Acts of Knowing Critical Pedagogy in, Against and Beyond the University

by Cowden, Stephen; Singh, Gurnam

• ISBN13: 9781441159755
• ISBN10: 1441159754
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-03-28
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This provocative book's starting point is a deep and profound concern about the commodification of knowledge within the contemporary university. Acts of Knowing aims to provide readers with a means of understanding the issues from the perspective of Critical Pedagogy; an educational philosophy which believes that 'knowing' must be freed from the constraints of the financial and managerialist logics which dominate the contemporary university. Critical Pedagogy is important for three key reasons: it conceptualises pedagogy as a process of engagement between the teacher and taught; secondly that that engagement is based on an underlying humanistic view about human worth and value; and thirdly that the 'knowing' which can come out of this engagement needs to be understood essentially as exchange between people, rather than a financial exchange.Cowden and Singh argue that the conception of education as simply a means for securing economic returns for the individual and for the society's positioning in a global marketplace, represents a fundamentally impoverished conception of education, which impoverishes not just individuals, but society as a whole.

Author Biography

Gurnam Singh is a Principal Lecturer in Social Work and Co-Director of the Applied Research Group in Social Exclusion in Social Care (SISC) at Coventry University. He describes himself as an activist educator and much of his research and teaching focuses on using teaching and research as a way to promote human emancipation. In recognition of his work on social inclusion and critical pedagogy in higher education, Gurnam was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy in 2009. Throughout his adult life he has been active in numerous social movements whose aim has been to fight for social and economic justice.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Critical Pedagogy and the Crisis in the Contemporary UniversityPart 1 - Perspectives on the Crisis in EducationChapter 1: On the New Poverty of Student LifeChapter 2: Sat-Nav Education - A Means to an End or an End to MeaningChapter 3: Critical pedagogy, Public Sociology and Student ActivismChapter 4: The Practical Politics of 'Criticality' in Higher EducationChapter 5: Opening Spaces of Possibility in the University- Critical Pedagogy in the Teaching of Social JusticePart 2 : Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education Chapter 6: Critical Pedagogy and the Uses of Freire and Bourdieu Chapter 7: The Neoliberal University, Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education Chapter 8: Indigenous PedagogyChapter 9: Popular Education and Higher EducationChapter 10: Critical Pedagogy, Critical Theory and Critical Hope Chapter 11: Autonomist Marxism, Social Movements and Popular EducationBibliographyIndex