week 5

In the interview with Henry Giroux, Giroux talks about how dominant, traditional education kills imagination and limits student agency - for ex. teaching to the test. He calls this kind of teaching a “pedagogy of repression,” and he sees education as a major site of struggle. He declares further, “education [is] a struggle over what kind of future we want for young people.” It made me think about how the ideal future I want for my students is one of freedom from oppression & domination. I appreciate and agree with his claim that education is at the center of every struggle for democracy, and that democracy is an ongoing process which requires constant struggle [makes me think of Angela Davis’ notion that freedom is a constant struggle]. 

Given that capitalism is the antithesis of democracy, I’m glad to be in this program where we are given the space to think deeply about how we as educators can work against capitalism where possible & the structures of oppression that we exist in, and create the space for our students to both understand these systems and seek to change them (ideally to more liberatory ends..). 

Giroux also considers the way that normative/traditional education is sometimes masked as being ‘neutral,’ which leaves no one accountable and obscures the way that oppressive power functions - “power at its worst is invisible.” Hearing Giroux speak also reminds me of the power we each have as educators to intervene in and develop the political consciousness of young people. 

From the Foucault reading, I found these concluding questions to be important to note: “New questions will be heard: 'What are the modes of existence of this discourse?' 'Where does it come from; how is it circulated; who controls it?' 'What placements are determined for possible subjects?' 'Who can fulfill these diverse functions of the subject?' Behind all these questions we would hear little more than the murmur of indifference: 'What matter who's speaking?’”