Pedagogy refers to a theoretical and practical scientific field that focuses primarily on formal education and learning. Pedagogical theory and practice are very important for sociology, as formal education has a vast influence on children and the whole society. Early sociologists, like Durkheim, believed that sociology could serve as a basis for a new type of education that would lead to the political and ethical transformation of modern society.

In the 20th century, authors such as Ivan Illich, Pierre Bourdieu, Basil Bernstein, Paolo Freire, and bell hooks negatively criticized traditional approaches to pedagogy. Ivan Illich, in the book Deschooling Society (1970), explains how the traditional school system has made all students helpless before the capitalist organization of society. Schools are becoming repressive institutions that stifle imagination and creativity and impose conformism. Schools are ineffective in teaching students skills, and they also prevent students from developing their talents and abilities. Students who obey the rules acquire credentials from schools, as proof that they can join the capitalist system and the established order. The school system emphasizes grades, qualifications, and diplomas, which in no way reflect skills, knowledge, and abilities. The final product of education is a person who will be an obedient worker, a large consumer of goods and services sold on the market, and a person who obeys the authority of experts, doctors, and state laws and institutions. He wanted to implement a critical pedagogy that would aim to transform society. The most important solution that Illich offers is the abolition of the schools themselves in order to achieve the liberation of the people. Instead of schools, he proposes the introduction of "skill exchanges" and "learning webs", where skills would be learned through practice and knowledge acquired through creativity and research.

Bell hooks is the originator of engaged pedagogy, which is a cross-section of personal, political, and historical experience. Such pedagogy should explore the meanings and notions that popular media create about gender and race, but it should also be a place of resistance and risk-taking. The combination of personal experience, knowledge, ideas, and critical thinking creates the possibility that education becomes the basis for the emergence of liberating practices.

Paolo Freire revolutionized the field of education, using his theoretical and practical approach of critical pedagogy. His most famous book is Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), where he elaborated his approach. His goal was to create politically engaged pedagogy against the prevailing “culture of silence”, which refers to the conditions of life and work of the poor and illiterate Brazilian working class. The goal of critical pedagogy was to empower marginalized and oppressed communities through education. He believed that education should not be a tool of domination but rather a means of liberation. According to Freire, traditional education systems, which he called the “banking approach” to education, were designed to maintain the status quo, reproduce existing power structures, and maintain the oppression of the marginalized. He called for a radical reimagining of education that would challenge these power structures and allow for the liberation of the oppressed. Freire's most famous concept is that of "conscientization." This term refers to the process by which individuals become aware of their own oppression and develop the critical consciousness necessary to challenge it. He argued that the education system should focus on developing critical consciousness, rather than simply imparting knowledge. He called this model ”dialogic learning,” and it involved creating a dialogue between students and teachers, where both parties learn from each other and engage in critical reflection on their experiences.

References:

Bernstein. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique (1996);

Bourdieu, Pierre. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (1970);

Durkheim. Education and Sociology (1956, In French 1922);

     -     Moral Education, (2012, in French, 1925);

Freire, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970);

hooks. Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994);

Illich. Deschooling Society (1970);

Sedgwick. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (2003).