Discussion Questions

 I am interested in the way Giroux uses the phrase "public pedagogy" and the adjective 'public' in his piece for this week. When he says that we need to understand that "culture is a strategic pedagogical and political terrain," how can we interpret this as a statement in support of alternative instruction venues? What pedagogical role does "culture" play outside of the academy, and how can intellectuals find ways to tap into these roles?

Regarding Kiang's article on pedagogy and community building, I can't help but think about today's educational context as similarly critical, susceptible to student "evaluations" and complaints, and wary of professorial freedom of speech in favor of rules/recommendations that tacitly encourage us not to make our pedagogy too polarizing. I'm all for pushing the boundaries of accepted pedagogy as far as we're comfortable, but at what point do the confines of academia as an institution become too much for individual instructors to bear? And what can we do about these tensions, knowing that the majority of higher ed labor is adjunct, temporary, and as such lacks many of the resources Kiang had at his disposal?

-Shannon