Critical Constructivism

Critical constructivism within a critical action research context presents a number of concepts which are connected to the inseparable acts of research, teaching and knowledge production. Critical constructivism is about research and pedagogy, and the multiple ways in which they are connected. The points fit together synergistically, as understanding one concept will enhance understanding of the others. This entry is not designed to fragment the concept of critical constructivism but to give those new to the concept better access to its main dynamics. Critical constructivism is grounded on the Frankfurt School's formulation of critical theory, in particular its attempt to explore how consciousness is tied to history. Guided by such concerns, critical constructivist teachers and researchers inspired by critical theory seek to expose what constitutes reality for themselves and for the participants in educational situations. How do these participants, critical constructivist researchers ask, come to construct their views of educational reality? Critical constructivist action researchers see a socially constructed world and ask, ‘What are the forces that construct the consciousness, the ways of seeing of the actors who live in it?’ Uncritical researchers attempt to provide accurate portrayals of educational reality, but they stop short of analyzing the origins of the forces that construct actor consciousness. Without such information, critical constructivist teacher-researchers maintain, emancipatory action is impossible. Descriptions of educational reality outside the boundaries of the [Page 204]socio-economic cultural context hold little meaning for educators concerned with social justice and ethical action.

A criticalized constructivist action research is based on a critical theoretical qualitative framework. This framework consists of tentative notions, which change in all research contexts. For brevity, the following points outline the basic tenets of critical constructivist action research, as described by Joe Kincheloe in the Critical Constructivism Primer (2008):

• The world is socially constructed—what we know about the world always involves a knower and that which is to be known. How the knower constructs the known constitutes what we think of as reality.
• All knowers are historical and social subjects. We all come from a ‘somewhere’ which is located in a particular historical time frame. These spatial and temporal settings always shape the nature of our constructions of the world.
• Not only is the world socially and historically constructed, but so are people and the knowledges people possess. We create ourselves with the cultural tools at hand. We operate and construct the world and our lives on a particular social, cultural and historical playing field.
• Research in this context involves understanding the nature of these constructions. In the realm of knowledge, it is simple and misleading to study random outcomes of the construction process—isolated ‘facts' and ‘truths'. Critical constructivist researchers are as much concerned with the processes through which certain information becomes validated knowledge as with committing much of it to memory. They are also concerned with the processes through which certain information is not deemed to be worthy or validated knowledge.

The research and learning process is intimately connected to the act of teaching. We must blur these categories and consistently examine knowledge production and research while at the same time analyzing teaching and learning. A key dimension of critical constructivism involves the complex interrelationship between teaching and learning and knowledge production and research. When critical constructivist researchers produce knowledge, they are not attempting to reduce variables but to maximize them. Such maximization produces a thicker, more detailed, more complex understanding of the social, political, economic, cultural, psychological and pedagogical world.

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