Abstract
This chapter describes the conceptual influences, theoretical development, and impact of Professor Henry Giroux. Giroux has been instrumental in developing a theory of radical pedagogy that combines the fields of critical theory, cultural studies, sociology of education, and postmodernism. In what has come to be called critical pedagogy, Giroux advocates for pedagogical practices that empower students to critically look at the world in the hope of challenging and overcoming oppression. Importantly, these pedagogical practices are not restricted to schools but to multiple sociocultural sites of learning. As such, Giroux calls for educators to be public intellectuals, engaged with the political and social issues of their day while connecting these wider issues to the specific contexts of their students’ lives. Ultimately Giroux frames his work as part of the struggle for a truly democratic society against what he sees as the dominant paradigm of neoliberalism and the growing threat of a resurgent fascism. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some critiques of Giroux’s ideas as well as a brief overview of new directions inspired by his writings.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. A. (1985). Education under siege: The conservative, liberal, and radical debate over schooling. Bergin & Garvey.
Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. A. (1991). Postmodern education: Politics, culture, and social criticism. University of Minnesota Press.
Bowers, C. A. (2005). Is transformative learning the Trojan horse of Western globalization? Journal of Transformative Education, 3(2), 116–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344604273622
Carlson, D. (1998). Finding a voice, and losing our way? Educational Theory, 48(4), 541–554.
Duenas, R., Garcia, V., Lopez, J., & Morrell, E. (2013). Critical media pedagogy: Teaching for achievement in city schools. Teachers College Press.
Duncan-Andrade, J., & Reyes, M. (2008). The art of critical pedagogy: Possibilities for moving from theory to practice in urban schools. Peter Lang.
Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 59(3), 297–324. (Originally presented October, 1988 at the 10th Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, Dayton, OH).
Gabel, S. (2002). Some conceptual problems with critical pedagogy. Curriculum Inquiry, 32(2), 177–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-873x.00222
Giroux, H. (2005). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Giroux, H. (1991). Border pedagogy and the politics of postmodernism. Social Text, 28, 51–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/466376
Giroux, H. (1981). Pedagogy, pessimism, and the politics of conformity: A reply to Linda McNeil. Curriculum Inquiry, 11(3), 211–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1981.11075253
Giroux, H. (1992b). Post-colonial ruptures and democratic possibilities: Multiculturalism as anti-racist pedagogy. Cultural Critique, 21, 5–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354115
Giroux, H. (1983). Theories of reproduction and resistance in the new sociology of education: A critical analysis. Harvard Educational Review, 53(3), 257–293. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.53.3.a67x4u33g7682734
Giroux, H. A. (2008). Beyond the biopolitics of disposability: Rethinking neoliberalism in the new gilded age. Social Identities, 14(5), 587–620. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630802343432
Giroux, H. A. (2002). Breaking in to the movies: Film and the culture of politics. Blackwell.
Giroux, H. A. (2011b). Business culture and the death of public education: Mayor Bloomberg, David Steiner, and the politics of corporate ‘leadership’. Policy Futures in Education, 9(5), 553–559. https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2011.9.5.553
Giroux, H. A. (2012). Disposable youth: Racialized memories and the culture of cruelty. Routledge.
Giroux, H. A. (2010a). Hearts of darkness: Torturing children in the war on terror. Paradigm.
Giroux, H. A. (2011a). On critical pedagogy. Continuum.
Giroux, H. A. (1992a). Paulo Freire and the politics of postcolonialism. Journal of Advanced Composition, 12(1), 15–26.
Giroux, H. A. (2004a). Pedagogy, film, and the responsibility of intellectuals: A response. Cinema Journal, 43(2), 119–127. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2004.0004
Giroux, H. A. (2004b). Public pedagogy and the politics of neo-liberalism: Making the political more pedagogical. Policy Futures in Education, 2(3/4), 494–503. https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2004.2.3.5
Giroux, H. A. (1995). Pulp fiction and the culture of violence. Harvard Educational Review, 65(2), 299–314.
Giroux, H. A. (2021). Race, politics, and pandemic pedagogy: Education in a time of crisis. Bloomsbury.
Giroux, H. A. (1975). Review: The passenger by Carlo Ponti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Marl Peploe, and Peter Wollen. Cineaste, 7(1), 37–39.
Giroux, H. A. (1979). Review: Paulo Freire’s approach to radical educational reform. Curriculum Inquiry, 9(3), 257–272. https://doi.org/10.2307/3202124
Giroux, H. A. (2006). Stormy weather: Katrina and the politics of disposability. Paradigm.
Giroux, H. A. (1999). The mouse that roared: Disney and the end of innocence. Rowman & Littlefield.
Giroux, H. A. (2007). The university in chains: Confronting the military-industrial-academic complex. Paradigm.
Giroux, H. A. (1983/2001). Theory and resistance in education: Towards a pedagogy for the opposition. Bergin & Garvey. (Original work published 1983).
