1.4 Friere, Gramsci and Giroux: Critical and Emancipatory Pedagogy

Having trained in an ethnically based “Indian” apartheid institution that was preoccupied with the reproduction of the dominant cultural and political ideology, with the majority of staff being white, I was certainly not introduced to any form of critical education during this period. As a secondary school learner, the benefits derived from critical consciousness and action, which allowed us to “…mobilize rather than destroy [our] hopes for the future” (Giroux, 1997:161), initially, as a young academic, led me to the work of Freire (1970, 1972, 1973) and later to the emancipatory pedagogies of Althusser (1971); Gramsci (1988, 1971, 1977) and Giroux (1983, 1994, 1997).

With reference to the central theses of Gramsci (1988, 1971, 1977) and Freire (1970, 1972, 1973), Giroux (1983) contended that the spirit of emancipatory/radical pedagogy is “…rooted in aversion to all forms of domination, and its challenge centres around the need to develop modes of critique fashioned in a theoretical discourse that mediates the possibility for social action and emancipatory transformation” (Giroux, 1983:2). Critical theorists believe in the dialectic of agency and structure, and developed theoretical perspectives that support the notion that history can be changed and provide potential for radical transformation. Giroux (1983, 1994, 1997), Gramsci (1971, 1977) and Freire (1970, 1972, 1973) addressed educational issues as political and cultural issues.