The Meaning of Criticality in Education Research Reflecting on Critical Pedagogy

This book explores, and problematizes, what it means to be ‘critical’ in education research. Drawing together chapters from diverse global perspectives, this volume aims to stimulate dialogue about possible meanings of criticality in education research. In doing so, they question why criticality has become such an essential part of education, and what researchers expect of it. The book opens up and contests some of the deficiencies of criticality in education research: ultimately it is not a global term, but often creates a false binary between East and West. Offering an alternative trajectory to educational narratives surrounding criticality, this book will be of interest and value to scholars of critical pedagogy and comparative education. 

1. Introduction: Beyond Impotent Criticality in Education Research?.- Part I. Reflecting on and Defining Criticality in Education.- 2. Developing Anglo-Centred Academic Literacy: Problematizing Understandings of Criticality.- 3. Criticality Within the “École de la République”: A Study of a French Educational Programme Based on Scientific Research.- 4. Reflections on Narratives of Other’s Lives in Critical Educational Research.- Part II. Beyond Just Criticality?.- 5. Critical Online Learning Networks of Teachers: Communality and Collegiality as Contingent Elements.- 6. Moving Forward with Poetry Lessons: Exploring How Poetry Can Stimulate Creativity and Criticality in English Secondary Schools.- Part III. Different Ways of ‘Doing’ Criticality in Education (Research).- 7. Historical Bodies and Spaces in Criticality Practices: Revisiting Interview Data from Upper Secondary History Classrooms in Sweden, Russia and Australia.- 8. A Practitioner-Research Study of Criticality Development in an Academic English Language Programme.- 9. Afterword: Beyond the Naïve Mantra of Criticality in Education (Research)?.