JERRY
L.
MARTIN
643
but by whether it advances or hinders the empowerment and liberation
of women, minorities, and the poor. New texts should be selected that
will help to empower these groups. Traditional texts should be given in–
terpretations that advance the interests of the oppressed. Matters of his–
torical, economic, or scientific interpretation should be included, ex–
cluded, or revised in light of this political goal. "Interpretation that
shores up things as they are or prevents social change by encouraging re–
sistance to it, by encouraging the view that change is illusion - because
action itself, which would produce change, is too problematically beset
by unavoidable historical repetition" - should be excluded from the
classroom because of its harmful social effects. This does not mean that
an "educational" goal is being replaced by a "political" one. Education,
like everything else, is already political.
It
means that a humane and
egalitarian politics is replacing an inhumane and oppressive politics.
Step
14:
Higher Edllcatiol1.
Therefore, the aim of higher education
should be not the pursuit of truth, which is both an illusion and an in–
strument of oppression, but social transformation - changing ideas, sym–
bols, and institutions from tools of racist, sexist, capitalist, imperialist
hegemony to instruments of empowerment for women, minorities, the
poor, and the third world. Q.E.D.
Several consequences follow from the transformationist thesis.
Step
15:
Critical Pedagogy.
If the goal of education were the pursuit
of truth, the function of a teacher would be to enable students to see all
sides of an issue and to weigh the pros and cons thoughtfully. But this
approach to teaching rests on rationalist illusions and supports the status
quo by encouraging endless debate.
In
a transformative university, the
aim is not aimless exploration but "changing minds," enabling students
to
"spot, confront, and work against the political horrors of one's
time," helping them become "agents of counterhegemony." One of the
main tasks of critical pedagogy is
to
overcome "patterns of resistance"
from students who resist ideas that challenge prevailing norms. Teaching
that might
to
a traditionalist seem manipulative - a violation of a stu–
dent's intellectual freedom - is actually an empowerment, a liberation.
Step
16:
Speech Restrictions.
Freedom must now be conceived as em–
powerment for the oppressed and liberation from the hegemonic illu–
sions of the dominant class. The old notion of academic freedom, in–
cluding the
lehifreiheit
of the student, rested on the now discredited ideal
of disinterested inquiry. Since social transformation is the proper function
of higher education, freedom of discussion is less important than other
values, such as overcoming racism, sexism, capitalism, and imperialism.
Except as a tactical expedient, it would be inconsistent to allow racist,
sexist, and exploitative ideas to be expressed.
