Giroux: “Who Writes in a Cultural Studies Class?”

In “Who Writes in a Cultural Studies Class? or, Where Is the Pedagogy,” Henry Giroux critiques his own classroom pedagogy and describes his attempt to decenter authority in the classroom and introduce border writing, in order to argue for “re-inserting the language of pedagogy and politics back into the discourse of cultural studies” (4). Follwing Lawrence Grossberg, Giroux argues that cultural studies has ignored pedagogy: “Lost here is the attempt to understand pedagogy as a mode of cultural criticism for questioning the very conditions under which knowledge and identities are produced” (6). Giroux notes that in his classes, he “was reproducing a set of pedagogical relations that did not decenter authority” (10) and describes his 1992-1993 course “Postcolonialism, Race, and Critical Pedagogy,” where he “used border writing […] as a form of cultural production that more closely articulated the relationship between my political project as a progressive teacher and the underlying principles and practices that informed the organization and character of my class” (11). He then describes the writing assignments in the class, which include collaborative writing, being transparent about and discussing the implications of Giroux’s own pedagogy, asking students to theorize their own experiences, and having students lead class discussions, starting with their own writing assignments.

Giroux, Henry A. “Who Writes in a Cultural Studies Class? or, Where Is the Pedagogy.” Left Margins: Cultural Studies and Composition Pedagogy. State U of New York P, 1995. 3-16.