I posted this reply to a comment on my original blog - but also here - partly as I got confused between the two (I'm not very "tech savvy") and also because I think it makes for a new blog entry. 
 
Hi Tim,
I know that critical pedagogy often gets critiqued for such but I certainly don’t have any quasi-messianic-utopian expectations about its potential  to usher in the ultimate society. I think I’ll leave that to the religious and political cults or sects. In fact, I think these sort of messianic fantasies are actually quite dangerous and patronizing for a whole bunch of reasons.
 
Even if such sudden radical change was to occur, I think that building a truly sustainable transformation (say, from capitalism to some other social system) would require what Raymond Williams referred to as the “long revolution.” In the meantime, I think this stuff is more of a diverse, messy and long-term process, than what is presented in some over-determined or rhetorical accounts.  So, I guess, when I look around for evidence of the effectiveness of critical pedagogy, I see plenty of inspiring examples. Certainly, I can find examples of critical pedagogy/popular education as a ‘material force’ in the community sector, and not just based on my brief experience as an activist with the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles (despite Pinar's cynicism). As Houston (in press) puts it, everyday, countless individuals and collectives engage and enact grassroots or critical pedagogies that transform and remake places (this is in relation to her work with anti-nuclear activists in Nevada).
 
But even in more formal institutional contexts such as schools – I wouldn’t want to devalue the invaluable work of researchers, teachers and community activists working within this tradition, which often goes unrecognized as such. For example, check out the following, which discusses the work of the Coalition for Educational Justice in Los Angeles (which was active when I was living in the city) http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/16_03/Anti163.shtml. If you go to the story at the link, it will also take you to Rethinking Schools, which is a small non-profit organization begun by a group of teachers in the United States. This is also an invaluable source of alternative information and resources for teachers, students, administrators, and researchers (http://www.rethinkingschools.org/). You might also be interested in the following, The Center for Urban Pedagogy in New York (http://www.anothercupdevelopment.org/). Despite being presently located in Australia, I’ve used the Rethinking Schools site as a resource even in my own teaching with pre-service primary students on the Gold Coast and here in Sydney, e.g, Sweatshop math (my background is actually adult education but I enjoy teaching sociology of education type courses).
 
At the same time, it’s true that critical pedagogy has been critiqued by elements on both the right and the left for failing to account for its implementation in real-world contexts (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008). As Abby (2003) points out, the danger of this is that it can provide justification for a conservative “what works” discourse, but it can also lead to feelings of pessimism, despair and disillusionment about the possibility of enacting transformative praxis. I think part of the problem here is also the danger of reporting it – as you may put practitioners at risk. However, the point I’d like to make is that examples do exist of critical pedagogy’s intervention in K-12 classrooms through the use of “unauthorised methods” (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1998) or curricula strategies (role playing, storytelling, discussion, project work) that empower students to explore the consequences of white privilege and racism (Austin & Hickey, 2008) and issues to do with child labor and globalization (Bigelow, 1990, 2002). Some of my former students (individually and with the support of others) are doing amazing work both inside and outside schools right now around issues to do with racism, etc (For anyone interested, the following is a good starting point for teachers interested in tackling racism in Australia schools http://www.racismnoway.com.au/). I’m not saying that its without its challenges or difficulties (I’m not that familiar with Ballarat – except – of course - the Eureka Stockade). But nor is it without its joys or rewards. However, a number of articles and books exist that offer “practical suggestions” and insights for the implementation of critical pedagogy (Stevenson, 2008, p. 356), particularly within the context of urban schools (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008), the university classroom (Wink, 2005) and community adult education (Newman, 2006). Finally, Freirean pedagogy has also empowered individuals and collectives through participatory action research.
 
Again, this is not to discount the challenges and limitations of certain approaches, nor the importance of looking outside of formal spaces for support or other opportunities. That is where my work is heading at the moment (and hopefully that will re-enchant my work in those more formal spaces of the classroom!) – but I think any number of places exist to get started. And, as Freire (1970/1993) argued, critical pedagogy must be “made and remade” (p. 30) – so as a process it is always evolving in response to the unique social and historical potentialities of different place-based contexts. So, yes, I think it is perhaps “easier” in some senses to do this stuff in community contexts because community groups often have a clearer picture of their work as “activist” (although it hasn’t always felt easy when dealing with the racism internal to organisations struggling to bridge gaps between different groups). I think that perhaps in relation to schools, critical pedagogy doesn’t always have to be presented as activism or an all-encompassing singular endeavour. Community groups often engage creatively with social learning (new media, gardening, storytelling etc) and this is what I think can provide the generative and material contexts for transformation in educational settings.
 
Finally, I also think its important to celebrate these everyday efforts (and not just the work of a few peak or “important” figures in the lineage of critical pedagogy) and achievements (however modest) and acknowledge whose shoulders we stand. But maybe my aspirations are more modest than others or I just don’t set the bar high enough?
 
I probably haven’t covered everything here (and I certainly don’t have all the “answers” – I’m still working stuff out!) but…gotta get to that next meeting!
 
References

 
Abbey, N. (2003, May 9). Pedagogy the key issue in education: A discussion paper parts one and two. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.welshpoolps.vic.edu.au/lci_cluster/Discussion_Paper.doc 
  

Austin, J. & Hickey, A. (2008). Critical pedagogical practice through cultural studies. International Journal of the Humanities, 6(1), pp.133-140.
 
Bigelow, W. (1990). Inside the classroom: social vision and critical pedagogy. Teachers College Record, 91, 437-448.
 
Bigelow, W., & Peterson, B. (2002). Rethinking globalization: teaching for justice in an unjust world. Wisconsin: Rethinking Schools Press.
 
Duncan-Andrade, J. & Morrell, E. (2008). The art of critical pedagogy: possibilities for moving from theory to practice in urban schools. New York: Peter Lang.
 
Hattam, R., Brennan, M., Zipin, L., & Comber, B. (2009). Researching for social justice: contextual, conceptual and methodological challenges. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 30(3), 303-316.
 
Houston, D. (in press). Grounds upon which to act: Pedagogy, place-making and collective histories of praxis. In S. Macrine, P. McLaren & D. Hill (Eds.), Critical pedagogy: in search of democracy, liberation and socialism. London: Routledge.
 
Kincheloe, J., & Steinberg, S. (Eds.) (1998). Unauthorized methods:strategies for critical teaching. New York: Routledge.
 
McInerney, P., (2007). From naïve optimism to robust hope: sustaining a commitment to social justice in schools and teacher education in neoliberal times. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 35(3) 257-272.
 
Nekhwevha, F. (2002). The influence of Freire’s “Pedagogy of Knowing” on the South African education struggle in the 1970s and 1980s. In P. Kallaway (Ed.), The history of education under apartheid, 1948-1994: the doors of learning and culture shall be opened (pp. 133-134). Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.
 
Newman, M. (2006). Teaching defiance: stories and strategies for activist educators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 
Pinar, W. (2009). The unaddressed “I” of ideology critique. Power and Education, 1(2), 189-200.