Dr. Zachary Casey, associate professor of educational studies, has published a new book titled Critical Pedagogy and the Trouble with Consciousness Raising (Routledge, 2025).
According to the publisher: The book argues that consciousness-raising work in formal educational settings over the past three decades has largely failed to advance social justice. By critiquing consciousness raising as an end in itself, the author employs a Marxist framework to highlight how consciousness raising alone cannot alter material conditions and realities . . . From examining how discourse functions ideologically to uphold the status quo, to exploring how determinisms limit our life chances and imaginations, the author demonstrates that the challenges in achieving socially just education are largely self-imposed.
Casey joined the Rhodes faculty in 2014 and his research focuses on critical pedagogy, teacher education, and antiracist pedagogies. In 2022, he received the college’s Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Research and/or Creative Activity.