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Abstract

The university was founded on the principles of critical thought and the critical examination of ideas. However, this vision has gradually eroded over time due to the permeation of neoliberal thought into the university’s walls. Since the last 1970s, hyper-capitalist ideologies have disrupted efforts to develop students into engaged citizens of the world who speak out against gendered, racial, sexual, economic and other forms of marginalization by propagating post-truth messages. Specifically, neoliberal entities produce messages that teach students that their role in life is not to build community and communal bonds among people. Rather, neoliberal entities produce post-truth messages that effectively convince students that their role, and concomitant value in life, is predicated on their ability to advance individualism, work, earn, and spend. Universities have also acquiesced to this hegemonic neoliberal ideology and now largely operate as corporations, not an institution of higher learning. Critical and feminist scholars must resist the encroachment of neoliberalism on the classroom be employing critical hope (Giroux, 2019). Like Kaba’s (2021) idea that “hope is a discipline,” (p. 69) critical hope involves action. In a society in which marginalization exists, hope itself is inadequate. Instead, critical hope involves hope with purpose. This critical commentary will serve to further operationalize the notion of critical hope with the goal of demonstrating how it can function as a pedagogical practice, specifically through the lens of critical communication pedagogy (CCP), in order to guide students to reimagine existing structures of oppression and work toward change.

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