Abstract:
Critical pedagogy (CP) has brought about positive changes in the field of education by shifting from
traditional pedagogy to emancipatory pedagogy. CP which derives its interest from critical theory is a postmodern
approach which is relatively a new paradigm in teaching language. However, not much research has
been conducted on the perception and practice of EFL teachers with respect to the basic tenets of CP. This
article details a descriptive research on the perception and practice of the principles of CP in EFL classroom.
The main reason behind this study was to examine the tendency to which Ethiopian EFL teachers in higher
education preparatory schools in Central Gondar town apply principles of CP and their perception towards
it. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study a validated questionnaire and a structured classroom observation
were employed. To this end, a critical language pedagogy questionnaire was adapted from by Macki &
Alibakhshi (2011) and Paudel (2014) and piloted that its reliability was found to be 0.82 through Cronbach
apha. The observation checklist was prepared from the literature and reviewed by EFL instructors. Both
results found from the questionnaire and observations were analyzed quantitatively. The result revealed that
even if EFL teachers do have relatively good perception on the principles of CP their practice was found to
be in contrast with their perception. Based on that the researcher recommended that it is a paramount to
investigate the factors that hinder them not to practice what they perceive
