Morrell to present ‘The Art of Critical Pedagogy’ as part of Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series

On Thursday, Oct. 1, the School of Education will launch its fifth season of the Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series. Featured speaker Ernest Morrell will present “The Art of Critical Pedagogy: The Promise of Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools,” at 4 p.m. in Watson Theater, located in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center on Waverly Avenue. The event is free and open to the public, and sign language interpreters will be present. Morrell is the 2009 Lynn D. and John L. Kreischer TELL Scholars Lecture.

Morrell is an associate professor in the Urban Schooling division of the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) and associate director for youth research at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA). For more than a decade, he has worked with adolescents, drawing on their involvement with popular culture to promote academic literacy development. Morrell is also interested in the applications of critical pedagogy in urban education and working with teens as critical researchers.

“Dr. Morrell’s is one of the most important voices in recent dialogues about how to make academic instruction more responsive to all youth’s literacy needs, especially those in urban contexts,” says Kelly Chandler-Olcott, associate professor and chair of Department of Reading and Language Arts in the School of Education. “He brings together a rare combination of respect for kids’ perspectives and high expectations about what they can achieve in multiple settings, including, but not limited to, school.”

Morrell is the author of numerous books, articles, screenplays, works of fiction and volumes of poetry. Among his published scholarly books are “The Art of Critical Pedagogy: The Possibilities of Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools” (Peter Lang Publishing, 2008); “Critical Literacy and Urban Youth: Pedagogies of Access, Dissent, and Liberation” (Routledge, 2007); and “Linking Literacy and Popular Culture” (Christopher-Gordon Publishing, 2004).

The Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series is dedicated to the presentation of current ideas and strategies for navigating the changeable terrain of urban education in the United States. The speakers engaged for this series are renowned scholars of modern American culture and have included writers, poets, academics, architects and activists.