Building Critical Consciousness in Classroom: Applying Henry Giroux's Border Pedagogy English Literature at Rural Colleges

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.