In the "Public Pedagogy as Cultural Politics" chapter I couldn't help but think A LOT about the Combahee River Collective Statement. I was thinking A LOT about the term "identity politics" and the treatment it receives in the text (and contemporaneously). I was also thinking about the way the CRC statement is also articulating one of the critiques the chapter poses--every struggle cannot solely be a class struggle and the acknowledgement and use of one's identity can never detract from class based movements, but in fact enhance them!
Giroux opens the "Public Pedagogy as Cultural Politics" chapter by stating that "Hall's work amplifies the role that educators might play as public intellectuals working in diverse sites and projects" (135). By the end Giroux is concluding by restating the challenge to work in "a variety of pedagogical sites" but also asserts that the work can be done to challenge the authority of "dominant institutions" (144). I want to interrogate the "divers[ity]" of pedagogical sites and work through what that means. What I took away from the reading is a false sense of diversity. When I think of "dominant institutions" (in this context) I think schools and universities, and while i agree that challenging the authority in schools/universities thats just not what I was expecting when I read "diverse" I would like to hear what others think about when they think of diverse sites of teaching and learning.
After reading the Kiang piece I was left sitting with my own pessimism. I think the article beautifully and powerfully demonstrated storytelling and personal experience as a mode of knowledge transmission. The personal nature of the article reminded me how I have become disenchanted with the institution (school). It was unsettling for me to read this article with so much doubt in the possibility that I too can strive for change and community building. My politic informs my work and I almost feel like my politic has been jeopardized because of my unreconciled disbelief in change and the possibility of change.
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