Public Pedagogy

Public pedagogy is a theoretical construct focusing on various forms and sites of education and learning occurring beyond formal schooling practices; in institutions other than schools, such as museums, zoos, libraries, and public parks; in informal educational sites such as popular culture, media, commercial spaces, and the Internet; and in or through figures and sites of activism, including “public intellectuals,” grassroots social activism, and various social movements. Public pedagogy theorizing and research is largely informed by the contributions of cultural studies; accordingly, public pedagogy is concerned with both the socially reproductive and counterhegemonic dimensions of pedagogical sites that are distinct from formal schooling. In taking up curriculum studies' core epistemological question of “what knowledge is of the most worth,” public pedagogy interprets educational institutions as ...