Henry Giroux: “All education is a struggle over what kind of future you want for young people'

Education always plays a central role – whether in a visible or a veiled way – in any ideological project. For anyone backing the transformation of the world into a fairer, more caring and democratic place, education is key, but people who believe that market logics are fundamental for good social functioning also have their own educational project. All this, furthermore, is not only taking place in the classroom but permeating the whole of society. Taking advantage of his participation in the lecture series To Imagine the World, we talked with one of the founders of critical pedagogy, Henry Giroux (Providence, USA, 1943), who has spent his whole life researching these issues.

[athnealerodney]

"Power, at its worst, is invisible..." Giroux (2019). A very articulate expression of the power dynamics that permeates throughout modern societies....

[trombone]

"An education that doesn't question how power is established and maintained is an education that, itself, protects power." - Adapted from the documentary "Lottery of Birth"

[jolliethejoy]

He has a great way of explaining and I love it, glad my professor suggested this video to me I have a better understanding about it now

[sweetpeasbackyardgarden]

Wow! Succinct expressions. "Young people have a lot of power. They are a potent political force."

[diegomarino]

What is the exact second when the second half of the space cake hits? My bet 4:07

[elprofejuan]

¿Can I translate it into spanish and upload it into my youtube channel? Does the video have copyrights??

[frankvonfrauner]

You know he's smart because he's sitting in front of a blackboard with math on it.

[roberth]

Education is for empowering those who powerlessly stand at the end of the tunnel of education, namely the teachers.

[pesquer]

Very nice to see this professor getting pushback for his apparently progressive but really regressive ideas

[TheLegoryan]

So much hate in the comments yet a serious lack of legitimate criticism

[MuricaTurkey]

"Struggle"? Hmm... where have I heard THAT before?! 🤔

[DieNachtwanderer]

would not a student be required to master methods (mechanics of reading, reading comprehension, mathematics, writing - and master the advanced versions of method) in order to best be able to actualize any (any) given approach to identity and agency. bluntly, if I cannot read or reason or make fundamental numerate estimations of my environment, would that not be the greatest threat to preservation of intrinsic and subsequent identity? beginning with identity would seem a thing we do with animals - treat dog like dog. teach dog, even anthropomorphically, what dogs are...

[willmickel]

It was once the role of educators to teach people how to think not what to think. Professors like this take the opposite view.

[alexakos]

Can we also have Greek subtitles please ??

[zodberg]

It's great that this guy is getting called out for his Critical Pedagogy. Now that we have identified what this guy is doing to children (turning them in to hateful activists), we can now take action to stop him.

[pww]

By externalizing and projecting evil into unjust social structures and prophesying a paradise-like utopia via apocalyptic revolution, Marxism evades the central issue that both religion and great art boldly confront: evil is rooted in the human heart.

— Camille Paglia

[treyb]

Methods? What if the students select or create their own methods? What about methods in professional ethics? Is it not a method to gain the attention of the learners first before engagement in some learning exercise? Perhaps what is meant by the professor is that the qualitative aspects are overlooked oftentimes by learning and applying methodologies.

[yogi]

The next step for enlightenment is for people to be able to think their way out of the mess created by Giroux and thinkers like him.

[harryfloros]

Henry Armand Giroux is an American-Canadian scholar and cultural critic. One of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, he is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media studies, and critical theory. So why is he spouting his word salad standing next to a blackboard of advanced applied mathematics? That lower case h with a bar across it is Planck’s constant divided by 2π. Now why would M. Giroux deliver his sermon stand next to such material in such dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, like some worthy from a Rembrandt painting? Does M Giroux have any understanding of quantum physics beyond his conviction that it’s a product of white supremacist thought or that it might help to make his i-phone go?

[paulelago]

Makes some good points. But he's consumed by Anti-capitalism. He doesn't sound like someone that speaks for democracy but rather wants power concentrated in those that share his ideology.