Adopting Authentic
Pedagogical
Approaches in the
Classroom
HISTORY &
SOCIOLOGY 771
FINAL ASSIGNMENT
Dr Feldman, PGCE 2O2O
, Question 2
With specific reference to MacFadden and Munns (2002) and Zipin (2013), discuss how socially
just educators can adopt an authentic pedagogical approach in their classroom teaching and
learning.
Authentic Pedagogical Teaching Approach
Learners enter schools from vastly different social, cultural, and structural backgrounds. Although
this demonstrates diversity, there are still learners who remain alienated because of the
instructional content, pedagogical approaches, standards, and values in schools. These learners,
who come from working-class homes, are recognized as the disadvantaged folk who hope to use
school to get out of their impoverished positions just by being present. The alienation that is noted
here is due to cultural capital misalignment. This causes working-class learners to preserve the
cycle of social injustice occurring in schools as they disengage with the content being taught. An
authentic pedagogical approach, such as student engagement is needed to ensure that learners
break this cycle of social injustice and cultural capitalism. Student engagement would enable and
encourage learners to enter schools from their communities and become ‘insiders’ and engage in
their learning. One way, according to Fataar (2012), in which teachers can support student
engagement is by developing a social relations pedagogy, implementing an explicit pedagogical
approach, and lastly, recontextualising their pedagogy. By looking closely at the work of Mark
McFadden, Geoff Munns (2002), and Lew Zipin (2013), the importance of student engagement
and how this can occur through the Funds of Knowledge approach will surface.
In the Willis study, working-class learners seem to resist their school’s curriculum and their
teacher’s knowledge (McFadden and Munns, 2002). This was due to the pedagogical injustice and
how the working-class learners were unfamiliar with the content being taught, which caused them
to resist and feel alienated. It became challenging to encourage these learners to engage with the
classroom practices. Learners who disengage in school learning can be understood by considering
Bourdieu’s work on cultural capital (Sadovnik, 2007). Cultural capital is embedded in schools and
is inherited from community and family contexts which is associated with ‘cultures of power’
(Zipin, 2013), as most schools draw on the cultural capital from the middle-class socio-cultural
Pedagogical
Approaches in the
Classroom
HISTORY &
SOCIOLOGY 771
FINAL ASSIGNMENT
Dr Feldman, PGCE 2O2O
, Question 2
With specific reference to MacFadden and Munns (2002) and Zipin (2013), discuss how socially
just educators can adopt an authentic pedagogical approach in their classroom teaching and
learning.
Authentic Pedagogical Teaching Approach
Learners enter schools from vastly different social, cultural, and structural backgrounds. Although
this demonstrates diversity, there are still learners who remain alienated because of the
instructional content, pedagogical approaches, standards, and values in schools. These learners,
who come from working-class homes, are recognized as the disadvantaged folk who hope to use
school to get out of their impoverished positions just by being present. The alienation that is noted
here is due to cultural capital misalignment. This causes working-class learners to preserve the
cycle of social injustice occurring in schools as they disengage with the content being taught. An
authentic pedagogical approach, such as student engagement is needed to ensure that learners
break this cycle of social injustice and cultural capitalism. Student engagement would enable and
encourage learners to enter schools from their communities and become ‘insiders’ and engage in
their learning. One way, according to Fataar (2012), in which teachers can support student
engagement is by developing a social relations pedagogy, implementing an explicit pedagogical
approach, and lastly, recontextualising their pedagogy. By looking closely at the work of Mark
McFadden, Geoff Munns (2002), and Lew Zipin (2013), the importance of student engagement
and how this can occur through the Funds of Knowledge approach will surface.
In the Willis study, working-class learners seem to resist their school’s curriculum and their
teacher’s knowledge (McFadden and Munns, 2002). This was due to the pedagogical injustice and
how the working-class learners were unfamiliar with the content being taught, which caused them
to resist and feel alienated. It became challenging to encourage these learners to engage with the
classroom practices. Learners who disengage in school learning can be understood by considering
Bourdieu’s work on cultural capital (Sadovnik, 2007). Cultural capital is embedded in schools and
is inherited from community and family contexts which is associated with ‘cultures of power’
(Zipin, 2013), as most schools draw on the cultural capital from the middle-class socio-cultural
