Introductory Message

Hi all. Thank you for the invitation to participate; I really appreciate it. I am probably the junior member among the group, as a doctoral candidate in education and cultural studies in education at UCLA.

My interests are broad, but center around philosophy of education, critical pedagogy and the work and legacy of Paulo Freire, media literacy, critical theory and the intersection of technology and education. My dissertation is focused on cynicism and the ways that media and schooling "teach" cynicism and political disengagement to children. I then look at ways that education can intervene against cynicism and reinvigorate civic participation and the hope necessary for social transformation.

I argue in the dissertation that beyond efforts to combat false consciousness, we must seriously engage the endemic cynicism that despoils democracy and dams the channels to change. I argue for the role of teachers as public intellectuals, the need to combine action with critique and the necessity of a more affirmative politics that can combat the ahistorical determinism that predominates today.

At UCLA, I served as program officer for the Paulo Freire Institute for two years and previously worked as a senior research associate at an educational research non-profit. I have also worked as a grant writer, an ESL instructor in Barcelona, Spain and a freelancer, publishing over a hundred articles on movies, music, art and politics. In addition, I have an MA in Economics. And I write fiction in my spare time.

Some recent articles I have published include a critique of educational research, "How Objective is Objectivity?," an article on the potential contribution of Herbert Marcuse to education "Marcuse, Freire and Bloch: A Pedagogy of Hope," and a forthcoming article on multiple literacy education; in addition to several articles on the work of Paulo Freire and its contemporary relevance.

Anyway, I am very excited to participate and look forward to lively discourse and debate.

Cheers,

Rich Van Heertum