The Potential of Critical Pedagogy and Intersectionality as Approaches To Political Science Teaching

Marinko Banjac

Summary:  This article focuses on the possibilities and potentials of critical pedagogy and intersectionality in political science pedagogy. In doing so, it takes as its starting point the recognition that the global dominance of economic rationality within universities and the general depoliticization of the pedagogical process calls for a continuous reconceptualization of teaching approaches beyond such arrangements and configurations. The paper therefore first offers insight into the current dilemmas in the context of political science teaching, highlighting, and problematizing in particular the internal fragmentation and disconnectedness of the various fields, as well as the predominance of a strictly hierarchical and abstract way of teaching political science-related knowledge and skills. It then highlights the possibilities of pedagogical approaches and practices in political science based on critical pedagogy, especially that of Paulo Freire, and intersectionality. Their contribution is primarily to address the fundamentally political nature of education, to provide insights into the functioning of power and authority, forms of domination, discrimination and exclusion based on multiple identities and their situatedness, and to demonstrate the possibility of engaging in the revitalisation of democracy as a challenge to the contemporary order.