Giroux, H. A. (2014). When schools become dead zones of the imagination: A critical pedagogy manifesto. Policy Futures in Education, 12(4), 491–499. https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2014.12.4.491
Giroux, H. A. (1978). Writing and critical thinking in the social studies. Curriculum Inquiry, 8(4), 291–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1978.11075578
Giroux, H. A. (2010b). Zombie politics and other late modern monstrosities in the age of disposability. Policy Futures in Education, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2010.8.1.1
Goldstein, R. A. (2006). The perilous pitfalls of praxis: Critical pedagogy as ‘regime of truth’. In Useful theory: Making critical education practical (pp. 15–29). Peter Lang.
Gore, J. (1990). What can we do for you! What can “we”: Do for “you?”: Struggling over empowerment in critical and feminist pedagogy. Educational Foundations, 4(3), 5–26.
Grande, S. M. (2000). American Indian geographies of identity and power: At the crossroads of Indigena and Mestizaje. Harvard Educational Review, 70(4), 467–498. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.70.4.47717110136rvt53
Gur-Ze'ev, I. (1998). Toward a non-repressive critical pedagogy. Educational Theory, 48(4), 463–486. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.1998.00463.x
Gutstein, E. (2006). Reading and writing the world with mathematics: Toward a pedagogy for social justice. Routledge.
Hickman, H. (2011). Disrupting heteronormativity through critical pedagogy and queer theory. In C. S. Malott & B. Porfilio (Eds.), Critical pedagogy in the 21st century: A new generation of scholars (pp. 69–86). Information Age.
Hodgson, N., Vlieghe, J., & Zamojski, P. (2017). Manifesto for a post-critical pedagogy. Punctum Books.
Howlett, C. (2017). Neoliberalism, critical pedagogy, and the child. Philosophical Studies in Education, 48, 65–73.
Hussien, S. (2007). Critical pedagogy, Islamisation of knowledge, and Muslim education. Intellectual Discourse, 15(1), 85–104.
Lather, P. (1991). Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern. Routledge.
Lather, P. (1998). Critical pedagogies and its complicities: A praxis of stuck places. Educational Theory, 48(4), 487–497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.1998.00487.x
Leonardo, Z. (Ed.). (2005). Critical pedagogy and race. Wiley-Blackwell.
McNeil, L. M. (1981). On the possibility of teachers as the source of emancipatory pedagogy: A response to Henry Giroux. Curriculum Inquiry, 11(3), 205–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1981.11075252
Parkman, D. (2021, September 12). Fascism is not an exaggeration [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cJVUOtiO-E
Pitre, A. (Ed.). (2019). A critical black pedagogy reader: The brothers speak. Rowman & Littlefield.
Sims, J. (2018). Revolutionary STEM education: Critical-reality pedagogy and social justice in STEM. Peter Lang.
Wink, J. (2005). Critical pedagogy: Notes from the real world. Pearson.
Further Reading
Adorno, T., & Horkheimer, M. (1990). Dialectic of enlightenment. Continuum. (Original work published 1944).
Althusser, L. (2008). Ideology and ideological state apparatus. On ideology (2nd ed., pp. 1–60). Verso. (Original work published 1970).
Anyon, J. (2011). Marx and education. Routledge.
Anzaldua, G. (1999). Borderlands/la Frontera: The new mestiza (2nd ed.). Aunt Lute Books. (Original work published 1987).
Apple, M. (2004). Ideology and curriculum (3rd ed.). Routledge Falmer. (Original work published 1979).
Aronowitz, S. (1981). The crisis in historical materialism: Class, politics, and culture in Marxist theory. J.F. Bergin.
Bourdieu, P. &, Passeron, J. C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society, and culture. (R. Nice, Trans.). Sage Publications. (Original work published 1977).
Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. Basic Books.
Foucault, M. (2010). The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979. Picador.
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Herder and Herder.
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks. International.
Hooks, B. (2010). Teaching critical thinking: Practical wisdom. Routledge.
Kahn, R. (2010). Critical pedagogy, ecoliteracy, and planetary crisis: The ecopedagogy movement. Peter Lang.
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (2001). Hegemony and socialist strategy (2nd ed.). Verso.
Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate, W. F., IV. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146819509700104
Macedo, D. (2006). Literacies of power: What Americans are not allowed to know. Westview Press.
Marcuse, H. (1964). One-dimensional man. Beacon Press.
Marx, K. (1960). The German ideology: Parts I & III. International. (Original work published 1947).
McLaren, P. (1989). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. Longman.
Shor, I. (1996). When students have power: Negotiating authority in a critical pedagogy. University of Chicago Press.
Williams, R. (1973). Base and superstructure in Marxist cultural theory. New Left Review, 1(82), 3–16.
Willis, P. E. (1977). Learning to labour: How working class kids get working class jobs. Saxon House.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Saraydarian, G. (2022). Henry Giroux: The Pedagogical Is the Political. In: Geier, B.A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_144-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_144-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81037-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81037-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education