Giroux argues that the role of teachers and administrators is to become "transformative intellectuals who develop counter-hegemonic pedagogies that not only empower students by giving them the knowledge and social skills they will need to be able to function in the larger society as critical agents, but also educate them for transformative action. That means educating them to take risks, to struggle for institutional change, and to fight both against ‘oppression’ and for ‘democracy’ outside of schools in other oppositional public spheres and the wider social arena."
Thus, Giroux situates teaching in a true democratic process, in which the classroom is one of the few public institutions in which an exchange of ideas and utopian visions can take place. But for this to happen, teachers will have link their knowledge of the content they teach with other academic and social contents. In other words, an English teacher should work to be aware of politics, history, science, art, and other disciplines, rather than just focusing on the teaching of novels and the discipline of writing.
