Standards are sacred. They denote what is conceived to be absolute Truth and serve as a guide in terms of knowledge, practices, skills, or dispositions, which can be defined as the ‘professional’, the right morals. Learning is organized around standards and questioning the construct of standards, not necessarily the content, is sacrilegious. Standards impose and define what is relevant. They attempt to guarantee equal access to knowledge and to guarantee certain levels of expertise, rigor, and professionalism.
.png)
Growing up as a Jewish kid in the South Bronx, Ira Shor quickly came to understand the lived experience of being white working class as well as the specificities of racial and ethnic discrimination in New York in the 1950s and 1960s. These experiences, like those of so many other men and women now involved in critical pedagogy, shaped his sociopolitical perspectives and his conception of the role of a teacher. With these ideas in mind, Shor became fascinated with the work of Paulo Freire, and to some degree Shor’s critical pedagogy has always been intimately involved with what it means to apply Freire in the classrooms of North America. In this context, Shor has carefully worked to integrate critical notions of social critique with techniques of pedagogy in ways that create new educational possibilities. Joined together these two notions help produce a thoughtful, just, and democratic education.
