Acknowledging the populist experience: Commentary on Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era

Abstract

In Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era, Sarah Stitzlein identifies America’s recent ideological shift toward populism as the root of our crisis in truth and honesty. At the classroom level, Stitzlein proposes the pedagogical approach ‘pragmatist inquiry’, which she argues will resolve the contradictions between rational and emotional notions of truth and put Americans on a path toward authentic, collective truth-seeking. While we see value in pragmatist inquiry, we pose alternative approaches for teachers tackling populism in the post-truth epoch.