Author Description

Offering theoretical and practical knowledge to help critical adult educators in their attempts to enact critical pedagogy in their own classroom, this volume explores critical theory, feminism, critical postmodernism, Africentrism, queer theory, and cultural studies. Picking up on the themes first raised by Elizabeth Ellsworth, critical theory and classic critical pedagogy do not get a particularly easy ride. None of the authors claims that critical approaches are a simple solution to the tangles of late modernity. In every case the authors see critical pedagogy as complex, insightful, challenging, limited, and difficult to put into practice. But in every case, they see critical perspectives as offering the hope and potential of a more just world. The idea that critical perspectives on teaching are difficult to enact in the classroom is not new. And what do we mean by critical perspectives anyway? In this volume some of the most exciting scholars in adult education--whether established or emerging--provide insights into what it means to be critical and how it affects the concrete practices of teaching adults. This is the 102nd issue of the quarterly higher education report New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education.