Liberatory Teaching in the Heart of Empire: Confronting Interlocking Cruelties of Racism, Borders, and War

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: Justice and Pedagogy (Table 32)

Abstract

Teaching and learning are under assault in the United States. Educators need to be firm in our opposition to the efforts to deny US racism and violence. I elaborate ways teachers within the core of the American empire can enact a liberatory teaching praxis. This praxis seeks to build a critical consciousness among students about American history, and what they can do to create a better society. Liberatory teachers ought to: 1. Hold fast to empirical realities and ethical commitments; 2. Engage directly with the cruelties of American empire. 3. Expand students’ radical imaginations. I close by arguing for educators to organize against rightwing attacks and to engage in the processes of making a more just and peaceful world.

Author

• Jared Keyel, Rowan University