Pedagogy, Power, and Possibility

Pedagogy, Power, and Possibility: Rethinking English Education in Pakistan through a Freirean Lens

In a bustling classroom in a public school in Saraikistan, a student stumbles through an English sentence: "My father is a doctor." The sentence, drilled into memory, has no connection to her father’s real-life toil in a brick kiln. The words float—disconnected from her world—devoid of story, context, or relevance. In this moment, language is not a bridge to empowerment but a wall of exclusion. The words, hollow and alien, silently reinforce her marginalization. This daily act of linguistic alienation in Pakistan’s English classrooms is not accidental—it is systemic, historically rooted in colonial pedagogy, and ideologically designed to sustain hierarchies of class, region, and power.

This essay deploys Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, supplemented by Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse and postcolonial critiques by Spivak and Ngũgĩ, to interrogate English education in Pakistan. It argues that English teaching in the country too often replicates structures of domination rather than liberating learners. Yet, the same system—if critically reimagined—holds radical potential to foster democratic participation, epistemic inclusion, and linguistic justice.

I. Language as Domination: The Hidden Curriculum of English

English occupies a paradoxical space in Pakistan. It is the language of opportunity and upward mobility, yet it is also the gatekeeper of privilege and exclusion. Its dominance is a colonial legacy fortified by neoliberal globalisation. As Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o reminds us, colonial languages function to “annihilate a people’s memory,” severing learners from cultural identity and historical rootedness. In Pakistan, English textbooks are littered with sanitized, Eurocentric content—detached from local life, erasing diverse histories and communities. The student learns to recite about foreign seasons and Shakespearean characters, but remains illiterate in the poetry of Shah Hussain or the struggles of her own village.

This linguistic hierarchy, amplifying what Basil Bernstein termed the privileging of elaborated over restricted codes, structurally marginalizes students from public schools and low-cost private institutions. These learners, often fluent in multiple indigenous languages, are devalued because their linguistic repertoires do not align with the 'prestige' of Standard British English. The curriculum does not merely teach grammar; it transmits a social order.

II. The Banking Model and Sanctioned Ignorance

Freire's critique of the "banking model" of education—where students are passive recipients of decontextualized knowledge—is fully operative in English classrooms across Pakistan. Rote memorization, grammar drills, and fear-based assessment dominate pedagogic practices. Teachers are not co-creators of knowledge but gatekeepers of linguistic correctness. The classroom becomes a space of discipline, not dialogue.

This is compounded by what Gayatri Spivak terms "sanctioned ignorance"—a deliberate systemic failure to hear or acknowledge the subaltern voice. English education in Pakistan too often embodies this ignorance by refusing to legitimize indigenous languages, oral traditions, and alternative ways of knowing. It produces linguistic insecurity and silencing, especially among rural, female, and working-class students. This sanctioned ignorance is not neutral—it is a technology of control that actively denies the epistemic agency of the oppressed.

III. Toward a Liberatory English Pedagogy

Despite these challenges, English can be reimagined as a site of liberation. Freire’s vision of problem-posing education demands a shift from domination to dialogue, from prescription to participation. This begins with transforming the curriculum. Local cultures, regional histories, indigenous languages, and community-based knowledge systems must be integrated—not as tokenistic add-ons but as foundational epistemologies. Imagine English readers that include the oral histories of Baloch women, the poetry of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, or ecological narratives from the Indus Delta.

Language policy reform must also prioritize additive bilingualism, allowing English to coexist with—and not replace—mother tongues. This requires not just rhetorical commitment but structural investment: multilingual teacher training, revised assessment frameworks, and mother-tongue-based pedagogical materials. Such transformation can only emerge from multi-stakeholder dialogues that center marginalized communities and draw on evidence-based policy research.

Furthermore, teachers must be empowered—not just equipped—to act as critical intellectuals. Their pre-service training should include exposure to Freirean pedagogy, sociolinguistics, and critical literacy frameworks. Continuous professional development must move beyond mechanical upskilling and towards reflective praxis rooted in local realities.

A Dream Worth Teaching

Education in Pakistan stands at a crossroad. One path continues to reproduce colonial hierarchies, linguistic injustice, and pedagogical silence. The other reclaims English education as a site of hope, dignity, and democratic belonging. As Peter McLaren notes, critical pedagogy is not merely about resisting oppression; it is about imagining new worlds. For millions of Pakistani learners, that imagination begins with the right to speak, learn, and dream in a language that does not erase who they are.

This is not just an educational reform—it is a political act. And like all acts of liberation, it begins with listening.

Bibliography

• Bernstein, B. (2004). The structuring of pedagogic discourse. Routledge.
• Bridges, A., & Hartmann, H. (1975). Pedagogy by the Oppressed. Review of Radical Political Economics, 6(4), 75-79.
• British Council. (2016). Can English Medium Education Work in Pakistan? Lessons from Punjab. British Council Pakistan.
• British Council. Language in educationin Pakistan: Recommendations for policy and practice
• Darder, A. (2018). The Student Guide to Freire's' pedagogy of the Oppressed'.
• Freire, P. (1972). Education: domestication or liberation?. Prospects, 2(2), 173-181.
• Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). New York: Continuum, 356, 357-358.
• Freire, P. (2020). Pedagogy of the oppressed. In Toward a sociology of education (pp. 374-386). Routledge.
• Freire, P. (2021). Pedagogy in process.
• McLaren, P. (1991). Critical pedagogy: Constructing an arch of social dreaming and a doorway to hope. Journal of Education, 173(1), 9-34.
• Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training. (2021). National Education Policy Framework. Government of Pakistan.
• Rahman, T. (2002). Language, Ideology and Power: Language-learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India. Oxford University Press.
• Saleem, M. (2009). The development and state of the art of adult learning and education (ALE). National Report of Pakistan, Projects Wing Ministry of Education, available at: www. unesco. org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/INSTITUTES/UIL/confintea/pdf/National_Reports/Asia.
• Saleem, M. (2010). National Report of Pakistan. Literacy, 1998, 26-29.
• Shamim, F. (2008). Trends, issues and challenges in English language education in Pakistan. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 28(3), 235–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188790802267324
• Spivak, G. C. (1999). A critique of postcolonial reason: Toward a history of the vanishing present. Harvard university press.
• Torres, C. A. (2002). From the Pedagogy of the Oppressed to a Luta Continua: The political pedagogy of Paulo Freire 1. In Paulo Freire (pp. 119-144). Routledge.
• UNESCO Pakistan