Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis

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In this book Henry A. Giroux passionately argues that education and critical pedagogy are needed now more than ever to combat injustices in our society caused by fake news, toxic masculinity, racism, consumerism and white nationalism. At the heart of the book is the idea that pedagogy has the power to create narratives of desire, values, identity, and agency at time when these narratives are being manipulated to promote right wing populism and emerging global fascist politics. The book expands on the notion of the plague as not only a medical crisis but also a crisis of politics, ethics, education, and democracy itself. The chapters cover a range topics beginning with historical perspectives on fascism and moving on to issues of social atomization, depoliticization, neoliberal pedagogy, the scourge of staggering inequality, populism, and pandemic pedagogy. The book concludes with a call for educators to make education central to politics, develop a discourse of critique and possibility, reclaim the vision of a radical democracy, and embrace their role as powerful agents of change.

Reviews

Giroux clearly demarcates many of the compounding crises that produced and exacerbated the pandemic, and as such is useful for thinkers beyond education. Educators and educational theorists can take the solutions that Giroux gestures towards and apply them to local contexts, provided they heed his call for mass solidarity as the precondition for a better future ... Girouxs Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy invites us to consider the complex historical circumstances that frame the present, creating analytical lenses to help us see more clearly and hopefully make a world more filled with love and understanding. * International Journal of Human Rights Education *
[It is] an important warning of the fragility of democracy and how the inequities created by neoliberalism can quickly slide into fascism and the erosion of civil liberties. ... Race, Politics and Pandemic Pedagogy is essential to us understanding how this happened and how critical education and historical consciousness are urgently needed to support transformative learning and human agency. * Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review *
Henry Giroux is one of the very few trusted critical commentators whose voice is both focused and unerring in highlighting the social injustice and systemic racism of US politics and its effects in education. Over many years he has demonstrated his keenness of insight, power of observation and critical approach, to document the troubled modern history of the U.S. In Race, Politics and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis, Giroux, acknowledging a time of extreme danger and crisis, surveys pandemic landscapes of increased militarisation of education and public life during Covid-19, when populist rule has led to US-styled neo-Fascism based on the slogan of law and order. Giroux shows how the pandemic has heightened health disparities and existing inequalities, further divided the population, and led to an economic collapse that threatens the lives and livelihood of Black people, both impoverishing and disempowering them. It is from these roots of racial injustice and the scourge of neoliberal capitalism in the time of Covid-19 that Giroux examines the hopeful new forces for education and political change that can lead to a more compassionate, just and equitable society. This is vintage Giroux compelling reading that pictures the US on a knife-edge as it enters the final chapter of an historic U.S. presidential election. * Michael A. Peters, Distinguished Professor of Education, Beijing Normal University, China *
In Race, Politics and Pandemic Pedagogy, Henry A. Giroux breaks new ground theoretically and pedagogically in making education central to politics while making clear how the struggle over matters of agency, values, ethics, and identity are crucial to reclaiming any viable notion of democracy. * Jeffrey R. Di Leo, Professor of English and Philosophy, University of Houston, Victoria, USA *
Giroux combines a passionate call for a humane conscience, an astute analysis of the relations among the multiple contemporary crises, and a critical understanding of pedagogy as a political practice. His work stands out from the chaos of voices that claim to diagnose the present and offer a way out. * Lawrence Grossberg, Distinguished Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies, Unviersity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA *
Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy is trenchant and illuminating, offering not only an essential analysis of our times but also a vision of a real path forward. Giroux brings us new language to confront the current crises, and urges us to not only face our immediate catastrophes, but to activate our broader imaginations. What kind of society do we want What stories will we engage to guide our actions At a time of desperation and quick-fix reforms, Giroux's bold, long-reaching inquiries provide a crucial intervention -- and a call for all of us to dream bigger. * Maya Schenwar, Editor-in-Chief of Truthout and co-author of Prison by Any Other Name *
Henry Giroux is the most astute social critic of our era. Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy is the flashlight we need to navigate these dark times. Covid-19, Giroux reminds us, was ushered in on the wings of neoliberalism. The bloodletting of global capitalism rendered us vulnerable while enabling corporations to profit at the expense of human life. Yes, the pandemic is a portal, but as Giroux shows us it is also a terrain of struggle and school to rehearse the critical, democratic practices our increasingly fascist state seeks to suppress. Pandemic pedagogy prepares us for an anti-fascist praxis. Hold this flashlight like your life depended on it. * Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination *
Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy brilliantly demonstrates how the current moment of pandemic is rooted in a deeper crisis of white supremacy, fascism, neo-liberal capitalism, and the incessant attack on the public good. But, as always, Giroux doesnt merely offer searing critical analysis. Instead, he shows how an engagement with critical pedagogy can stimulate the radical imagination, creating space for new critiques, new forms of resistance, and new social possibilities. This book is a political and intellectual balm. * Marc Lamont Hill, author of We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility *

Author Bio

Henry A. Giroux holds the Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. His books include American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism (2018) and Against The Terror of Neoliberalism (2008) and On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd Edition (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).