Culturally Relevant Education and Critical Pedagogy: Devolution of Hierarchies of Power

This article considers two educational strategies that serve to empower students by responding more authentically to student needs. We begin by defining our terms and then move to a tiny school deep in the jungles of Central America. This school, like many schools in developing nations, struggles to educate students for an uncertain future. At issue are contradictions extant in a postmodern, globalized world, where colonial domination has been replaced by post-colonialism, which is not free from issues of domination and power. This article offers culturally relevant education and critical pedagogy, in tandem or separately, as a way to forge new links with a society that is attempting to become a more developed nation. Culturally relevant education allows for teaching and learning that is responsive to student needs, while critical pedagogy offers a means of devolving as much power to the students as possible. In this way, students may become empowered to foster meaningful change within their lives and within the societies in which they live.