Teaching as cultural practice: pedagogy and the life of Cultural Studies

The definition of teaching as a cultural practice is a conventional one, but what is there behind it? “Teaching” simply understood as a mode of transmission of knowledge and skills is not, in fact, a cultural practice. Certainly it is not from the theoretical and pragmatic standpoints of Cultural Studies. Teaching is not a cultural practice if it does not entail a sharp glance at the past, a critical awareness of the present, and a vision for the future. This triple-sided ideal tension should be daily pursued, historically-based, contextual, dialogical and collective, inquiring and dissenting, resistant against hegemonic trends, concrete and politically active. In this sense, teaching combines theory and practise in a cultural praxis, a working method that informs the pedagogy of Cultural Studies. Of course pedagogy, as a science of education, is based on psychology. It was in the Thirties of the last century, that the social genesis of knowledge and of learning processes was brought to the fore, marking a revolutionary achievement in psychological research.