"Liberatory Social Change? What is it ?! Any Explanations?

Question

Like some people working on liberatory social change ...

Answer 1

I really admire Santa Barbara's answer, and the fact that he would take the time to post such a comprehensive and well written answer at this site. I hope he is working on a book, if he has not completed one or more already. I have added him to my contacts list.

As an adjunct, I hope that more people will use this site to explore issues of contemporary society. For example: Is the gross disparity of income and wealth something we must simply accept as the natural and unavoidable consequence of capitalism. What would be helpful would be to explore for ways/ideas to improve our sysem---retaining the best, but weeding out the undesirable.
In other words, to simply spout platitudes(e,g., "Life is unfair.") simply states the obvious and pretty well known, completely avoids the real question/problem/issue/, and thus does not conrtibute to finding solutions.

I prefer an approach of identifying problems, clarifiying them, and then seeking worthwhile solutions, i.e., solutions that do not simply create new problems via their unintended consequences.

Answer 2

It was a big deal in Czech from 1918 to 1992:

Following the tenets of liberatory or radical pedagogy, many writing teachers explicitly state that fostering social change is a goal of their classes. In order to pursue this goal in a responsible way, writing teachers must forthrightly address the possibilities and problems it raises, especially vis-a-vis teachers' and students' responsibilities for the ways language is used, teachers' and students' responsibilities to each other and to society, and the responsibilities of educational institutions in society. The purpose of this roundtable is to explore what the goal of teaching writing for social change means to students, teachers, academic institutions, and the society at large and how this goal is best accomplished in writing classes.

What follows is a summary of the kind of questions that will be raised and explored by roundtable participants. The questions are organized by topic rather than being attributed to individual participants.

What kind of social change do writing teachers want to bring about? Is social change ineluctably conceived as progressive, left oriented change? To what extent can social change involve centrist or right-wing agendas? Does social change sometimes involve preservation of structures and policies of social justice? How can a notion of social change be built on the site of split subjects who believe that what is right is unstable and indeterminate and at the same time is fundamentally clear and important to communicate?

Is social change an issue for students or just for teachers? What kind of social change do students see as desirable and/or possible? What do teachers believe that students in writing classes can contribute to efforts for social change? How can teachers help students deepen and broaden their analyses of power and social change? Does making social change the goal of a writing class put unacceptable pressure on students? Does it displace -- or complement -- instruction in reading and writing?

What function does the academy serve in the effort for social change? To what extent is education a sphere apart from the political and to what extent is it an activist enterprise? How do or can vernacular knowledges enter into learning and writing, and how do vernacular knowledges disrupt/alter disciplinary knowledges? Is there an inherent activist dimension to theory? Why are writing classes and theory seen as important, likely, convenient sites for social change? How can and should the curricula and agendas of writing programs connect with the curricula and agendas of interdisciplinary studies programs -- women's students, ethnic studies, queer studies, labor studies programs?

What kind of work (assignments and exercises in and out of class) helps students learn how to use writing to bring about social change? How can work in writing classes move students (and teachers) beyond feelings of helplessness in the face of global capitalism and the romantic notion that nothing will change until human nature changes? How can work in writing classes move beyond academic comfort zones to address what Linda Brodkey calls differences that matter in a way that matters? Can work like service learning move us into social borderlands that allow for the democratic type of border-crossing bell hooks speaks of?

How do students' positions and teachers' positions condition their views on social change and their beliefs about its possibility? How do forms of power enter writing classrooms? To what extent to teachers contribute to social change in teaching writing to students already empowered by their presence in college classrooms? What do students and teachers do with the knowledges they encounter in classrooms where issues of social change and power are engaged?

Is social change positive and possible? By whose standards do we judge the success of efforts for social change (teachers, students, academics, communities, others)?