Understanding and Critiquing Critical Theory in Education and Culture

This is Episode 23 of the Consortium Podcast, an academic audio blog of Kepler Education.

The widespread notions of cultural appropriation, political correctness, outrage culture, identity politics, and cancel culture did not arrive on the scene in the late 2010s in a vacuum. What is today colloquially known as “woke mentality” stems from a postmodern-academic-ideology-turned-activism known as Critical Theory and its being aggressively propagated in schools and other cultural outlets.

In this episode, Scott and Joffre discuss the origins and consequences of Critical theory in its various manifestations and suggest the most practical thing we can do to fight back is to stand up to it with the gospel of Jesus Christ and Christ-centered education. 

Critical theory has gone beyond activism and social media movements and instigated the widespread notion of cultural appropriation, political correctness, outrage culture, identity politics, and cancel culture. And under the umbrella of Social Justice Theory, it has become insidious in the culture at large manifesting itself in the various theories and movements like Disability and Fat Studies, Queer Theory, Postcolonial Theory, Critical Racial Theory, and Gender Studies.

Not only is this "other gospel" being propagated in hollywood and behemoth corporations, but churches are adopting forms of it and legislators across the nation are attempting to have critical theories incorporated into the curriculum as the accepted worldview.

To learn more about Classical Christian Education, visit https://kepler.education

 

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*Definitions and descriptions for this episode are taken from Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay.