Critical pedagogical practice through cultural studies

Abstract

[Abstract]: There can be no more significant purpose for the Humanities than to promote the exploration and understanding of what it means to be human, yet one of the more problematic aspects of this is in connecting understandings of Self and Other in emancipatory, non-exploitative ways. This paper reports on one approach to this used in a suite of two cultural studies-based courses taught in an initial teacher education program in Australia. It briefly discusses the epistemological and emanicipatory imperatives that anchor a critical pedagogical base for the course but focuses primarily on the use of critical autoethnography as a teaching tool in the pursuit of criticality and a concomitant commitment to social betterment. Drawing upon evidence derived from a larger research project, the paper concludes with a critical reflection upon the role of the socially-transformative educator in a cultural studies context.