The concepts of knowledge and learning have been conceptualized in different ways throughout time. In the training of teachers, a variety of pedagogical theories is provided. Particularly, in the teaching of languages, there are two main views of pedagogy - a mainstream and a critical one. Critical pedagogy can be seen as evolving from the pedagogy of the mainstream, mainly because of its views of knowledge, learning and teaching. First of all, the pedagogy of the mainstream assumes that truer knowledge will develop from reasoning minds. The main belief is that learning involves the mind in analysis, comprehension and interpretation. Thus, emotes are suppressed so as not to have distractions in the learning process. In this sense, the learner is supposed to rise above its culture, society and ideology in order to be impartial and neutral in the acquisition of knowledge. .
Critical pedagogy, on the other hand, considers that it is impossible to remain uninvolved in the learning process. Learning shapes a person in the same way background knowledge shapes learning. As learners are located in the environment, they are conditioned by the influences of their own context. Knowledge, it follows, is deeply influenced by the larger social and political contexts in which it is situated. Then, mainstream pedagogies consider that learning processes are universal, common for all people. These are value free instruments motivated by efficiency to conduct instruction in the most effective way possible. What is learned, therefore, is factual, impartial and correct for everyone. Knowledge is considered to provide the one universally true view of reality, since it is devoid of values of any moral, cultural or ethical character. Even if teachers do not sympathize with the facts to be taught, they can transmit them to students as uninvolved intermediaries.
In comparison with mainstream pedagogies, critical pedagogies hold that learning processes vary according to the social practices and cultural tradition of different communities.
