Spectacle as a site of critical pedagogy: A multiple case study of college audiences' responses to performative entertainment-education events

Literature describing the Debordian notion of the spectacle and the Kellnerian notion of the spectacular generally hold that neither spectacle nor the spectacular contain elements beneficial to either teachers or students. Carrying the taint of the Frankfurt Schools' "culture industry" mantle, the spectacle is assumed by the educational establishment to be devoid of intellectually or pedagogically valuable content. Indeed, the common description of the spectator---one who witnesses the spectacle---is of a consumption-oriented, intellectually and socio-economically undifferentiated global population in thrall to mass-mediated images and market-oriented discursive practices. This research attempts to bring a wider understanding of both the spectacle and the spectator to the literature of spectacle and education while seeking to identify elements of the spectacle that may trigger in spectators some degree of Freirean critical subjectivity. Further, it identifies four possible conditions of the spectacle---its discursive, affiliative, visual, or affective content---which may aid in the catalyzation of criticality in its witnesses.; As the power of global media forces continues to compress national populations into single markets for commercial and political purposes, it behooves members of the education sector worldwide to become cognizant of the ways in which the spectacle, and the concomitant power inherent in the use of spectacular modes of presentation, can be subverted for the benefit of intellectual advancement, teaching, and learning.