Abstract:
Responsible Pedagogy is examination of contemporary education in the
United States. Responsible educators are dedicated to being representative,
responsive, and respectful. These three principles guide the best teaching and
learning that are taking place in classrooms across the country. Launched in
2003, Shakespeare in American Communities is the most ambitious project in the
history of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Shakespeare initiative's
logo, depicting Shakespeare on an American flag, succinctly invokes a discussion
of the juxtaposition of the politics of literature, art, and education in contemporary
culture and symbolizes the battle for political and ideological superiority on a
national level and the debate academic world about how what we should be
teaching our students. Shakespeare in American Communities presents an
outstanding opportunity to examine the role NEA as a political tool of the Right
under the George W. Bush administration in the wake of the American "Culture
Wars" of the 1980s and 1990s.
