In this paper, I investigate the process of acquiring ethnic identity, as this is influenced by a society's economic, political, and cultural environments, analyzing ethnic identity in Bangladesh as a case study. The People's Republic of Bangladesh twice developed independence: from India and Pakistan. Throughout their independence movements, their religion (Islam) and language (Bengali) were two principal means to acquire an ethnic identity as Bangladeshi. In this paper, I shall describe the historical background of Bangladesh and define ethnic identity, especially in the context of Bangladesh. Then, I apply critical pedagogy to analyze the influence of education on the process of acquiring an ethnic identity as a Bangladeshi. Critical pedagogy has spoken out for the people under the oppressed circumstances. Even though there have been notable influences from Europe and Latin America, critical pedagogy has been mainly developed in the North-American contexts since late 1970s and paid less attention to other regions such as South Asia. Thus, this paper will be an initial attempt to apply notions of critical pedagogy in the context of South Asia, especially of Bangladesh.