Pedagogy, possibility, and pipe dreams: opportunities and challenges for radicalizing international volunteering

ABSTRACT

Many scholars studying international volunteering call for a pedagogy of social justice to accompany the experience. Very few outline any kind of comprehensive vision of how such a pedagogy might work. I take stock of the critiques, challenges, opportunities, and desired outcomes of a pedagogy of social justice in international volunteering in an effort to invigorate debate on how to radicalize volunteers and wield the neoliberal volunteering machine against itself. I call for an end to pedagogical calls and a beginning to pedagogical intervention and public pedagogies.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical pedagogy
• volunteer tourism
• global citizenship
• anti-politics
• action research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Jacob Henry studies the intersection of tourism and education in Namibia. He also works on the geographies of schooling for surplus populations.

ORCID

Jacob Henry http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9329-4332