El reto y promesa de la pedagogía crítica en la nueva era de la información: una entrevista con Henry Giroux

Abstract

In this interview Giroux explores the various emancipatory and authoritarianconceptualisations of education, underlining their political nature due to their opportunityto connect knowledge, authority and power. Critical education is understood to bethe result of private battles, linked to specific communities, to available resources andthe stories, identities and experiences of students. Giroux conceptualises education as achallenge, which attempts to take people beyond the world that they know. Thus formsof knowledge which make the extension of democratic culture become possible. HoweverGiroux also analyses the reality in higher education, affected by a crisis of politicsand of legitimacy, which makes the development of democratic principles difficult andimposes instrumental and commercial terms. Faced with this, the author requests thatuniversities take on an active role in order to resolve problems in our societies, providingstudents with critical knowledge so as to respond to current anti-democratic trends.