In this course, students examine the social conditions and practices that shape education. Students explore schools in their historical, economic, political, cultural, and social contexts.
Sep. 16
Ilyés, E. (2026). Critical Pedagogy. In T. Teo (Ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (pp. 1-9). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70581-6_305-1 [In progress- ILL]
Sep. 23
Paulo Freire. (2021). Education for Critical Consciousness. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 3-51. Can be accessed online via the library or at https://archive.org/details/EducationForCriticalConsciousness/page/n59/mode/2up
Giroux, H. A. (1978). Developing Educational Programs: Overcoming the Hidden Curriculum. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 52(4), 148–151.
Oct. 7
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge. Ch. 1 – p. 13-22.
Weiler, K. (1991). Freire and a feminist pedagogy of difference. Harvard Educational Review, 61(4), 449–74.
Darder, A. (2011). Chapter 9: Teaching as an Act of Love: Reflections on Paulo Freire and His Contributions to Our Lives and Our Work. Counterpoints, 418, 179–194. https://www.darder.org/images/darder_teaching_act_love.pdf
Oct 21
Andrews, G. J. (2024). Shifting Settler-Teacher Mindsets: Critical Self-Reflection on Positionality, Bias, and Privilege. Cambridge Educational Research e-Journal, 11, 64-77. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.114545
Kheirkhah, H., Lee, Y., & Aronson, B. (2026). Positionality in teaching: How teachers’ identities shape pedagogical decisions in politicized classrooms. Cogent Education, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2026.2673239
Fernando, M. (2026). Critical pedagogy as a modality of teaching for social justice: perspectives of Australian teacher educators. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 1–22. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681366.2026.2635686
Greenwood, S., & Ferrie, J. E. (2025). Making space for positionality stories in higher education: Using embodied feminist and critical pedagogies in practice. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(6), 1546–1555. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13562517.2025.2487763
Oct 28
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012) Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1 (1), pp.1-40.
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630
Smith, T. (2016). Make space for Indigeneity: Decolonizing education. Saskatchewan Educational Leadership Unit Research Review Journal (SRRJ), 1(2), 49-59.
Simpson, L. B. (2014). Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(3), 1-25. https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/22170
Land as teacher: Understanding Indigenous land-based education. (2021, June 21). https://en.ccunesco.ca/idealab/indigenous-land-based-education
Brunette-Debassige, C. (2022). Decolonizing the academy - module 1 [Digital curriculum module]. In The Indigenous teaching and learning series. Western University. https://youtu.be/tMZibUhVMy8
Brunette-Debassige, C. (2022). Toward a decolonizing pedagogy - module 2 [Digital curriculum module]. In The Indigenous teaching and learning series. Western University. https://youtu.be/kCmmRUhZL1s
https://guides.library.queensu.ca/decolonizing-resources/teaching
Nov 4
Acevedo, S. M., Brown, L. X. Z., & Cowing, J. L. (2024). Visioning Alternatives to Segregated Education: A Disability Justice and Access-Centered Pedagogy Approach. Critical Sociology, 50(3), 539-559. https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.upei.ca/doi/10.1177/08969205231188737
Carmel, J. M., Chapman, S., & Wright, P. (2026). Disability Justice: The Challenges of Inclusion in Everyday Life. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 73(4), 621–634. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1034912X.2025.2456288#abstract
What is Critical Disability (Dis-Crit)/Accessibility/Anti-ableist Pedagogy? https://www.luc.edu/fcip/pedagogyofjustice/whatiscriticaldisabilitydis-critaccessibilityanti-ableistpedagogy/
Inclusion: Disability Justice – UBC https://pedagogyandparticipation.ubc.ca/2024/06/04/inclusion-disability-justice/
Priyadharsini, V., & Sahaya Mary, R. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in inclusive education: Accelerating learning for all. Shanlax International Journal of Arts, Science, and Humanities, (11)4, 145-150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34293/sijash.v11i4.7489
Beckett, A. E. (2015). Anti-oppressive pedagogy and disability: possibilities and challenges. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 17(1), 76–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2013.835278
Nov 18
Mackey, W. (2025). Confronting critical issues of race and the need for decolonizing education in Canada: Problematizing the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy, a Nova Scotian story. McGill Journal of Education, 59(3), 121–145. https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/10160
Kishimoto, K. (2022). Beyond Teaching Racial Content: Antiracist Pedagogy as Implementing Antiracist Practices. In S. Browne & G. Jean-Marie, (eds). Reconceptualizing Social Justice in Teacher Education, pp. 105-125. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Anya, U. (2021, December). Critical Race Pedagogy for More Effective and Inclusive World Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics, 42(6), pp. 1055–1069. https://academic.oup.com/applij/article/42/6/1055/6484982?login=false
Nov 25
Costa, C. & Murphy, M. (2026). Critical education, generative artificial intelligence and the tyranny of freedom: A critique of modern ‘technocracy.’ Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 35(3), 547-563.
Giroux, H. A. (2004). Critical Pedagogy and the Postmodern/Modern Divide: Towards a Pedagogy of Democratization. Teacher Education Quarterly, 31(1), 31–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23478412
Young People’s Perspectives on Education: A Vision for Rights-Based Pedagogy. https://www.studentvoice.org.au/rce/vol4no1-hall-et-al/
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UNICEF. (2014). Children’s Rights Education Toolkit (pp. 20-25; p. 30; pp. 33-44). https://www.unicef.org/media/63081/file/UNICEF-Child-Rights-Education-Toolkit.pdf
Universal Declaration of Human Rights https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/
The Canadian Bill of Rights http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-12.3/page-1.html
Interpreting Children’s Rights Education: Three perspectives and three roles for teachers https://journals.sagepub.com/ doi/10.1177/2047173416683425
Dec 2
Page, M. L. (2016). LGBTQ Inclusion as an Outcome of Critical Pedagogy. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 7(1), 115-142. https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/education/1/
Zdeblick, M. N. (2024). Imagining Disability Justice in Arts Education: Loving Critiques and Pathways Forward. Equity & Excellence in Education, 57(4), 459–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2024.2373063