Critical Pedagogy and Youth Empowerment: Rethinking Technical and Vocational Education and Training through a Freirean Framework in South Africa

Abstract

This article explores how Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy can inform a reimagining of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in South Africa, focusing on youth empowerment, practical learning, and educational transformation. It combines Freire’s dialogic and humanising approach with the Capabilities Approach to show how education can expand young people’s real freedoms, critical understanding, and ability to apply skills meaningfully in work and community life. Drawing on participatory Learning Cycle Group (LCG) meetings used for both data generation and reflective practice, TVET students acted as co-researchers to identify barriers that limit transformative learning, including outdated pedagogy, weak institutional support, and socio-economic precarity. Through dialogue, they proposed alternative visions of TVET that connect technical training with ethical, civic, and social awareness. Building on recent studies that emphasise Freirean pedagogy as both humanising and practically empowering, this article calls for a shift from narrow labour-market models towards holistic and context-sensitive forms of vocational education that promote agency, dignity, and justice. The findings contribute to current debates on transformative TVET in the Global South and demonstrate the potential of youth as active agents in reshaping their futures through critical and applied learning.