The present study details the theoretical and pedagogical development of an experimental cultural studies in education seminar. Specifically, we explore the societal ends of education, and the means they prefigure, through a meditation on the catastrophe of the present. This will involve theorizing this historical moment, thinking through the…

There is much in Freire's educational philosophy that can be helpful in the reading of a fictional work; similarly, in engaging fiction, the understanding of key Freirean principles can be deepened. These dual possibilities become evident in reflecting on his countryman Lima Barreto's novel, "The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma" (Barreto,…

Turning to key texts of Paulo Freire and Jacques Lacan, this paper argues that the experience organized in critical pedagogy can be rearticulated on the basis of a structural-practical connection to psychoanalysis. I pay specific attention to the methodical parallels that develop between the accounts of the psychoanalytic and pedagogical…

The United States is at a turning point in its history. Insurrection has become a dominant motif describing a country torn between the promises and ideals of democracy and an emergent authoritarianism that trades in lies, lawlessness, and a rebranded fascist politics. In this article, I analyze the contrasting visions, politics, and role of…

Within the broad Freirean paradigm that dominates critical pedagogy, there is a tendency to assume that affects such as love, hope, and empathy as well as revolutionary agency are naturally occurring in all human beings and that conscientization will eventually lead to empowerment for change (Amsler 2011). However, it is not clear how the workings…

Facts have become so ubiquitous that they are near meaningless in the eyes of the populace. People are so barraged with competing information that they are desensitized to information that doesn't fit neatly into their worldviews. This is the nature of the post-truth era in which we find ourselves. And if facts don't matter, then what does that…

Empowered students have the ability to think and act reflectively as individual subjects of a society or a culture who have formed a conscious self-awareness of the meanings of their multiple affiliations and the significance of their worldly transactions with the other. Teaching should incorporate student ideas and experience actualized from acts…

Mia Angélica Sosa-Provencio is assistant professor of Secondary Education in the Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy at the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on framing education as a means for social justice with particular focus on teacher education that engages youth in their multiple identities and…

In this article, the author examines the growth of the current strain of fundamentalism that is influencing rural schools in the United States, and how it is, according to him, creating a self-sustaining pipeline of fundamentalists into positions of power. The author details the type of anti-public and anti-democratic education being expressed…

Given its propensity to foster social awareness, literature can function as a tool for developing critical citizenship, particularly in schools. This article critically analyzes John Kani's "Nothing but the Truth", a text prescribed in South African high schools, in terms of whether it presents any issues that could be drawn upon to…

Because the subject of imagination is both complex and can be conceived of in different ways, the focus of the first part of this article is to engage in a descriptive analysis of this faculty. With the help of Greene's intellectual predecessor and former teacher Hannah Arendt, Hannah Spector draws distinctions between imagination and other…

Freire's work, both as a theorist and a practitioner, has always had a strong utopian flavor. In this article, the author sets out to show how and why this is so. Freire addressed the theme of utopia directly in his writings, but he also sought to bring a utopian world view to life in his educational endeavors. Delineating the key features of a…

The Texas Board of Education's sweeping approval of roughly one hundred changes to the social studies and history curriculum, a ban on so-called ''interpretive history'' in Florida, and a vitriolic campaign of book-banning in Arizona, indicate the extent to which American education and curriculum is currently under assault…

This article supports critical, social justice oriented science education research by providing a theoretical and methodological basis for examining how subjectivities may be constituted through discourses found in science education texts. Such research explores how discourses orient teachers and students to the world, others, and themselves, as…

This article explores the possibility of developing an ethico-politically coherent and practical research framework for studying the learning and knowledge-production and dissemination processes of utopian groups and movements. It seeks to develop understanding of utopias by identifying and conceptualizing their pedagogical aspects. At the same…