Critical pedagogy, deconstruction and the promises of interculturality

This chapter contributes to current debates on interculturality by reviewing two conceptions of critique – critical pedagogy, deconstruction – that provide different insights into the field of intercultural communication education. It argues that although critical pedagogy does much to cultivate an informed and critical citizenry, it itself offers a partial view of critique that closes the agentic spaces critical pedagogy wants to open up. The chapter suggests that deconstruction provides a more powerful means to approaching the question of critique by reviewing some of the central themes that have occupied deconstruction. It culminates with a discussion that compares and contrasts deconstruction to critical pedagogy to help reconsider the promises of interculturality.