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Young people who enter the educational system and don't conform to this vision are immediately disadvantaged by virtue of their race, income or chromosomes.

Moreover, teaching a prescribed "core knowledge" instills a culture of conformity and an insipid, passive absorption of carefully selected knowledge among young people.

The narcissistic notion that we can help underprivileged students by providing them with teachers who are privileged young graduates from elite institutions is a mistake.

Teachers can't ignore the contexts, culture, histories and meanings that students bring to their school.

Working class students and other minority groups need an education that prepares them with the knowledge of identifying the problems and conflicts in their life and the skills to act on that knowledge so they can improve their current situations.

School leaders have a duty to promote learning that encourage students to question rather than forcing teachers to lead drill-oriented, stimulus-and-response methodologies.

Students need the freedom and encouragement to determine and discover who they are and to understand that the system shouldn't define them – but rather give them the skills, knowledge and beliefs to understand that they can set the agenda.

The philosophy was first described by Paulo Freire and has since been developed by the likes of Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren and Roger Simon. Critical pedagogy isn't a prescriptive set of practices – it's a continuous moral project that enables young people to develop a social awareness of freedom. This pedagogy connects classroom learning with the experiences, histories and resources that every student brings to their school. It allows students to understand that with knowledge comes power; the power that can enable young people to do something differently in their moment in time and take positive and constructive action.