Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach which attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate. In other words, it is a theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness. Critical pedagogue Ira Shor defines critical pedagogy as
Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliches, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse. (Empowering Education, 129)
In this tradition the teacher works to lead students to question ideologies and practices that the students themselves consider oppressive (including those at school), and encourage liberatory collective and individual responses to the actual conditions of their own lives.
The student often begins as a member of the group or process (including religion, national identity, cultural norms, or expected roles) he or she is critically studying. After the student reaches the point of revelation (received wisdom) where he or she begins to view present society as deeply problematic, the next behavior encouraged is sharing this knowledge, paired with an attempt to change the oppressive nature of the society.