Critical intellectuals in postdigital times

Abstract

This article starts with a brief analysis of what it means to be an intellectual within the US tradition of critical pedagogy. Pointing toward important socio-technological transformations which have taken place in the past few decades, the article situates the concept of the intellectual into the contemporary postdigital context. The article looks into two main areas of intellectual work which seem to have undergone significant transformations—automation and post-truth. It develops possible responses to recent challenges in these areas and shows that contemporary intellectuals working in the tradition of critical pedagogy need to take technology seriously. Heading toward the conclusion, the article promotes Greta Thunberg as an important example of a postdigital intellectual. Our analyses show that critical pedagogy has an important role in the development of contemporary intellectual work. Aiming at constantly transforming challenges, however, old theories require constant reconceptualization in and for our postdigital context. Within this mash-up of questions and answers old and new, we identify a starting point for this reconceptualization in the notion of critical praxis.

Musical participation and positive youth development in middle school

“…The pandemic reinforced deficit thinking in education, as seen in the increase of narratives of learning loss that place the blame on individuals, children and adolescents alike ( Lehman et al, 2021 ). Several reports have described how students who were socially and/or economically-disadvantaged and those with disabilities were disproportionately affected by the educational inequalities generated and exacerbated by the pandemic ( Jandrić and McLaren, 2021 ). Yet, most responses and solutions proposed to mitigate the educational problems caused by the pandemic have been steeped in a neoliberal educational paradigm, through “econometric forms of analysis” ( Jandrić and McLaren, 2021 ).…”

The ethical academy? The university as an ethical system

“…Our current experiencesthe way of teaching in the world of Covid 19and the whole move online has positioned the ethics in academia further into a precarious position (Jackson et al, 2020;Jandric et al, 2020;Tesar, 2020Tesar, , 2021). Jandric has collected and documented experiences from over 80 academics from more than 10 countries, and many of these stories do speak directly back to the idea of the ethical Academy.…”

“…Similarly, in their work Jandric and McLaren (2020) produce an interesting dialogue about what it means to be an intellectual within Academia from the position of critical pedagogies in a contemporary postdigital context. They argue, labelling Greta Thunberg as a post-digital public intellectual, that one might consider what this means for public intellectualism within our universities: perhaps the reconceptualization of the notion of critical praxis.…”

Covid-19 and the decolonisation of education in Palestinian universities

“…Even though Paulo Freire's classic book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, was published half a century ago, its messages of faith, hope, commitment to liberation and democracy are urgent and important in contemporary Palestine which is plagued with the Israeli occupation and a corrupt Palestinian government that consolidates Palestinian stagnant traditions. While the circumstances in which Freire's theory of pedagogy was embodied are different from those facing teachers today (Jandri c & McLaren, 2020), '[c]ritical pedagogy's mission toward emancipation and social justice has remained the same' (Jandri c & McLaren, 2020, p. 5). We contend that online education limits or restricts the hegemony of instructors over the process and the outcomes of literature education.…”