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Description

In this paper, the author examines the revolutionary capacity of Henry Giroux’s border pedagogy to develop critical consciousness and to build democratic citizenship in the ecology of rural colleges. The intersection of critical pedagogy and literary studies, moves beyond a mere application of theory to a more complex exploration of the mediating effects of border crossing, the interrogation of cultural borders and the development of critical consciousness on students’ engagement with literary texts. The study, utilizing triangulation of methods including extensive classroom observations, in-depth focus group discussions and detailed textual analysis of student work, suggests a dialectical relationship between pedagogical practice and the rural environment. The findings suggest that rural colleges, often thought of negatively because of infrastructural constraints. This study is actually fertile ground for border pedagogies that speak to Giroux’s framework. This environment promotes not only better understanding but also the cultivation of critical thinking, cultural affirmation, voice, and most importantly the critical consciousness needed for students to become border crossers who can move within and challenge cultural, social, and political borders. The research also argues that border pedagogy is an effective means of decolonizing English literature teaching in postcolonial contexts and that it prepares students to identify and challenge the ways in which colonial legacies continue to shape the literary canon, practices of interpretation and the act of reading itself.