Week 5 Questions (Espinal)

Week 5 Questions: Academe and the Organic Intellectual (Espinal)

1. In “Public Pedagogy as Cultural Politics” Giroux emphasizes the importance of placing culture at the heart of public pedagogy, arguing that it is “the site where identities are constructed, desires are mobilized, and moral values are shaped” (139). Is it possible to extend this perspective to other fields of study, as it tends to be more commonly associated with the humanities?

2. The experiences and methodologies Kiang shares made me reflect on the appropriate way to teach culture without excluding any group. He recounts how he began his graduate course by stating that it would focus solely on one specific ethnicity. I found this approach somewhat inflexible, as he emphasized one group rather than applying the very concept he proposed: multiculturalism.