From Banking Model to Critical Pedagogy: Challenges and Constraints in the University Classrooms

Critical pedagogy, contrary to the banking concept of education, seeks to empower learners to think critically to transform their living conditions. This mixed-methods case study aims at exploring the actual teaching practices of the university teachers in order to demystify the challenges and constraints impeding the implementation of critical pedagogy in the universities of Punjab, Pakistan. Women University in Multan was the selected case and exploratory sequential design the method selected for this study. The researchers personally collected data using a small-scale survey with 100 students using cluster sampling, and in-depth interviews with ten teachers purposively selected from various departments of the university, ensuring equal representation. The study concluded that large class size, lack of needed resources and trained personnel, lengthy and fixed syllabus, and lack of student interest and motivation were the reasons for continuing with the 'banking method.' Based on the findings, the researchers recommend that for the critical pedagogy to take root in Pakistan, the teachers and students should be cognizant of the utility of critical pedagogy, and adequate resources Repeat the title of your article here (Don’t mention Author Names) Abstract (Not more than 250 words) must cover, the purpose, method, major findings & originality of the research. Times New Roman; Size-12, centralized Abstract in paragraph format is written as a single paragraph without indentation of the first line.Not more than 250 words) must cover, the purpose, method, major findings & originality of the research. Times New Roman; Size-12, centralized Abstract in paragraph format is written as a single paragraph without indentation of the first line. FROM BANKING MODEL TO CRITICAL PEDAGOGY 3 must supplant the teaching and learning environment to enjoy best outcomes.


Introduction
In general, the typical Pakistani classroom is teachercentered, whereby the teacher is honored and considered the 'owner' of all knowledge. Students are not supposed to be partners with their teachers in the learning process. The dream of the learner-centered classroom in Pakistan, especially in the public sector, is yet to be realized. Freire's problem-posing (liberatory) approach stands in bare contrast to traditional educational practice, which he termed as the "banking model of education" (Freire, 2005). Freire's ideal has opposed the commodification of knowledge, thus finding no room in the empiricist and market-driven models dominant in higher education of Pakistan. In order to set up a democratic classroom environment in Pakistan, especially at the university level, it is pivotal for teachers and policymakers not to be blind to the importance of modern and innovative critical pedagogy trends adopted worldwide. A switch over from the banking method to critical pedagogy, from a listening object to a critical subject, from the traditional custodian of the status quo to a social transformer, is essential for the educational system in Pakistan.

Freire's Banking Concept of Education and Critical Pedagogy
Freire and his followers (2016) stood tall against the banking model of education; they criticized the traditional teacher-led class where knowledge is transmitted linearly from the teacher to the students. Freire (2016) Non-parenthetical citation model of education, while advocating for a critical inquiry. For him, problem-posing was a significant tool for empowering learners to evolve from information processing bots to effective decisionmakers by raising their consciousness to critique and challenge oppressive social conditions.
According to Freire (2005), in the traditional view of education, careful analysis of the teacherstudent relationship at any level involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). Freire states that: "Thus, education becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories, and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. The "banking" concept of education, offers limited scope for learning, since student action extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits" (Freire, 2005, p. 72).
Critical pedagogy is an educational response to oppressive power relations and inequalities that exist in educational settings (Freire, 2016;Hooks, 1994;Sharif-Uddin, 2019). Freire's critical pedagogy tries to empower the oppressed learners and to rescue them from being objects of learning process to subjects of their liberation and autonomy. Freire sees teacher not to be the one who teaches but the one who is also taught in a dialogue with the learners through a process in which all grow (Freire, 2005). Thus, Freire's problem-posing education endeavors for empowerment as an object of education (Chin & Osborne, 2008;Ooiwa-Yoshizawa, 2018;Saleh, 2013). Ayoub et al. (2014), investigated Freire's principles of curriculum planning, spotlights students' active participation in educational plan.
Parenthetical citation of a work with three authors. Author's surname will be given in in-text reference and if more than one author, arrange the author's name alphabetically.
"et al" citations for work with three or more authors. 0.5 // indent will be given at the start of each paragraph.
Quotation is written in inverted commas and italicized along with page number They believe that curriculum should be planned mutually and all the stakeholders of teachinglearning environment should be involved in the process.

Statement of the Problem
Pakistani university classrooms are designed as what Freire's describes as a banking model. Traditional Pakistani university classrooms hardly provide students with an opportunity to question the authority of teachers. The teacher "own" knowledge and the students religiously note down every word of the lecture and "memorize the contents narrated by the teacher". Hence, most of the students are reluctant to express their opinions freely because there is an inherent agreement among people that a silent student is more obedient than the one who questions teachers' opinions. So, they begin to willingly submit to the authority of the teacher.

