of political thought; feminist theory; postcolonial theory; critical pedagogy

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Guest Editor
School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Interests: environmental political theory; the history of political thought; climate pedagogy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Higher Education in many European contexts is shaped and characterised by contrasting and conflicting pressures on pedagogical practice in higher education institutions. On the one hand, higher education is increasingly driven by marketisation and globalisation due to competition within the higher education sector as a result of neoliberal governance, while on the other hand, universities centre concerns of social justice oriented by egalitarian values. The expansion of higher education through an increased internationalisation can also be added to this . 

At the same time, and in the context of these structuring forces, intellectual currents have provided significant challenges to pedagogy in higher education institutions. A significant development has been something of a critical mass engaged with critical pedagogies, especially influenced by the writing of figures such as Paolo Freire. Simultaneously, critical epistemological perspectives have begun to raise questions around the politics of knowledge production. A prominent recent movement here has been the push to decolonise higher education, but also includes feminist and queer pedagogies.

Despite these developing themes, there remains, nevertheless, a gap between critical theorisations of these processes and structural conditions, on the one hand, and practical pedagogies, on the other hand. That is, while the literature has tended to concentrate on critical theorisations of these areas, of their effects and implications for considerations of pedagogy and social justice, there has as yet been an inadequate engagement with what this means for our, as lecturers and seminar tutors, pedagogical practice. This Special Issue seeks to bring together articles that critically interrogate these gaps between theory and practice, and wider structural shifts and practice.

We welcome submissions focused on these challenges to pedagogical practice in relation to (but not limited to):

  • Internationalisation;
  • Marketisation;
  • Critical pedagogies;
  • Inclusive pedagogies;
  • Decolonial pedagogies. 

Dr. Thomas Sealy
Dr. Wendy Martineau
Dr. Ashley Dodsworth
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • critical pedagogy
  • pedagogical practice
  • pedagogy, marketisation
  • internationalization
  • decolonization
  • inclusive pedagogies

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 263 KiB  
Article
Democracy in Action: Experiencing Transformative Education
by Jimena Vazquez Garcia, Jason Glynos, Claudia Mohor Valentino, Konstantinos Roussos, Anne Steinhoff, Rebecca Warren, Samantha Woodward, Julius Schneider and Christopher Cunningham
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(5), 561; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15050561 - 30 Apr 2025
Viewed by 390
Abstract
Our time is one of permacrisis, affecting the economy, the environment, and everything in between. In this context, UK higher education faces an existential crisis, where the university sector has been transformed into a marketplace, turning students into consumers and limiting the critical [...] Read more.
Our time is one of permacrisis, affecting the economy, the environment, and everything in between. In this context, UK higher education faces an existential crisis, where the university sector has been transformed into a marketplace, turning students into consumers and limiting the critical potential of education. In moving beyond these limits, this article explores Democracy in Action (DinA), a final-year undergraduate module offered in a UK university that creates spaces for critical and transformative education through democratic theory and practice. Grounded in traditions of transformative learning, community-based pedagogies, academic activism, and prefiguration, DinA positions students as democratic agents working in solidarity with staff and the wider community. Drawing on in-depth interviews with students, we analyse the interplay between theory and practice to understand how learning can be understood as a form of democratic participation. The article makes an original contribution to the fields of democratic education and critical university studies by offering a novel framework for integrating academic activism, community-based learning, and prefiguration in higher education. We show how students’ experiences of building community, campaign planning, and prefiguring change generate not only deep transformative learning but also new forms of civic agency and collective action. We argue that, through community organising, students embark on a process of learning that involves three key transformative moments: effecting a perspectival shift from the individual to the common, foregrounding the activist dimensions of democratic politics, and envisioning the world we want through prefiguration. This pedagogical model demonstrates that higher education can become a space of lived democratic possibility, where hope, critique, and collective transformation are not only imagined but enacted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Critical Pedagogy between Theory and Practice)
24 pages, 1249 KiB  
Article
Enhancing University Teaching Through Student-Led Review Articles as a Pathway to Early Research Engagement
by Pablo J. Miró-Colmenárez, Silvia Durán-Alonso, Eliana Díaz-Cruces and Camilo Zamora-Ledezma
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(2), 249; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020249 - 17 Feb 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 738
Abstract
Early exposure to research methodology through review articles represents a promising approach to fostering research interest among undergraduate students during their initial academic years. In the present work, the implementation and impact of incorporating review article analysis in first and second-year undergraduate curricula [...] Read more.
Early exposure to research methodology through review articles represents a promising approach to fostering research interest among undergraduate students during their initial academic years. In the present work, the implementation and impact of incorporating review article analysis in first and second-year undergraduate curricula is examined as a strategy to promote research engagement. The methodology involved a systematic integration of review article study within regular coursework, focusing on developing critical analysis skills and research comprehension. Students participated in guided analysis sessions, learning to decode research structures, evaluate evidence, and synthesize findings. Indeed, this study gather together a three-year teaching in-novation project (2021–2023) at the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM), Spain as a case study, which uses Review Articles for Academic Development in University Teaching. The findings suggest that incorporating review articles in early undergraduate education serves as an effective scaffold for developing research competencies and motivating students toward research careers. This approach provides a foundation for research literacy as aligning with current educational trends emphasizing early research exposure. Furthermore, it is also concluded that despite the growing use of advanced technologies, review articles remain essential for research learning, offering a replicable model to strengthen research engagement in other educational institutions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Critical Pedagogy between Theory and Practice)
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