American public schools today continue to segregate, alienate, and disempower non-dominant students through the use of culturally oppressive curricula and pedagogical practices. Through portraiture, this article illustrates how such educational issues are rooted in the fact that non-dominant students are often denied their humanity in schools. Building on a rich theoretical tradition of critical theory and critical pedagogy, this article challenges the complicit routines of mainstream educational practices by introducing the idea of critical spiritual pedagogy (CSP). Critical spiritual pedagogy is a method of teaching and learning that is rooted in three central concepts: spirituality, humanity, and power. It acknowledges the way students and teachers are exploited, fragmented, and Othered in schools while advocating for curricular and educational practices that are based in love and integrity in an interdependent classroom community. The authors propose that CSP can be used as a tool for teachers and students to reclaim their humanity and briefly discuss the implications this has for teacher practice, national curricula, and educational research and policy.
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