Resisting far right and neoliberal agendas in education: The stance of critical educators

Henry A. Giroux

Abstract

Since the 1980s the discourses of neoliberalism and authoritarianism have merged, cre- ating the echoes of a fascist past that has moved from the margins to the center global politics. Education as a mode of domination has become central to politics and operates not only through various levels of schooling but also through a range of cultural apparatuses, including the social media and mainstream platforms. In the current moment, neoliberal fascism has aggressively targeted higher education, attempting to eliminate all vestiges of critical thinking, faculty power, historical consciousness, and critical knowledge. The general aim here is to turn higher education into a white Christian nationalist indoctri- nation center. Against the rise of neo-fascism and it current attacks on higher education globally, this essay raises a number of issues regarding the purpose of education in a time of tyranny, the role of critical pedagogy as an empowering practice, and how the notion of educated hope can overcome a politics of despair and hatred and create a movement of hope and collective resistance. The essay advances the idea that education is central to any viable notion of politics and that educators need to develop a more aggressive and informed pedagogical notion of the political, embrace critical pedagogy as a powerful tool of resistance, and create a mass movement to overthrow neoliberal capitalism with a radical democracy.