Analysis of emancipatory pedagogy as a tool for democratic classrooms

Abstract

Sometimes, teachers or instructors find it challenging to understand or achieve a democratic education without compromising the quality pedagogical process. Hence, this study is conceptualised around the principles of emancipatory pedagogy as a tool to ensure effective classrooms democracy across levels of classrooms. This study answers the following question: how can emancipatory pedagogy be presented as an effective tool to implement a democratic classroom? This study locates its argument within a transformative worldview and adopts a conceptual analysis to interpret emancipatory pedagogy as a conceptual framework for the study. Emancipatory pedagogy, its assumptions, and how they informed democratic classrooms were argued with the conclusion that emancipatory pedagogy is a dimension of effective and democratic classrooms because both concepts promote critical thinking and social justice among students, develop a personal connection with learning and create an atmosphere for freedom of knowledge construction among students. The study recommends that teachers or instructors interested in implementing democratic education/classrooms adopt the assumptions of emancipatory pedagogy by tailoring their classrooms towards promoting critical thinking skills, development of personal connection with learning, and freedom to enable students to construct knowledge of their own.