TRAVELLING THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY AND BYWAYS
2.4 Critical Theory
2.3 "The Postmodern Paradigm is like the American Freeway or British Motor Ways always under Construction"14
The critical postmodern paradigm posits that individuals are more than the product of historical and social forces that are controlled by the dominant classes and are further reproduced through the socializing forces such as family, state, politics and school. Peoples' voices are shaped through their culture and their relationship to power. I trail the plains with full knowledge of the paradoxes of postmodernism. I do not claim that researching through such a lens is Utopian.
Just as the true search for personal authenticity, which is part of postmodernism can enhance self-development, it can easily become self-indulgence (Hargreaves, 1995: 72). In this case the self can become narcissistic with the emphasis on teacher's stories, teacher's narratives and the teacher's lives. Hargreaves (1995) warns that such preoccupation with the personal, which is a chronic condition with postmodernism, can lead to the neglect of the social and political aspects.
landscape of radical principles, beliefs and practices that contributed to emancipatory ideals (Darder, Baltodano & Torres, 2003).
I explain how a particular gender, race, language and culture are given dominance, one over another and the consequences these have. The term ideology has a wide range of meanings, through which critical theory investigates the relationships of individuals and society. McLaren (2003 a: 79) refers to ideology as a way of viewing the world with complex types of social practices, rituals and representations that one tends to accept as natural and common sense. It can signify beliefs or false beliefs, values, passions, systems, political dogma, styles of thought or feelings, ideas or ideal. Critical theorists do not reserve ideology to describe major systems of political, religious or social beliefs. Ideology examines the common sense assumption and everyday language that often serves to maintain certain interest groups at the expense of others. Critical theory shows us how common sense distorts true interest and gender injustices. It prevents groups and individuals from controlling their lives. Critical theory argues that such common sense beliefs are not natural and that this is the first step towards enlightement and emancipation (Gibson, 1986). Thus critical theory offers me another lens to unpack the central issues from my critical question, namely, language, power and gender.
In South Africa, the previous South African government prevented Black South Africans from receiving basic adult education, which had dire consequences for the nation. The adult learners in this research are all Black females who experienced the ravages of the apartheid system of government. This system of Government with White Nationalist15 rule meant that Whites were the dominant ruling class and Blacks16 were subordinate to them. The education system during the apartheid years (pre-1994) was legislated such that Black education received
White Nationalist rule: prior to 1994 in South Africa, during the previous apartheid
Government, the country was governed only by a White government, with only a White electorate
l6Blacks: during the apartheid era when the government referred to Blacks they meant Africans because they were the one's most excluded and most discriminated against in all facets of life.
the least amount of income per learner (Christie, 1985). The psychological, emotional baggage of the influence of the 'dominant class' over their psyche and identity is significant. Critical theory explains the various influences that impact on adult learners' lives. McLaren (2003a: 76) sees hegemony as the domination of one social class over others and how that process is affected through ideology.
Hegemony is the condition where subordinates believe something to be true or common sense when in fact that 'common sense' is against their own best interests. In this 'active consent', which shows the effectiveness of hegemony, subordinates accept their inferior position as 'natural'. Critical pedagogy evolved out of a yearning to give shape to the theoretical landscape of radical principles, beliefs and practices that contributed to emancipatory ideals (Darder, Baltodano
& Torres, 2003). Gramsci and Foucault (in Darder, Baltodano & Torres, 2003) extended the existing understanding of power and its impact on the construction of knowledge. Gramsci did not consider hegemony to be a neat, clean act of one- dimensional reproduction but a process of what he termed contradictory consciousness. Whilst for Foucault, power did not represent a static entity but an active process constantly at work on our bodies, relationship, sexuality and the way we construct knowledge and meaning in the world. Power for Foucault was not conceptualized solely within the context of domination but also in the context of creative resistance. A critical understanding of students' resistance within the classroom has opened the doors to better understanding power relations within the context of teaching practice.
Bourdieu's (in Gibson, 1986: 55) notion of symbolic violence and cultural capital is closely related to Gramsci's concept of hegemony. Symbolic violence refers to the subtle process whereby subordinate classes, i.e., the working classes, come to take as 'common sense' ideas and practices that are actually against their own best interests. That subtle process is culture, which includes beliefs, knowledge, customs, language and behaviour. For Bourdieu this represents symbolic power, which is used by schools as necessary and inevitable, rather than as man-made and changeable. Hence, working class learners find their home culture devalued and disconfirmed, but come to accept that rejection as legitimate whilst the
dominant culture represents itself as 'natural'. By using critical theory I am able to examine the way in which privileged groups have an interest in maintaining the status quo to protect their advantages. Subordinate groups in contrast have an interest in change to remove their injustices. Injustices and inequalities are laid bare. Critical theory claims to be empancipatory and to set subordinate groups free.
According to Gibson (1986), critical theorists emphasize that understanding can come about through self-reflection. It is important that as researcher and adult educator, I become reflective of my teaching practice. The self-reflection must be seen as a consciousness-raising exercise where the educator and the learners are in a dialogic relationship that could lead learners to become more aware of their actual conditions and to emancipatory action.
Critical theory points to the need to develop an equal sensitivity to certain aspects of culture. These include working class students, Blacks and women's need to affirm their own histories through the use of a set of language, set of social relations and knowledge that critically reconstructs and dignifies the cultural experiences that make up the tissue, texture and history of their daily life (Giroux, 2003: 52).