THE JOURNAL OF ASIA TEFL
Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 2020, 105-123
http://dx.doi.org/10.18823/asiatefl.2020.17.1.7.105
105
The Journal of Asia TEFL
http://journal.asiatefl.org/
e-ISSN 2466-1511 © 2004 AsiaTEFL.org. All rights reserved.
Relationship Between Critical Pedagogy and Reflective Thinking
with L2 Teachers’ Pedagogical Success
Ali Roohani
Shahrekord University, Iran
Shahrzad Haghparast
Shahrekord University, Iran
This study first sought to develop a survey (Teacher Critical Pedagogy, TCP) to evaluate L2 teachers’
degree of critical pedagogy. Second, it investigated the relationship between L2 teachers’ degree of
critical pedagogy and reflective thinking with their pedagogical success. Third, it explored the extent
to which teachers’ critical pedagogy and reflective thinking contributed to their pedagogical success.
To these ends, factor analysis with the data collected from a sample of 397 Iranian EFL teachers was
used through AMOS software to confirm the validity of the critical pedagogy questionnaire. Then,
validated version of TCP, Kember, Leung, Jones, and Loke’s (2000) Reflective Thinking for Teachers,
and Moafian and Pishghadam’s (2009) Characteristics of Successful Teachers questionnaires were
administered to a sample of 53 EFL teachers and 503 EFL students in language institutes in Isfahan,
Iran, to assess the teachers’ critical pedagogy and reflective thinking as well as their pedagogical
success as evaluated by their students. Correlational and multiple regression analysis revealed a
significant and positive relationship between the teachers’ critical pedagogy and reflective thinking
with their pedagogical success. Moreover, critical pedagogy and reflective thinking predicted the
teachers' pedagogical success to a considerable extent. Findings provide implications for L2 teachers
and teacher educators.
Keywords: critical pedagogy, reflective thinking, pedagogical success, L2 teachers
Introduction
Critical pedagogy (CP) draws on critical theories which call for social and educational reform. CP
“seeks to understand and critique the historical and sociopolitical context of schooling and to develop
pedagogical practices that aim not only to change the nature of schooling, but also the wider society”
(Pennycook, 1990, p. 24). According to McLaren (2003), the aim of CP is to facilitate education by
attempting to make students aware of the inherent inequalities in the world. As Freire (1993) vividly
states, CP does not consider teachers as the sole authority in classrooms; it tries to change the traditional
role of teachers and students. Traditionally, teachers are considered unquestioned authorities whose
responsibility is only delivering knowledge to students, and students are just listeners (Izadinia, 2009).
However, CP tries to share responsibilities and authorities between the teacher and his/her students, to
make them all active, responsible partners in the learning process.
In CP, as Freire (1993) states, the teacher is seen as a problem poser, asking questions that stimulate
students think analytically about various elements of their lives that they may assume cannot be changed.