Marxism, Social Justice, and Critical Pedagogy

So, as some of you know, I am anxiously engaged in developing a new Core Discovery class in Disability Studies. For those of you who don't know, a Core Discovery class is a yearlong course for first year students that introduces them to critical thinking and the university culture through specific content areas. My specific content area is --GASP-- Disability Studies!

Okay, sarcasm aside, I've been really wrestling with how to make this course meaningful to my students. I want it to be something that they remember and that shapes the rest of their academic career at the University of Idaho. Am I asking too much? I don't think so...but in the process I've gone back to my roots in critical pedagogy and Marxist thought. It's been terribly exciting, but it has also caused me to do a lot of soul searching about how I approach my scholarship and teaching.

I've specifically been re-reading Paulo Freire and some of Peter McLaren's recent thought about Freire and the root of injustice and how pedagogy can bring about conscientization and overcome injustice. McLaren's recent thought has taken him out of the classroom however and more into the realm of classic Marxist thought regarding the "true" root of injustice: economic disparities. McLaren argues that the recent push for courses about social justice and diversity in the university setting don't do anything to actually address injustice. Instead they merely describe a particular group's subjugated status, speculate about some of the reasons this group might be oppressed, and then leave it at that. These classes are more about teaching students "this is the way it is and here's some of the reasons, so try and be nice to these folks". This type of pedagogy leaves off one of the most important elements of critical pedagogy: informed social action.

This notion of combining theory and practice is the exact Freirean notion of praxis: a critically informed theory-based practice. I started here during my student teaching in 1997 and was highly discouraged by my instructors and the administrators at the school I taught at. There is always a fear among the administration when a teacher's students threaten to "do something"; but it is a vital step to the learning process. Especially when we talk about disability and other marginalized groupings.

McLaren also discusses some other very interesting ideas about the economic roots of oppression. I think he's right, but his analysis is usually tied only to minority groups or the LGBT crowd. He hasn't extended his thinking to include people with disabilities who, I think, are a model group for applying the model of economic oppression as formulated in traditional Marxist thought. So, in short, I guess this means that I need to go back to Das Kapital and get current. I can see a whole body of scholarship arising from this line of thinking; I just need to find the time to articulate it clearly. I wonder who funds Marxist scholarship?

Okay, so I've got that off my chest and now I can hit the sack with a semi-clear conscience that I got these ideas out of my brain and into words. Now let's see how they develop...