A theory of hope in critical pedagogy: An interpretation of Henry Giroux

Abstract

This paper examines Henry Giroux’s critical pedagogy, and explores the interconnections among education, democracy, and hope. Whereas critical pedagogy rejects foundationalism, it still requires a normative foundation to criticise oppressive situations and pose a vision of the future. Giroux rejects foundationalism and regards oppressive force such as neoliberalism as an enemy of both hope and democracy. He regards hope as an act of imagination, something to be cultivated, which can be regarded as a medium of mobilisation. This seems inconsistent with the tenets of critical pedagogy, as mobilisation is often thought to suppress individual human agency, which Giroux and other critical pedagogues have emphasised heavily. This paper solves this inconsistency via the radical democracy advocated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and Gramscian insights regarding hegemony and education, and redefines the role of hope in Giroux's theory. Giroux’s framing of hope moves us towards certain normative claims and mobilises people to desire democracy as a normative foundation for society.

Keywords:

• Critical pedagogy
• hope
• radical democracy
• mobilisation

Acknowledgements

Some of the ideas in this paper are based on presentations I made at the 60th Annual Meeting of the John Dewey Society of Japan, Gifu University, Japan, on September 17, 2016, and the 78th Annual Conference of the Japanese Educational Research Association, Gakushuin University, Japan, on August 6, 2019. I would like to thank the audience for their helpful comments that contributed to developing the current paper. I would also like to express my appreciation for Masaki Takamiya and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [number 19K14089].

Notes on contributors

Hideyuki Ichikawa

Hideyuki Ichikawa is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Chiba University. His main areas of scholarship are critical pedagogy, moral education based on deliberative democracy, and citizenship education.