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In light of the extensive treatment given over its thirty year existence, this article develops a framework for helping teachers understand the applicability and relevance of critical pedagogy in the classroom during this age of effectiveness and standardization. To do this, critical pedagogy is theoretically framed three-dimensionally. The purpose is to help teachers think through critical pedagogy in a way that might encourage them to analyze their own practices and thus create and enact critical pedagogies that are uniquely their own. The first dimension pertains to its contested terrain. An understanding of critical pedagogy must begin with a disclaimer. This disclaimer suggests that though there are common objectives, there are key points of contestation. The second dimension, then, seeks to find the common ground. This dimension focuses on the commitments of critical pedagogy, and thus, the commitments of those who might try. Lastly, critical pedagogy impels teachers to use their classrooms to make life more humane. To aid in this task, teachers engaging in critical pedagogics take certain philosophical positions, the third dimension of critical pedagogy.

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For many, Paulo Freire is alluring, demanding and difficult. Yet, for others, Freire is maddening. He is certainly not without his critics. Critics included, few would doubt that Freire's work is indispensable to an understanding of critical pedagogy. Though not the first or the last, Freire links together our existential situations in life with conditions of consciousness and provides a possible explanation for how both become what they are-education. This linkage is, as this article argues, necessary for creating and enacting a critical pedagogy of one's own. The purpose of this article, then, is to provide a conceptual framework to help others think through an understanding and enacting of a Freirean-based critical pedagogy. The framework as we conceive of it is an axis-like framework mined from a few of Freire's foundational texts and is comprised of two poles-limit-situations, critical transitivity-and is connected by the axis, or the conduit, of education.