
Acts of Knowing
Critical Pedagogy in, Against and Beyond the University
Bloomsbury Academic USA (Publisher)
Published on 23. May 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-4411-0531-8 (ISBN)
Description
This provocative book's starting point is a deep and profound concern about the commodification of knowledge within the contemporary university.
Acts of Knowing aims to provide readers with a means of understanding the issues from the perspective of Critical Pedagogy; an educational philosophy which believes that 'knowing' must be freed from the constraints of the financial and managerialist logics which dominate the contemporary university. Critical Pedagogy is important for three key reasons: it conceptualises pedagogy as a process of engagement between the teacher and taught; secondly that that engagement is based on an underlying humanistic view about human worth and value; and thirdly that the 'knowing' which can come out of this engagement needs to be understood essentially as exchange between people, rather than a financial exchange.
Cowden and Singh argue that the conception of education as simply a means for securing economic returns for the individual and for the society's positioning in a global marketplace, represents a fundamentally impoverished conception of education, which impoverishes not just individuals, but society as a whole.
Acts of Knowing aims to provide readers with a means of understanding the issues from the perspective of Critical Pedagogy; an educational philosophy which believes that 'knowing' must be freed from the constraints of the financial and managerialist logics which dominate the contemporary university. Critical Pedagogy is important for three key reasons: it conceptualises pedagogy as a process of engagement between the teacher and taught; secondly that that engagement is based on an underlying humanistic view about human worth and value; and thirdly that the 'knowing' which can come out of this engagement needs to be understood essentially as exchange between people, rather than a financial exchange.
Cowden and Singh argue that the conception of education as simply a means for securing economic returns for the individual and for the society's positioning in a global marketplace, represents a fundamentally impoverished conception of education, which impoverishes not just individuals, but society as a whole.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 154 mm
Width: 20 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
385 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4411-0531-8 (9781441105318)
DOI
CBID166099
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Stephen Cowden | Gurnam Singh
Acts of Knowing
Critical Pedagogy in, Against and Beyond the University
E-Book
03/2013
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic USA
€40.49
Available for download

Stephen Cowden | Gurnam Singh
Acts of Knowing
Critical Pedagogy in, Against and Beyond the University
E-Book
03/2013
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic USA
€40.49
Available for download
Persons
Stephen Cowden has taught for the last 10 years at Coventry University, UK. He has a background in political activism in Melbourne, Australia and in London, and has worked as a frontline care worker and Social Worker in the UK before entering academia. He is interested in the Critical Pedagogical tradition as a way of working specifically with students from non-traditional university backgrounds, and also as a methodology for Social Work practice.
Gurnam Singh is a Principal Lecturer in Social Work and Co-Director of the Applied Research Group in Social Exclusion in Social Care (SISC) at Coventry University, UK. He was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy in 2009. Throughout his adult life he has been active in numerous social movements whose aim has been to fight for social and economic justice.
Gurnam Singh is a Principal Lecturer in Social Work and Co-Director of the Applied Research Group in Social Exclusion in Social Care (SISC) at Coventry University, UK. He was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy in 2009. Throughout his adult life he has been active in numerous social movements whose aim has been to fight for social and economic justice.
Content
Introduction - Critical Pedagogy and the Crisis in the Contemporary University
Part 1 - Perspectives on the Crisis in Education
Chapter 1: On the New Poverty of Student Life
Chapter 2: Sat-Nav Education - A Means to an End or an End to Meaning
Chapter 3: Critical pedagogy, Public Sociology and Student Activism
Chapter 4: The Practical Politics of 'Criticality' in Higher Education
Chapter 5: Opening Spaces of Possibility in the University- Critical Pedagogy in the Teaching of Social Justice
Part 2 : Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education
Chapter 6: Critical Pedagogy and the Uses of Freire and Bourdieu
Chapter 7: The Neoliberal University, Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education
Chapter 8: Indigenous Pedagogy
Chapter 9: Popular Education and Higher Education
Chapter 10: Critical Pedagogy, Critical Theory and Critical Hope
Chapter 11: Autonomist Marxism, Social Movements and Popular Education
Bibliography
Index
Part 1 - Perspectives on the Crisis in Education
Chapter 1: On the New Poverty of Student Life
Chapter 2: Sat-Nav Education - A Means to an End or an End to Meaning
Chapter 3: Critical pedagogy, Public Sociology and Student Activism
Chapter 4: The Practical Politics of 'Criticality' in Higher Education
Chapter 5: Opening Spaces of Possibility in the University- Critical Pedagogy in the Teaching of Social Justice
Part 2 : Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education
Chapter 6: Critical Pedagogy and the Uses of Freire and Bourdieu
Chapter 7: The Neoliberal University, Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education
Chapter 8: Indigenous Pedagogy
Chapter 9: Popular Education and Higher Education
Chapter 10: Critical Pedagogy, Critical Theory and Critical Hope
Chapter 11: Autonomist Marxism, Social Movements and Popular Education
Bibliography
Index