Parrhēsía as Pedagogy

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Curriculum Explorations Across Place(s) and Power

Abstract

This paper explores the possibilities of parrhesia, the speaking of dangerous truths, as pedagogy in pre-service teacher education programs, community organizing and resistance to corporate education reform, and academia contexts of learning. The position we take counters Foucault‘s argument that parrhēsía alone cannot be seen as pedagogy. We contend that Foucault’s notion of parrhēsía as a teaching tool is not fully correct. There are times when the truth must be told to those who are resistant to hear it and times when the public practice of the telling of dangerous truths serves as a form of public pedagogy and offers living, participatory curricula. This paper also proposes how to continue to imbue parrhēsía in the aforementioned settings in the future.

Authors

• Erik James Shaver, Ball State University

• Fran Huckaby, Texas Christian University