This article investigates how critical pedagogy might broaden its purview and cultivate a more symbiotic relationship between formal education and life-long learning through a 'counter-critical pedagogy'. By reconsidering central tenets of Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" through the lens of Bernard E. Harcourt's provocation for a 'counter-critical theory', the article proposes how pedagogy could more effectively respond to circumstances - both personal and global - that are ever-changing and urgently require our intervention. In addition to critiquing the writings of Freire and Harcourt, the article draws on Indigenous epistemologies and the field of artistic research to emphasize the importance of complex and interdependent modes of knowing and holistic approaches to creating community. Key concepts in critical theory and critical pedagogy are repositioned in more active and processual terms that promote a dynamic approach to learning, one that is fully contextualized and situated, embraces greater complexity and intersectional approaches and requires a holistic and ongoing process of reflection and critique.