Inserting the ‘Race’ into Critical Pedagogy: An analysis of ‘race‐based epistemologies’

There has been some debate about whether ‘critical pedagogy,’ as a field of study, adequately incorporates issues of race and racism into its analysis of schooling and society (Gordon, 1995). Among other things, researchers have suggested that critical pedagogy, with its foundation in Marxist critiques of schooling and society, has privileged issues of social class over race or gender (Ellsworth, 1989; Gordon, 1995; McCarthy, 1988; Lynn, 1999). While critical pedagogy’s racial blindspots have been illuminated by a number researchers, there have been very few efforts to examine the ways in which theories of race can and should be linked to teaching and learning in urban schools. In this article, I will extend previous work that aligns theories of race with notions of liberatory pedagogy and practice (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Lynn, 1999).