Critical Pedagogy and Transcending Economic Determinism

• In Event: 46.065 - Critical Examining and Reinvigorating Critical Pedagogy Through a Self-Reflexive Symposium of Leading Critical Pedagogues

Abstract

Critical Pedagogy and Transending Economic Determinism
The North American turn away Marxist analysis in educational theory following the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall and the advent of postmodern theory would lead critical pedagogy down the road of liberalism—a road dominated by identity politics and a Weberian conception of social class. Building a new approach to Marxist educational theory for the twenty-first century in North America and beyond we must transcend the crude economic determinism and limited understanding of Marx within North American education circles prevalent in the 1970s. What is more, critical pedagogy must be grounded in the understanding that essence is more than consciousness and thus the transcendence of estrangement is more than just a mental act. This is fundamental for correcting a growing tendency in critical pedagogy that reduces liberation to the self-reflective process of acquiring a critical consciousness as an end in itself (rather than a prerequisite for fostering a collective approach and targeting a more material or concrete object of intervention). Consequently, as the common sense logic of mainstream society is mediated by the illogic of capital, reflecting the hyper-individualized ideology of neoliberalism, a robust alternative educational vision is needed. We therefore need a critical pedagogy capable of challenging the logic of capital that includes not only explaining declining educational attainment as the product of culturally inappropriate instruction; as the result of growing poverty; and as the result of capital’s shifting needs in terms of the training and use of human capital; but a combination of all of the above, which points to a much deeper understanding of the social totality. Finally, because the larger forces that make up society, and also mediate society, tend to be disguised and distorted in educational psychology, rendering education as a counter-hegemonic tool less and less possible, the further development of critical pedagogy in general, and Marxist educational theory and practice in particular, remains highly relevant.

Author

• Curry Stephenson Malott, West Chester University of Pennsylvania