Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture, and Schooling: A Critical Reader (Edge, Critical Studies in Educational Theory)

305 Pages·1997·29.37 MB·English

by  Henry Giroux

Pedagogy and
the Politics of Hope
THE EDGE: CRXTICAL STUDIES IN
EDUCATIONAL THEORY
Series Edi;kors joe L. KincheEae, Peter McLaren, and
Shirley R, Steinberg
Pedagou and l.he hlitic; ofHope: meow, Cul&repa nd Schooling
(A Cdtic~Rle a&r]
Henry A, Giroux
Ligeracies ofPowec m a tA mericam Are Nut Allowed I.u Know
Donalldo Macedo
FORTHCOMING
Kintde7-cutture: The Corporate Constrution ofChi;tdhiood
edited by Shirley R. Steinberg and Jae L. Kincheloe
Reuotul.ionary iMiLl;~ietllturalismP;e hgo@e; of Dksml
for the New Millennium
Peter MeLaren
Edacatim and the Amelltwn Puturn
Stanley Aranovvitz
reacliers as Cultural Workers:L et-tgrs to W oD ~rree ach
Paula Freire
Pedagogy and
the Politics of
Hope
Theory, Culture,
and Schooling
A Critical Reader
Henry k Giroux
.
'-. , A Member of the Pcrscus Books Group
The Edge: Critical Studies in Educaho~zaTl heory
All rights reserved. Printed in the Efnited Svdtes rzf An~ericaN, o part of this pubtieaticm may
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cluding pbotr~copyr, ecording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Coppight 8 1997 by Wesmievv Press, A Member of the Perseus Btztnks Group
Published in f 997 in the Efnited States of Anlerica by Wes~ewPr ess, 5500 Central Avenue,
Boulder, C2trlorado 80301-21277, and in the linited Kingdam by LVesWiew Press, 12 Hid's
Copse I&:clada, mnor Hill, Oxford 9JJ
Library uf Cr~ngresCs atalrzging-in-Publicati~~Dna m
Girom, Henry A.
1"edagogy and the przlitics rzf hrnpe : thesq culture, and schooling
: a critical reader I Henry A. C;irsux,
p, cm.-(The edge, critical studies in educaticnnal thetlry)
Selection uf author's essays pre\riously published rzver past
fifteen years.
Includes bibliczgraphicd references and index,
lSBN 0-8133-3273-7(hc).-TSBN 0-8133-3274-5(pb)
1, Critical pedagom. 2. Postmodernism and education.
3. Ptzlitics and edueatic>n, I. 'ritfe. 11. Series.
LdC196.G573 1997
370.11 ' 5 4 ~t2 96-39884
GIP
The paper used in this pubtieaticm meets the requirements of the American Natisnd Stan-
dard for Permanence rzf Paper for Printed Library Materids 239.48-1984.
POD
ON DEMAND 1, 9
For the children
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Contents
Serits Editors'F~rewordJ~O E Id.K TNGHEI~OFI,
EN, & SESZRLEU R, DEXNBERG
P~rXt
Theoretical Foundations for Critical Pedago~
1 Schooling and the Culture of Positivism: Notes on
the Death of History
2 Cultwe and Ration&~in FPanHW School
Thought: Ideological Foundations for a Theory
of Social Educa~on
3 Ideology and Agency in the Process of Schooling
4 Authority, Intellectuals, and the Politics of
Practicd Leadrzg
Part 2
Critical Pedago~in the Chsroom
5 Radical Pedagogy and the Politics of Studentvoice
6 Bor&r Pedagaw in the Age of Pasmodernism
7 Disturbing the Peace: Writing in the Cdturd
Studies Classroom
viii / Contents
Par8 3
ContemporaryC oncerns
8 Rethi&mg the Boundaries of Educational Discourse:
Madernism, Postmader~sma,n d Feminism 183
9 Inswgent MuXticultm&sm md the Promise
of Pedagom
List of Credits
About the Bnak and Author
Index
Series Editors' Foreword
As edtors of V\iestview"s series The Edge: Critical Studies in
Educational Theory, we asked Henry Giroux to put together a series of
his most definitive essays from the past fifteen years so that education
and cultural smdies scholars collfd gain a sense of the roots and pro-
gmssion of his work, Pedagop and the Polisics @Hope is the product of
that request. Giroux's work is so prodigious and multidimensional that
the effort to select a manageable but comprehensive sampling of it be-
came a frustrating chore: '4Howc an we leave out the essay on the Frank-
furt School?" or '" itdo? understand why the essay on the critique of re-
production theory was deleted" became common questions and
observations in our deliberations. To do justice to the variety of dis-
courses that Giroux has dmkvn upon or the various theoretical advances
he has offered in his relatively short career would require a QuintiZ-
ianesque multivolume set. VVe yielded to the demands of practicality;
Pedagoa and $he P0liti:ies sfHope is the result of our csnferences. We
hope that readers will And the work inctuded here as compellirlg and in-
sightful as we do, As this volume illustrates, Giroux is undoubtedly one
of the most creative educational thinkers of "re last third af the twenti-
eth cerrtury, and his innwatiwe scholarship and ixlflrlence will continue
into the twenv-first century and beyond.
Giroux's passion and genius revol~ar ound the strugge for a radical
democracy both in the United States and in the world at large, Radical
democmcx as he uses the term, involves the effofi to expand the possi-
bility for social justice, freedom, and egalitarian social relations in the
educational, economic, political, and cultural domains that locate men,
women, and children in everyday Lik, Thus, Pedagog and Ile Polilics of
Hope documents the development of Giroux" trademal-k language of
critique and possibility and the ways be deploys it in the effort to expose
the forces that undermine education for a critical democracy In the
cantext of recent U.S. history such forces have Rsurished in the cocaan
of Keaganism; ixldeed, it is in this envirunmezrt that GiruuxPsi nsufgelrt
analyses take shape. In the Age of Reagan, Giroux's iaroduaion of
Frankhrt School critical theory into the discourse of educational schol-
arship struck a responsive chard with those offended by duplicitous
rigllt-wing proclamations of an oppression-clean& history of Arrreri-