Research Questions
The objective of this paper is to explore the challenges and constraints that hinder the way towards critical pedagogy in the university classrooms in order to further demystify what is actually being practiced in classrooms and what should be applied instead. Therefore, it addresses the following research questions: 1. What is the role of the teacher in the university classrooms and how does it affect student-teacher relationships? 2. What would be the probable challenges and constraints towards the way to critical pedagogy for the university teachers?

Method
The present study is an empirical investigation in the field of critical pedagogy. The study used a mixedmethods research design by applying quantitative where surveys preceded interviews in the process of data collection for this study. The instruments used for the study were the structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview protocol.

Results
The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the teacher and the challenges and constraints towards critical pedagogy in the university classrooms. For this purpose, 100 students and 10 teachers were selected from The Women University of Multan. The following table presents the demographic information of the participants:

Students' Responses of Questionnaire in Percentage
The results of teachers' interviews provide answers to the second research question and bring into focus the major challenges in the way to implement critical pedagogy in university classrooms. The major constraints as reported by teachers were ---large classes, lengthy syllabus, unavailability of resources, lack of training and lack of interest and motivation by the students.

Thematic Analysis
The researchers did not use any coding technique for the description of the data; instead, similar ideas were clustered together (Seidel and Kelle, 1995). Guidelines provided by Bassey (1999) were adopted; these include "taking notice of relevant ideas, gathering similar examples from the other data, comparing and contrasting the perceptions of two different groups, students and faculty, finding common structures and differing patterns of thoughts, and ultimately converging all under relevant theme heading. Finally, emergent themes became part of the analysis; these include: 1) role of teacher and student-teacher relationship, 2) students' voice in the learning process, 3) student-student & student-teacher interaction and 4) the challenges/ constraints towards the way to critical pedagogy. The themes are elaborated in the following section.

Role of Teacher and Student-teacher Relationship in University Classrooms
Different questions were included in the questionnaire to determine the role of the teachers and their classroom practices in the university classrooms. The results revealed that most of the teachers were authoritative in a conventional way, hardly allowing their students any participation in the learning process. According to most of the students, teachers remain indifferent to our want for more explanation; it appears that the capacity to facilitate student inquiry is somehow lacking.

Students' Voice in the Learning Process.
The majority of the students affirmed that their teachers hesitate to share their authority and responsibilities with them, and avoid student's involvement in selecting topics of interest for discussion. Hence, teachers are the sole decision-makers about the activities to be done during a session leaving little room for student involvement. Scholars' advocacy for practicing critical pedagogy is somehow reduced to lip service. According to students, the teachers act as 'prescriber' and 'oppressor' by suppressing their voice.

Student-student & Student-teacher Interaction.
The students' responses reflected that teachers do not welcome open interaction among them or with her; however, they accepted that teachers are easily accessible through emails, and other social media. Moreover, they conveyed that they do not get enough room for the group and teamwork; it is not part of essential pedagogy. It implies that the university classroom is monologue rather than dialogue. The teachers shared that group/pair work activities are too cumbersome to organize, and valuable teaching time gets wasted. Moreover, they complained that group activities get noisy and cause classroom management issues, especially in large classes.

Discussion
The teachers themselves did not appreciate that teaching is a one-sided activity with lecturing the most dominant mode of teaching. However, the university teachers ascribed certain constraints and challenge to the ongoing practices of banking education. The teachers kept grumbling and grousing about the obstacles hindering to practice critical pedagogy. Among the challenges/constraints identified as significant barriers towards the implementation of critical pedagogy were large classes, lengthy syllabus, lack of resources, lack of motivation on the part of the students and lack of necessary training. Hence, careful planning is needed to introduce various strategies of critical pedagogy in university classrooms. Some of the findings of the present study agree with those of the previous studies (Kareepadath, 2018;Shih, 2018;Sarroub & Quadros, 2015;Rafiee & Keihaniyan, 2014;Jabbour, 2013 andEmenyeonu, 2012) which have revealed the factors affecting the implementation of critical pedagogy in their respective educational settings.

Conclusion
The present qualitative case study explored the challenges and constraints faced by teachers in adopting critical pedagogy within the university classrooms. The study also examined teachers' interest and readiness for opting critical pedagogy, as well as, the traces of narration and liberation in their practices. After analysis of teachers' and students' data, it is concluded that more traces of narration than liberation were found in teaching practices of the faculty of the Women University, Multan.

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Recommendations for Improvement
In order to ameliorate the present state of affairs and to implement critical pedagogy efficiently in university classrooms, following steps are recommended: The university teachers should be made cognizant of the significance of critical pedagogy. The situation as such calls for arranging some training workshops for the teachers to train them adopt critical pedagogy successfully as they lack the necessary training.

Limitations
Researchers do not claim the generalizability of this study. It was a limited case study of one Women University only, but the results are insightful, provoking further inquiry, either replicating the same design or enhancing it to suit the purpose.
with an Introduction by Donaldo Macedo