Episode 2 (Part A): Critical Pedagogies for Social Change

This episode features QUT Social Work professor and discipline lead Christine Morley and QUT course coordinator Dr Phillip Ablett (QUT). During this episode, Phillip and Christine speak about their experiences as critical practitioners working with critical pedagogy in social work education. Christine breaks down the dominant discourse of neoliberalism and how critical pedagogy works against it to combat social change. Phillip shares his views on the significance of democratic education as a crucial element of socially just practice. Both offer examples from their own experience as educators in contemporary practice.

Episode Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jJHK_c7goxp8YGjTshIMnfouTbV-15_xmcR7r1RBLF0/edit?usp=sharing

Key Definitions:

Neoliberalism: Neoliberalism asserts that markets are efficient and effective (marketisation); individuals should be responsible for themselves and run their own lives (consumerisation); and the private sector can supply management knowledge and techniques to the public and voluntary sectors (managerialisation) (Harris, 2014).

A Decent Society: [Avishai Margalit] builds his social philosophy on this foundation: a decent society, or a civilised society, is one whose institutions do not humiliate the people under their authority, and whose citizens do not humiliate one another.

Key Readings:

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work Edited By Christine Morley, Phillip Ablett, Carolyn Noble, Stephen Cowden

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781351002042/routledge-handbook-critical-pedagogies-social-work-christine-morley-phillip-ablett-carolyn-noble-stephen-cowden

Harris, J. (2014) (Against) neoliberal social work. Critical and radical social work, 2 (1), 7–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/204986014X13912564145528

The Decent Society by Avishai Margalit

Keywords: critical pedagogy, democratic pedagogy, social justice, power structures, power relations, dominant discourse, neoliberalism, capitalism, activist practice, the decent society.

Music by Boe Toweh