"Why Doesn't This Feel Empowering? Working Through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy"

Elizabeth Ellsworth

1989

This article challenges the underlying assumptions of critical pedagogy. Specifically, it targets the rationalist assumptions and modes of discourse common in the practice of critical pedagogy which reinforce the very systems of oppression that critical pedagogy seeks to challenge.

Ellsworth details her experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during a particularly turbulent time in the late 80s when a fraternity on campus caused outrage by constructing a racist effigy for a themed party. In an attempt to address the event, and the broader context of race relations both on campus and beyond, Ellsworth created a course that sought to create dialogue for interested parties.

In practice, she found that she and her students brought many assumptions into the classroom about what terms like "empowerment," "student voice," "dialogue," and "critical reflection" actually mean. Though these concepts are rooted in a framework which acknowledges and seeks to displace authoritarian structures, Ellsworth argues that these terms (all central to critical pedagogy) actually reinforce those structures implicitly.

One of the most interesting responses that Ellsworth proposes to her dilemma is the acceptance of unknowability; that neither she nor her students were capable of fully "understanding" the phenomenon of racism in its totality, as each individuals' perspective is undeniable limited. Instead, she proposes a shared state of "knowing" that affirms two apparent dialogic contradictions simultaneously: "you know me/I know you"even as "you can't know me/I can't know you."

This will be a useful study for my paper, as it is centrally concerned with the problem of privilege and in proposing strategies to deal with it in the classroom.