This study aims to explore critical pedagogy levels of pre-service teachers and then analyze whether there is a relationship between critical pedagogy and classroom management styles of pre-service teachers, and also to present practical suggestions for critical pedagogy practices in higher education. An explanatory mixed design has been used as research method. Participants include 318 pre-service teachers studying in six different departments; however, after the data violating the normality assumption are removed, the analysis is carried out with the data obtained from 264 pre-service teachers. Then, qualitative data is collected from 18 pre-service teachers from the same sample group. Correlation analysis, t-test and ANOVA are performed in the analysis of quantitative data, and content analysis is performed in the analysis of qualitative data. The findings indicate that pre-service teachers have medium level of participation in critical pedagogy principles and critical pedagogy subdimensions. Secondly, in terms of classroom management style, pre-service teachers tend more to Authoritative and Laissez-faire (democratic) styles. While there is a positive and significant correlation between Laissez-faire (democratic) style and critical pedagogy level; there is a significant negative correlation between critical pedagogy level and Authoritative style, and Authoritarian/oppressive style. The critical pedagogy levels of freshman pre-service teachers are higher compared to the senior pre-service teachers. The critical pedagogy levels of those in Primary school education, Guidance and counseling education and Science education are significantly higher than the departments of Social studies education and Turkish language education. In qualitative findings, pre-service teachers claim that an instruction based on critical pedagogy principles in classroom practices should be “progressive, transformative, critical, sharing power and supporting social justice”. As critical pedagogy practices, they suggest authority-sharing activities, reverse thinking activities and decentralizing power activities and suggest group work that will make each student realize that s/he is valuable and at the center.

Critical pedagogy principles, classroom management styles, critical consciousness, Paulo Freire