Education, critical pedagogy and the future of learning in a post-pandemic world

The Tommy Douglas Institute and rabble.ca, with the support of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation, proudly present the Courage My Friends podcast. 

In the first episode of this year’s Courage My Friends podcast series, we welcome author, public intellectual and celebrated scholar of the Critical Pedagogy Movement, Henry Giroux.

Does education have a moral and political purpose? What do we mean by critical pedagogy - and why is it so vital in these times?

Our guest, Henry Giroux, joins host Resh Budhu to talk about education, critical pedagogy and the future of learning in a post-pandemic world. 

“We need to understand that education is so vital and so crucial in respect to whether or not a democracy can succeed or not, that we've got to do everything we can to protect the institutions that constitute themselves as schools and public schooling,” Giroux says.

“We [also] need to take the question of the imagination seriously. How do we not just talk about what kids need to work; why can't we talk about what they need to learn in order to be inspired? What does it mean to instill in them a sense of civic consciousness in which a notion of joy is creating those conditions in which they can work with others, and feel for others, and have compassion for others?” 

About today’s guest: 

Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. 

His most recent books include: The Terror of the Unforeseen (Los Angeles Review of books, 2019), On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd edition (Bloomsbury, 2020);  Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury 2021); Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (Bloomsbury 2022) and his forthcoming Insurrections: Education in the Age of Counter-revolutionary politics.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute. 

Image: Henry Giroux / Used with permission. 

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra, Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth. 

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca

Host: Resh Budhu