Critical pedagogy’s attentiveness to denied agency becomes absurd in prison
Evidence
In the words of Henry Giroux (2011), “Critical pedagogy takes as one of its central projects an attempt to be discerning and attentive to those places and practices in which social agency has been denied” (p. 3). But, the prison may be the place where social agency is most clearly denied. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (2007) meditated on this when he described his arrest as “a breaking point in your life, a bolt of lightning which has scored a direct hit on you … an unassimilable spiritual earthquake not every person can cope with … [and] an instantaneous, shattering thrust, expulsion, somersault from one state into another” (pp. 4–5). The notion of a teacher attempting to be “discerning and attentive” in such a scenario quickly becomes both patronizing and absurd. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 405
Categorization
- STORYSTEM: A teaching scene set inside a prison could dramatize the contradiction between ‘liberatory’ method and institutional reality — teacher discovering their pedagogy rings patronizing.
- XREF: connects to: Freirean liberatory pedagogy can endanger students inside prisons — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 401; Dialogue-based pedagogy faces near-impossible conditions inside jail and prison settings — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 392; Teaching in prison means teaching with the prison’s governing constraints — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 402 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Freirean world-reading pedagogy becomes ethically fraught inside prisons
#expands(0.85) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 406 - Dialogue-based pedagogy faces near-impossible conditions inside jail and prison settings
#corroborates(0.80) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 392 - Teaching in prison means teaching with the prison’s governing constraints
#expands(0.80) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 402 - Critical pedagogy’s core demands are often impossible inside prisons, but dialogue survives.
#qualifies(0.75) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 411