Education, Indoctrination and Witch Hunting

 

 

It seems that Critical Pedagogy and radical educators are causing quite a stir in Australia, according to ABC News. There are the usual stories about ‘indoctrination’ of students by left-wing professors, the ‘evils’ of Critical Pedagogy and nonsense about the ‘neutrality’ of the classroom, of course. All this is to be expected – and we have seen this before (e.g. the Gould Report in the UK in the early 1980s, the ‘Dirty Thirty’ campaign in the US, Thatcher’s determination to end Marxist influence over teacher training at the University of Brighton and periodic digs at Marxist professors from the media in many countries over the last 40 years).

 

 

In these times of capitalist crises, the stakes are a bit higher than usual. What is also noteworthy is the extent and intensity of the debate that the ABC News item has generated. The right are not getting it all their own way, and spirited defences of Critical Pedagogy, radical educators and radical education can be found in the debate ensuing in the ‘Comments’.

 

 

See: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/17/2393795.htm

 

 

Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas is at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk