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Critical pedagogy is an instructional approach to teaching that employs a theoretical framework by which social injustices are critiqued. This type of pedagogy encourages the learner to critique obstructions to the learner's full participation in society, and encourages critical collective action, through the engagement of the learner's experiential knowledge and social agency. Critical pedagogy, however, falls flat in addressing racially oppressive practices due to its shortsightedness on the intersectionality of race and class. In response to this shortsightedness, Critical Race Theory emerged to address specific social, political, educational, and economic concerns of race. When critical pedagogy and critical race theory (CRT) act in concert, adult education gives stage to the voice of the learner. The use of "voice" in education research is critical; conveying personal thoughts, feelings, desires and politics. It engages the reader to infer his or her own interpretations to the data. It is the interaction between voice of the participant and the interpretation of the reader that mirrors an exercise in critical pedagogy and celebrates the storytelling and counternarratives of Critical Race Theory. This article addresses the use of voice in educational theory by first portraying a playlet of an ongoing intellectual conversation among scholars, and then connects this dialogue to the exploration of the African American learner's silenced consciousness. The author gives stage to African American adult learners as they embrace their own counternarratives via their experience in an Afrocentric community education course. (Contains 1 note.)

In a society, which ostensibly promotes homogeneity, it is easy to consider adult education simply in terms of skills and activities (Ferdman, 1990). Yet adult education around the world (e.g., [...]