Final answer:
Paulo Freire created critical pedagogy, an educational theory that encourages critical awareness of societal norms and aims to empower individuals through education. This falls under Freire's concept of achieving emancipation by being critically reflective and questioning societal foundations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Paulo Freire is credited with creating critical pedagogy, a form of education that emphasizes the importance of developing critical awareness of social injustices. Freire's approach to education involves a dialogic exchange between teacher and student, where both engage in critical reflection to challenge the status quo of societal norms. This pedagogical movement aligns closely with the principles of the Frankfurt School and seeks to empower individuals through education to achieve emancipation. Critical pedagogy is a transformative educational philosophy that asks students to question and analyze the underlying assumptions of society to become authentically human, as per Freire's vision of education.
Jean Piaget, on the other hand, is known for his cognitive theory of development, which explains how children's cognitive abilities evolve through distinct stages as they grow. Lev Vygotsky contributed the sociocultural theory of development, which focuses on the influence of culture and social interactions on development. While each of these theorists contributed substantially to our understanding of cognitive and self-development, it is Paulo Freire who is associated with the creation of critical pedagogy.