At one point during a critical pedagogy session at AERA, I found myself writing in a colleagues notebook, “Where’s the ‘new?!?’” Not a novel thought, I realize. However, I found myself thinking about how are we, as committed educators, pushing for lasting, continually renewed change?

Being committed to what is in the best interest of our students often means doing things that don’t “fit” into traditional educational molds, obviously. For those of us ‘trying to add to the discourse,’ this means needing to be equipped to speak vocally, back our actions with theory, and generally be prepared to further substantiate our claims, decisions, and commitment to our students. In order to speak our students’ language we need to be able to defend it in “theirs.” (I realize an “us/them” dichotomy here is both slightly false and a bit reactionary. However, it may be the easiest way to open up the discussion of educational landscape and needs for South Central and all of the communities that we are living and working within that maybe a bit more “diverse” than some may feel comfortable with.)

If you’re going to say something to the direction and efforts within Critical Pedagogy at AERA, I feel like it needs to be something fully formed, accessible, and clearly pushing the envelope. Otherwise, it feels like a step back from what our already skeptical audience is going to listen to. No, this doesn’t mean conforming… it means being ready to step your game up in the face of adversity and for the sake of our students.