ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates on one of the central themes of Paulo Freire's work, the role of the educator as an active agent of social change. Postmodern critiques of educational institutions such as those advanced by Sande Cohen can be helpful to Freirean educators in placing social and educational critique within a wider contemporary problematic. Cohen's analysis has much to offer Freirean educators who wish to enter into conversation with postmodern social theory and who also wish to situate the challenge of critical pedagogy within university settings. The major intellectual task is to build a political community where ideas can be argued and sent into the world of news and information as a force with a collective voice, a voice that names cultural distortions and the unused possibilities of human intelligence. According to Cornel West, The Marxist model yields Black intellectual self-satisfaction which often inhibits growth; it also highlights social structural constraints with little practical direction regarding conjunctural opportunities.
