The Liberal Virus in Critical Pedagogy: Beyond 'Anti-This-and-That' Postmodernism and Three Problems in the Idea of Communism
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| Title: | The Liberal Virus in Critical Pedagogy: Beyond 'Anti-This-and-That' Postmodernism and Three Problems in the Idea of Communism |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Kachur, Jerrold L. |
| Source: | Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies. Apr 2012 10(1):1-21. |
| Availability: | Institute for Education Policy Studies. University of Northampton, School of Education, Boughton Green Road, Northampton, NN2 7AL, UK. Tel: +44-1273-270943; e-mail: ieps@ieps.org.uk; Web site: http://www.jceps.com |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Physical Description: | |
| Page Count: | 21 |
| Publication Date: | 2012 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Opinion Papers |
| Descriptors: | Critical Theory, Social Systems, Democracy, Role of Education, Power Structure, Social Change, Postmodernism, Religion, Political Attitudes, Criticism, Racial Bias, Theory Practice Relationship |
| ISSN: | 1740-2743 |
| Abstract: | In the shadow of triumphalist and hubristic capitalism, many adherents to critical pedagogy promote "democracy" as a kind of anti-capitalist challenge to inequality, oppression and exploitation. However, American culture has gone global, immersing the world in the received wisdom of a variety of liberalisms or in the reaction formations of religious fundamentalism on the right and demotivated cynicism of postmodernism on the left. The impotence in critical pedagogy in the clarion call of "democracy for democracy's sake" resides in common sense subordination to competing liberal assumptions and a political positioning along different lines of liberal critique: classical, modern, neoliberal or radical (i.e. left postmodernism and right libertarianism). Nevertheless, this liberal positioning in critical pedagogy evacuates many commitments to a positive program based on labour, socialist or communist beliefs. This inadequate commitment to "democracy in form" secures "liberalism in content" yet assumes somehow that liberal democratic capitalism can be harnessed for a yet-to-be named "something" that never arrives. This article argues that critical pedagogues must once again commit to a communist pedagogy if any significant challenge to the imperialist, patriarchal, racist and capitalist order is to be undertaken in the near future. For the progressive critical intelligentsia the Idea of communism is central to a creatively renewed project for human liberation; however, this article also identifies three key problems in the development of a critical pedagogy in need of clearer articulation and related to the practical and contradictory logics of power, authority and social change. For power there is the conflict between personal versus social enlightenment, for authority there is the contradiction between enlightenment with unequal authority versus egalitarianism with equalized ignorance, and for social change there are theory and practice conflicts in the transition from a liberal democratic capitalist society to a communist society. How will power, authority and social change be adjudicated within a pragmatic yet revolutionary communist movement so that the errors of the 20th century are both internalized and reconfigured in developing a renewed positive program for liberation? It is still a good question yet to be answered. (Contains 16 footnotes and 1 figure.) |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Number of References: | 55 |
| Entry Date: | 2012 |
| Access URL: | https://www.jceps.com/PDFs/10-1-01.pdf |
| Accession Number: | EJ970840 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | In the shadow of triumphalist and hubristic capitalism, many adherents to critical pedagogy promote "democracy" as a kind of anti-capitalist challenge to inequality, oppression and exploitation. However, American culture has gone global, immersing the world in the received wisdom of a variety of liberalisms or in the reaction formations of religious fundamentalism on the right and demotivated cynicism of postmodernism on the left. The impotence in critical pedagogy in the clarion call of "democracy for democracy's sake" resides in common sense subordination to competing liberal assumptions and a political positioning along different lines of liberal critique: classical, modern, neoliberal or radical (i.e. left postmodernism and right libertarianism). Nevertheless, this liberal positioning in critical pedagogy evacuates many commitments to a positive program based on labour, socialist or communist beliefs. This inadequate commitment to "democracy in form" secures "liberalism in content" yet assumes somehow that liberal democratic capitalism can be harnessed for a yet-to-be named "something" that never arrives. This article argues that critical pedagogues must once again commit to a communist pedagogy if any significant challenge to the imperialist, patriarchal, racist and capitalist order is to be undertaken in the near future. For the progressive critical intelligentsia the Idea of communism is central to a creatively renewed project for human liberation; however, this article also identifies three key problems in the development of a critical pedagogy in need of clearer articulation and related to the practical and contradictory logics of power, authority and social change. For power there is the conflict between personal versus social enlightenment, for authority there is the contradiction between enlightenment with unequal authority versus egalitarianism with equalized ignorance, and for social change there are theory and practice conflicts in the transition from a liberal democratic capitalist society to a communist society. How will power, authority and social change be adjudicated within a pragmatic yet revolutionary communist movement so that the errors of the 20th century are both internalized and reconfigured in developing a renewed positive program for liberation? It is still a good question yet to be answered. (Contains 16 footnotes and 1 figure.) |
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| ISSN: | 1740-2743 |
