Empowering pedagogies that enhance the learning of multicultural students

In this article, I lay out the tenets of a critical pedagogy and present th e derails of a study designed to investigate the presence of those tenets w ithin the discourse patterns and pedagogical practices observed in communit y-based classrooms, which serve as alternative sites of urban multicultural education. Through analyses of the discourses and pedagogies used in the c lassrooms of three African American female teachers, I investigate the degr ee to which these teachers are able to challenge their students to consider alternative life possibilities, to become critical thinkers and to conside r transformation of their current life situations and the life situations o f others. Through depictions of everyday activities and discourses that occ ur in these community-based classrooms, I illustrate how, although the over t rhetoric of these organizations is one that often says, "follow the rules ... don't challenge lines of authority, " the covert communicative messages in these community-based classrooms were often geared toward encouraging s tudents to develop higher levels of consciousness and the skills needed to take control of and perhaps even transform their existing life experiences. Based on the findings of this investigation, I advocate for the conscious creation of dialogic, multiculturally sensitive classrooms where empowering , dynamic constructions of knowledge can become a reality by expanding upon the strategic uses of discourse patterns and pedagogical practices observe d in the class-rooms of these African American female teachers.