Critical Pedagogy as Public Modality: Glenn Beck's Undemocratic Defensive Citizenship

Abstract

For many communication scholars, critical pedagogy has proven a valuable teaching approach intended to strengthen democracy and empower the disenfranchised. However, the pedagogical practice becomes problematic when employed as a way to help the already enfranchised maintain their privileged position. This is the very problem posed by the conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck. As we argue here, Beck routinely used techniques associated with critical pedagogy to encourage his primarily white, middle-class audience to feel disenfranchised by their own government and a liberal intellectual elite. Instead of encouraging democratic engagement, Beck urged his audience toward antagonistic relations anathema to democracy. His ability to do this encourages us to rethink the practice of critical pedagogy as a public modality, which is to emphasize its democratic political goals. In the end, we argue that Beck's ability to ape critical pedagogy for undemocratic ends should remind communication scholars of the importance of both stasis and materiality in their own practices of critical pedagogy and scholarship.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• Critical Pedagogy
• Democracy
• Glenn Beck
• Public Modality

Acknowledgments

The authors are especially grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their assistance with earlier drafts of the manuscript. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2011 annual meeting of the National Communication Association.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jay P. Childers

Jay P. Childers (PhD, University of Texas) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Kansas.

Vincent M. Meserko

Vincent M. Meserko (MA, University of Kansas) is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Kansas.