Author(s): Abdelkhalk Er-Rechydy, Mohamed Benmhamed, Brahim Hiba

Abstract: Critical pedagogy’s implications on education are still discussed and debated, especially in our contemporary world, which is marked by technological advancement that plays a significantly remarkable role in shaping today's world. In this world, academic achievement should be correlated with critical consciousness so that future graduates can function well in our globalized world in which socioeconomic dominance and exclusion are increasingly encountered. Hence, instrumental and technical training is not the only aspect that education should harness. On the contrary, schools are requested to use and adopt critical approaches when teaching students. Overemphasis on technical skills produces fragile students who cannot give back to their societies, and their tasks are limited to performing assigned robotic roles. Schools that adopt this teaching style are serving the needs of the job market solely. Students are the future population that will hold jobs as well as positions in society. Based on this, this paper’s objective is to know middle school EFL teacher trainees' perceptions concerning the role of critical pedagogy in empowering students’ agency. It seeks to know how critical pedagogy, as a change-oriented pedagogy, can help students become agents who defend just causes locally and internationally. The sample of this study consisted of 52 EFL female and male teacher trainees who filled out the questionnaire. Additionally, online interviews were held with two focus groups each group consisting of six participants. This study adopted qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. Thematic analysis was applied to interviews, while questionnaires were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The findings of this study reveal that Moroccan EFL teacher trainees agree that using critical pedagogy in EFL classes will be very useful due to its role in empowering students’ critical consciousness and reflection skills. The findings also show that active agency is an important aspect that should be focused on in EFL classrooms. On the other hand, the results indicate that critical pedagogy is seen as an asset as it contributes to equality in EFL classes and hinders social disparity between students. This study implies that critical pedagogy and its principles are recommended to be implemented in Moroccan EFL classes because of their impact on activating students’ desire to take initiatives in their societies and to be representative of just causes, which will, in turn, help the entire community.

Keywords: EFL teacher trainees, critical pedagogy, critical consciousness, critical reflection.

Article Info: Received: 29 May 2025; Received in revised form: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Jun 2025; Available online: 03 Jul 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.104.2