Spoken word as public pedagogy: Conceptualizing a prophetic public

ABSTRACT

Glenn Savage (2014) poses a serious issue to the field of public pedagogy: to articulate what form of public is being evoked in and by the research. In this article, I will conceptualize the formation of a prophetic public, one that exhibits both critique and hope, hallmarks of the prophetic stance. This research is grounded in a single case study of a Latino spoken word artist, Salvador Rivas (a pseudonym) and draws upon arts-based educational research (ABER) in the presentation and analysis of the data. Through a serious of extensive interviews, I explore the motivations and underlying purposes for spoken word poetry from the artist's perspective, which he articulates in a way that is akin to the prophetic. That is, he articulates the spoken word community as one that embodies open-minded dialogue and active engagement with the world. This article will argue that this notion reveals a prophetic public, which refuses a static idea of the public and instead is based on a dialogical relationship rooted in solidarity that has the potential to disrupt the power dynamics of the pedagogue/public relationship.

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Jeremy T. Godwin

Jeremy T. Godwin, is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Cultural Studies and Literacies strand). His research interests include: public pedagogy; the intersections of race, religion, and education; and qualitative methodologies, particularly arts-based and action research. His current research focuses on how the principles of public pedagogy might inform the practice of anti-racism education.