Presence Of Mind: Education and the Politics of Deception

by Pepi Leistyna

Widely misunderstood and misinterpreted at its most basic level, critical pedagogy provides a lens through which educators and students are better able to examine and interact with the real, underlying power relationships that structure our world. These educational politics determine how we make meaning of commonplace events, the purpose and goals of public education, the structure of our schools, the preparation our teachers receive, the way students are perceived and treated, and the curricula our schools employ.Taking up the ever-shifting cultural and political landscape in the United States, Presence of Mind addresses how power manifests itself within and across different social and educational terrain and, covering a number of contemporary topics and polemics that are central to teaching educational theory and practice. Pepi Leistyna argues that it is imperative that both students and teachers take ownership of educational practice by developing theoretical frameworks that historically and socially situate the deeply embedded roots of racism, discrimination, violence, and disempowerment in this country to better understand their roles as educators and citizens. Featuring dialogues with Paulo Freire and Noam Chomsky and a glossary of critical pedagogical terms, Presence of Mind is an accessible introduction to the basic tenets of critical pedagogy, as well as an advancement in thought in social theory.

Genres: Education

276 pages, Paperback

First published December 24, 1998

About the author

Associate professor in the Applied Linguistics Graduate Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He coordinates the research program and teaches courses in cultural studies, media analysis, critical pedagogy, and language acquisition. Speaking internationally on issues of democracy, education, and social justice, Leistyna’s books include Breaking Free: The Transformative Power of Critical Pedagogy (Harvard Publishing Group), Presence of Mind: Education and the Politics of Deception (Westview Press), Defining and Designing Multiculturalism: One School System’s Efforts (SUNY Press), Cultural Studies: From Theory to Action (Blackwell Press), and Corpus Analysis: Language Structure and Language Use (Rodopi Press). His forthcoming book is entitled Laughing Matters: Entertainment Television’s Mockery of the Working Class.