Universities must teach future teachers to mediate between democratic values and capitalist demands.

Evidence

The university as an institution occupies an elite position within society and has the power to guide public opinion. In their status, therefore, universities have both a responsibility and an obligation to provide insight and guidance on matters that pertain to public life. Student-teachers are part of this elite, and make up the few in society that are privileged enough to access this level of education. They are society’s role models, by both the virtue of their societal position and their influence on the youth within schooling communities. Accepting this, Alexander (2008) argues that it is within the university that student-teachers need to reclaim the meaning and purpose of education. It is within universities that students should learn how to mediate critically between democratic values and the demands of a capitalist society. Thus, universities need to politicize TE within the broader relations of power to raise awareness and inform actions to address how such relations perpetuate inequalities. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 197

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: college teacher-prep programs as a test case for whether higher education can hold a democratic-critical line against market-driven vocationalism.
• QUESTION: Worth pursuing: what would a curriculum that actually teaches this ‘mediation’ look like, rather than just declaring it?
• XREF: connects to: Capitalism requires continuous re-education of the popular classes through cultural struggle; Teacher deskilling under management pedagogies weakens education as a democratic force — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 196; Pedagogy must engage political economy and sociology, not just teaching technique — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 181 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism requires continuous re-education of the popular classes through cultural struggle #corroborates (0.80)
• Teacher deskilling under management pedagogies weakens education as a democratic force #corroborates (0.80) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 196
• Pedagogy must engage political economy and sociology, not just teaching technique #expands (0.75) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 181
• Educators as public intellectuals must model engaged democratic citizenship #exemplifies (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2698