Pedagogy of democratization: revisiting two classroom examples of critical pedagogy and Islamic pedagogy

ABSTRACT

Classroom pedagogy has a big role to play in developing democratic citizens. Henry Giroux proposes pedagogy of democratization that puts particular emphasis on problematizing the threats to democratic values for ensuring democratization. Literature on classroom pedagogies for democratization proposes to promote democratic practices in the classroom. However, studies on actual classroom practices for democratization do not specifically focus on the interrelationship between problematization and democratization in the classroom. Overall, focus on examples of classroom practices appears inadequate while classroom teachers need to know “what should actually go on in the classroom” for democratization. Therefore, drawing on Giroux’s idea of “pedagogy of democratization,” this paper revisits two classroom examples of critical pedagogy and Islamic pedagogy already documented in literature to tease out examples of classroom practices for democratization. The classroom examples are re-interpreted and compared with a particular focus on the context of Bangladesh. The re-visitation of the classroom examples fleshed out the nuances and the complexities of classroom practices for democratization. Thus, this study responds to the teachers’ need for examples of classroom practices for democratization.

KEYWORDS:

• Pedagogy
• democratic
• critical
• Islamic
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Prof. Moses Samuel of Taylor’s University, Malaysia for his helpful comments while I discussed an earlier version of this paper with him.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought.

Notes on contributors

Ali Azgor Talukder

Ali Azgor Talukder is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in TESL from University of Malaya, Malaysia. His research and teaching interests include critical pedagogy, TESOL, and literature.