Cosmetic Criticality: (Re)Centering Political Clarity Within First-Wave Responses to "Post-Truth"

• In Event: 51.080 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Nine - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 51.080-2 - Post-Truth Era: A Freirean Response

Abstract

This presentation outlines the proliferation of discourse around “post-truth” in educational spaces through the Freirean lens of critical literacies. Drawing data from recent policy critiques, educational media, and foundational work in critical literacy, I identify three emerging schools of thought currently dominating discussions around combatting post-truth: critical literacies, critical consumerism, and critical empathy. I discuss the affordances and limitations of these first wave approaches, highlighting the notion of “cosmetic criticality” present across all three approaches. I then provide recommendations for augmenting these approaches through a lens of power, domination, and liberation to increase the legibility of post-truth discourses in order to disrupt them.

Author

• Chris K. Bacon, Boston College