On Critical Pedagogy

by Henry A. Giroux

For thirty years Henry Giroux has been theorizing pedagogy as a political, moral, and cultural practice, drawing upon critical discourses that extend from John Dewey and Zygmunt Bauman to Paulo Freire. This impassioned book starts with the crucial role of pedagogy in schools before extending the notion to the educational force of the wider culture.

Giroux focuses on five crucial elements associated with critical pedagogy. First, he presents an overview of the term as it applies to schooling and to larger cultural spheres. Second, he analyzes the increasingly empirical orientation of teaching, focusing on the culture of positivism. Section Three examines some of the major economic, social, and political forces undermining the promise of democratic schooling in both public and higher education. Giroux then outlines increasing attempts by both right wing and liberal interests to reduce schooling to training and students merely to customers. Finally, the book focuses on the legacy of Paulo Freire and issues a fundamental challenge to educators, public intellectuals, and others who believe in the promise of a radical democracy.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching, Politics, Philosophy, Theory, Social

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

American cultural critic. One of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, he is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media studies, and critical theory.

A high-school social studies teacher in Barrington, Rhode Island for six years, Giroux has held positions at Boston University, Miami University, and Penn State University. In 2005, Giroux began serving as the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Giroux has published more than 35 books and 300 academic articles, and is published widely throughout education and cultural studies literature. Since arriving at McMaster, Giroux has been a featured faculty lecturer, and has published nine books, including his most recent work, The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex.

Routledge named Giroux as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period in 2002.

Reviews

[Shafiq Razak Rajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I learned from this book? The education system is becoming more market-driven, profit oriented and serves to reproduce the status quo by 'educating' hordes of unquestioning labor force that can be used as commodities for the interests of corporations. Culture is commodified.

What can we do about it? Teach those students to question everything, including the values and norms that they took for granted, the relations of power in society, their place within it and what they can do about it to become responsible citizens. Get them to believe that there exist a different mode of living than the one they are living in right now, and that they have the power to collectively strive for it, should they possess civic courage.

It should be read by teachers who believe in a better world.

[Kevin Fulton · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second edition of On Critical Pedagogy has been updated in order to include the Trump presidency. And Trump remains a spectre, haunting this book and preventing it from meaningful analysis. Trump and other brands of politics, particularly the neoliberal variety, whatever that may mean (And apparently it means almost everything) are denounced throughout this book. But the denunciations serve as a way to preach to Giroux's choir, and the analysis lacks depth. I think part of the reason is that Giroux lacks the needed background knowledge in order to comment on numerous political issues, in addition to educational issues.
This causes the second half of the book, which really digs into neoliberalism to be much weaker than the first half.

A strength of the book, and of critical pedagogy in general is that it acknowledges the impossibility of neutrality. We all come with a viewpoint, with our own presuppositions.
"The notion of a neutral, objective education is an oxymoron. Education and pedagogy do not exist outside of relations of power, values, and politics.

In my opinion, the term critical pedagogy (CP) is a bit of a misnomer. I think critical pedagogists stretch the term pedagogy more than is helpful. CP can be more accurately thought of as a philosophy, as applying critical theory to education than as a pedagogy*.

*Giroux, along with other critical pedagogists stretch the term pedagogy to include learning outside of the classroom, but it is stretched so thin as to divorce the term from its original meaning.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giroux has some of the best contemporary analysis on why critical pedagogy is necessary and how educators can implement it... but this collection is difficult to read because every essay is repetitive (which is probably because all of the chapters were previously published separately).

[Страхиња Стоиљковић]

UGhgh, kulturna hegemonija, kultura pozitivizma, tržišni model obrazovanja, neoliberalizam i javni intelektualci + javna pedagogija, kritička paradigma, Freire, Said i Burdije. Sve jako komplikovano, sve zahteva dosta predznanja iz politike i nauke. Treba čitati dosta da bi se Žiru ispratio. A do tad, hasta siempre Paolooo!

[LaMarx · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that the most important thing that this book has to offer is its critique of the cultural positivism in neoliberal education that makes history into nothing but a list of events without significance.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giroux is a scholar in critical pedagogy and youth studies. This book is dense but really hits at many of the social ills in the United States (and possibly throughout Westernized countries. I found the chapter on Higher Education (chapter 6) to be particularly poignant as someone who has been working in higher education administration for several years.

[Kaylee Kolonich · Rating 1 out of 5]

Giroux's text is hypocritical, repetitive, condescending, and reactionary. To read this book and not fully agree with Giroux is to listen to an educator who uses virtue signaling as a sign of empathy- empathy that he does not extend to those he wishes to "educate". Claiming to support critical thinking, Giroux wants to teach students to think critically in a way that supports his views while demonizing the opposition. The statistics he uses are taken out of context and repetitive leading to a shallow sense of research that only consults equally biased sources. Giroux's desire seems to be to "educate" students to believe that the worlds and people they come from are inherently full of willful ignorance and wicked intolerance. Needless to say this approach not only would not get through to a student, but would encourage a student to consider the educational system as a place that is judgemental and demeaning to them and their loved ones. Those who agree with Giroux, please consider swapping his liberal jargon for conservative jargon and observe the cold, manipulative obstinance he is encouraging in the classroom. I am exceedingly disappointed in this book, which can only be praised in an echo chamber because it cannot possibly appeal to or persuade those it criticizes so blantantly.

[Noah Tri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giroux’s work has only grown in importance in the 5 years since the publication of the 2nd edition as we face of the beginning of Trump’s second term. Giroux’s analysis provides insight into the evolution of the public and higher education from a public good to a private good led by corporate interests and a consumer-driven society. He forcefully—and presciently—reveals the societal and political implications of this evolution while outlining the theory of critical pedagogy in secondary and higher education and culture at large. A must-read to understand this dark time of “neoliberal fascism” and think and act on how to get out of it and improve our democracy.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

For readers already familiar with Freire’s work on pedagogy and progressive pedagogy rooted in critical thinking, the last chapters of Giroux’s Critical Pedagogy will likely repeat ideas they are already familiar with. Nonetheless, Grioux’s thoughts on how corporate ideology shapes education and how the public perceives teachers continues to have relevancy.

[Jonna Lappalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about neoliberalism and politics in higher education and teaching in general. It is true that the book is repetitive but at least it makes the point clear: teaching is never neutral or objective. Education and pedagogy do not exist outside relations of power, values and politics. I especially liked the first chapter with the ideas of culture of positivism.

[Alejandra Balestra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro de texto para los estudiantes en mi curso de pedagogía. Una mirada crítica acerca de la educación en épocas de neoliberalismo. Lectura obligatoria para todo estudiante de profesorado. Para mi es un libro para leer y releer, y es lo que hago.

[Steve Llano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great large-scale projection of Giroux's project and view of education's link to democracy. Lot's of great stuff in here, including a wonderful analysis of time and the university/school, as well as many reasons why critical pedagogy cannot be unstructured in order to get the type of revolutionary subjects that one would want engaging culture. It's an excellent read, and full of great arguments for why one's teaching both in and out of the classroom is connected to popular culture as well as intellectual and theoretical analysis.

[Zach]

Henry Giroux displays what appears to be an encyclopedic knowledge of critical pedagogy. Filled with insight, Giroux's writing is bracing and challenging -- it's hard not to feel a call to action on every page. If you've ever wondered how public & higher education got to where they're at today or if you've ever wondered what kinds of political motivations are driving today's public and higher education, then this is the book for you.