Henry Giroux on critical pedagogy and engaged curricula

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In Neoliberalism’s war on higher education (2014), Henry Giroux refers to neoliberalism as a central organising idea in shaping his critical view of higher education. At the time of its writing, Giroux was Global TV Network Chair in Communications and Professor of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. He portrays neoliberalism as a mode of governance that produces identities, subjects and ways of life driven by a survival of the fittest. This ethic is grounded in the idea of the free, possessive individual and committed to the right of ruling groups and institutions to accrue wealth removed from matters of societal ethics and social costs. Also recently, another of his books, Education and the crisis of public values (2012), questioned the North American education system and the attack on the public school sector. In this work his observations are articulate, to the point and in many circles regarded as accurate. In addition to his vast research and publishing contributions, Giroux has an established international network of collaborators who comment on educational and social issues.