ABSTRACT
But not always. Those of us who have taught within the radical tradition seem to have our sights set on a somewhat different target. Radical pedagogy and critical theories seem to lack the enticing beauty and the paradoxical allure of these “other” worlds. Beauty in this world is not what is so fetching in radical analyses. Instead, radical pedagogy and critiques promise to uncover the causes, means and, processes; the contradictions, ironies, obfuscations, and unalluring ugliness of everyday living in hopes of creating a more shared and just community. Illumination, a certain critical and telling perspective, is desired, along with paths to a more humane and just world. Alienation, injustice, harm, and hate are experienced daily by many groups and individuals. Radical pedagogy and theory aim at illuminating and alleviating those harms and affirming the shared and the distinct features of
our lives. It is a promise that is engaging, uplifting, and, many would say, empowering. It is an experience that reaches for an altered identity, one that is no longer pounded down by the weight of a world that tells us we are insufficient and inept, a world that is the source of the ills that make us sick and of the ugliness that leads us to avert our eyes. Instead, we are offered a view that tells us that our pain is not so much self-inflicted as structurally induced. When we teach to empower, we examine, reflect on, and attempt to transform the pain of injustice. To do so we must know that pain and have taken part in its transformation. To do so we must desire other, more just and more beautiful worlds than those that exist today.
