Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy - by Henry A Giroux (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In this book Henry A. Giroux passionately argues that education and critical pedagogy are needed now more than ever to combat injustices in our society caused by fake news, toxic masculinity, racism, consumerism and white nationalism. At the heart of the book is the idea that pedagogy has the power to create narratives of desire, values, identity, and agency at time when these narratives are being manipulated to promote right wing populism and emerging global fascist politics. The book expands on the notion of the plague as not only a medical crisis but also a crisis of politics, ethics, education, and democracy itself. The chapters cover a range topics beginning with historical perspectives on fascism and moving on to issues of social atomization, depoliticization, neoliberal pedagogy, the scourge of staggering inequality, populism, and pandemic pedagogy. The book concludes with a call for educators to make education central to politics, develop a discourse of critique and possibility, reclaim the vision of a radical democracy, and embrace their role as powerful agents of change.

Review Quotes

Giroux combines a passionate call for a humane conscience, an astute analysis of the relations among the multiple contemporary crises, and a critical understanding of pedagogy as a political practice. His work stands out from the chaos of voices that claim to diagnose the present and offer a way out.
Lawrence Grossberg, Distinguished Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies, Unviersity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Henry Giroux is one of the very few trusted critical commentators whose voice is both focused and unerring in highlighting the social injustice and systemic racism of US politics and its effects in education. Over many years he has demonstrated his keenness of insight, power of observation and critical approach, to document the troubled modern history of the U.S. In Race, Politics and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis, Giroux, acknowledging a time of extreme danger and crisis, surveys 'pandemic landscapes' of increased militarisation of education and public life during Covid-19, when populist rule has led to US-styled neo-Fascism based on the slogan of 'law and order'. Giroux shows how the pandemic has heightened health disparities and existing inequalities, further divided the population, and led to an economic collapse that threatens the lives and livelihood of Black people, both impoverishing and disempowering them. It is from these roots of racial injustice and the scourge of neoliberal capitalism in the time of Covid-19 that Giroux examines the hopeful new forces for education and political change that can lead to a more compassionate, just and equitable society. This is vintage Giroux - compelling reading that pictures the US on a knife-edge as it enters the final chapter of an historic U.S. presidential election.
Michael A. Peters, Distinguished Professor of Education, Beijing Normal University, China

In Race, Politics and Pandemic Pedagogy, Henry A. Giroux breaks new ground theoretically and pedagogically in making education central to politics while making clear how the struggle over matters of agency, values, ethics, and identity are crucial to reclaiming any viable notion of democracy.
Jeffrey R. Di Leo, Professor of English and Philosophy, University of Houston, Victoria, USA

About the Author

Henry A. Giroux holds the Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. His books include American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism (2018) and Against The Terror of Neoliberalism (2008) and On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd Edition (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).