CRDM 790 · Movement I · Week 2
Week 2: Critical Pedagogy and the Scholar-Critic
What does it mean to be a critic inside an institution?
Session Map
3.5 Hours, Together0:00–0:20
Perusall Check-In
Open with the most-annotated passage from Perusall. Project it. Let it provoke — don't summarize.
0:20–1:30
Giroux Seminar Discussion
Anchor: What does it mean to be a critic inside an institution? Focus on Ch. 1, pp. 25–32.
1:30–1:45
Break
Step away. Return ready.
1:45–2:45
Institutional Autopsy
In pairs → board list → group analysis. What unexamined assumptions are we operating under?
2:45–3:15
Synthesis Discussion
Which assumptions from today connect to the research questions from Week 1? What have we named that we can no longer un-see?
3:15–3:30
Preview Week 3
Introduce Benjamin. Ask students to bring a physical object next week — something from their research area that feels unresolved or haunted.
Reading Guide
Giroux, On Critical Pedagogy · PerusallAssigned (Perusall)
- Ch. 1 'Critical Pedagogy and the Postmodern/Modern Divide' — pp. 17–63 (~46 pp.) — core text
- Ch. 2 'Cultural Studies, Critical Pedagogy, and the Politics of Higher Education' — pp. 65–113 (~48 pp.) — optional for shorter load; core argument is in Ch. 1
Discussion Anchor
Giroux on education as 'the practice of freedom' vs. training for labor markets — Ch. 1, approx. pp. 25–32. Return to this if discussion flags.
Pre-Class Writing Prompt (Perusall)
- One passage you agree with — 2–3 sentences of genuine response, not summary
- One passage you push back on — same
- Also bring: one concrete example from your own educational experience that confirms or complicates Giroux's argument
If This Week Opened Something Up
- bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress
- Stuart Hall, 'Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies'
Guiding Questions
Seminar · 0:20–1:301
What does it mean to be a critic inside an institution? Can you critique the hand that grades you?
Where do you feel that bind most sharply — in your research, your teaching, or in this room right now?2
Giroux argues education is never neutral — it either domesticates or liberates. Do you believe that? Where have you experienced it?
What's an example from your own education that confirms or complicates this claim?3
What does it mean to be educated inside a university that increasingly understands you as 'human capital'?
Brown (Week 5) will press this further. What do you already sense about what that means for your own formation?4
What does 'critical pedagogy' demand of you as both student and future teacher/scholar?
Not just what Giroux says it demands — what do YOU feel it demands, given what you study and who you want to become?Activity: Institutional Autopsy
1:45–2:45 · 60 minutes total1
Pair work (5 min)
Each person names one rule, norm, or unspoken expectation of academic life that they have simply accepted without questioning. It doesn't need to be dramatic — it just needs to be real.
Examples: "Always cite canonical figures even if they're not most useful." "Appear confident even when you're not." "Never say you don't know something."
2
Share out (10 min) — instructor lists on board, does not editorialize
Every assumption goes on the board exactly as stated. No evaluation yet. Fill it up.
3
Group analysis (25 min)
Which of these would Giroux call 'hegemonic'? Which are actually useful or protective? Which are worth breaking — and at what cost? Which might look different depending on who's in the room?
→ A 25-minute countdown timer is available in Slide Mode (Slide 6) for in-class use.
4
Individual writing (5 min)
Write one sentence: "The assumption I am most committed to interrogating this semester is ___."
Keep this. It can seed your Scholarly Identity Statement (due Week 5).
Analysis Questions
Group Analysis · Step 3 of Institutional Autopsy⏱ A 25-minute countdown timer for the group analysis is available in Slide Mode (Slide 6).
Question 1
Which assumptions on the board would Giroux call hegemonic — so naturalized we've stopped seeing them as choices?
Question 2
Which assumptions are actually useful or protective? Not everything is worth breaking. What does the field need to function?
Question 3
Which assumptions might look different depending on who's in the room? Whose experience of academic "norms" is this list reflecting?
Synthesis Discussion
2:45–3:15 · Connecting Giroux Back to Week 1"Which assumptions we named today connect to the research questions you raised in Week 1?"
The constellation cards from last week mapped where everyone is coming from. What does Giroux tell us about the institutional conditions that shaped those intellectual starting points?
Individual Writing Seed (5 min)
"Write one sentence beginning: 'The assumption I am most committed to interrogating this semester is ___.' This is not a homework assignment. It's a record of where you are right now."
Looking Ahead
Reading for Week 3 (Perusall)
- Benjamin, Illuminations — 'The Storyteller' (pp. 83–109)
- Benjamin — 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' (pp. 217–251)
- Benjamin — 'Theses on the Philosophy of History' (pp. 253–264) — dense despite being short
Perusall annotation prompt
- Mark one moment in the 'Theses on the Philosophy of History' that you find cryptic. Write a genuine question — not rhetorical. The difficulty is the point.
◆ Milestone 1 — On the Horizon · Week 5 · 20%
Scholarly Identity Statement
~500 words. The writing you're doing in the Autopsy and in Perusall is already feeding it. Start thinking.