Socially Just Pedagogies : Posthumanist, Feminist and Materialist Perspectives in Higher Education

"This book addresses contemporary philosophical issues in higher education and how we can create socially just pedagogies and a socially just university. Providing a forum for thinking through how critical posthumanism, affect theory and feminist new materialisms provide a useful lens for higher education, and shows how these standpoints can benefit methods and practices of learning and teaching. Gross inequalities in higher education continue to affect pedagogical practices across geopolitical contexts and there is a need to consider new theories which call into question the commonplace humanist assumptions currently dominating the discourse around social justice in this context. However scholarship on the affective turn, critical posthumanism and new material feminisms, opens both new possibilities and responsibilities for higher education pedagogies. The approaches of this book also provide imaginative ways of engaging with current dissatisfactions with higher education, from the marketization of education, to issues of racism, discrimination and lack of diversity. Of international relevance, this collection particularly foreground southern contexts and case studies, such as the student activism in South African universities that has sparked a global project of decolonization and social justice in educational institutions. This book is an urgent call to reconceptualize, rethink and reconfigure pedagogies in higher education and the implications for future citizenship and social participation."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover page 1 Halftitle page 2 Series page 3 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Table of Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Notes on Contributors 9 Foreword 14 A posthuman ontology 16 The socio-political dimension 20 Conclusion 23 Notes 25 References 26 Introduction 30 Structure of the book 33 Conclusion 37 References 38 Part One Theoretical Perspectives 42 1 #Itmustallfall, or, Pedagogy for a People to Come 44 #Rhodesmustfall #Feesmustfall #Itmustallfall 44 Black Skin, White Masks, a.k.a. The White Wall/Black Hole System 47 Probe-Heads, Disidentification and Defacialisation 51 Effectuating Socially Just Pedagogies, or, Pedagogy for a People to Come 54 Conclusion 55 References 56 2 Feminism and Feminist Studies in Neoliberal Times: Furthering Social Justice in Higher Education Curricula1 60 Looking Back into the Future: Feminism and Neoliberalism 61 Returning to the Matter of Th inking as Mattering for Social Justice 63 Practicing Critical Th inking and/as Diffraction: (Post)human(ist) Interventions 66 The Powers of Feminist Imagination in Neoliberal Times 69 Notes 71 References 72 3 Practicing Refl ection or Diffraction? Implications for Research Methodologies in Education1 76 Reflection – What is it? 77 Diffraction – What is it? 79 Reflection and Diffraction: Continuities and Breaks 81 Implications of Diffractive Analysis for Research Methodology 83 Conclusion 86 Notes 86 References 87 4 The Politics of Animality and Posthuman Pedagogy 92 Introduction 92 Arche-fossils, aporias and anti-humanism 94 An ethico-aesthetic paradigm orientated toward a life 96 Dark haecceities, sonic ecologies of fear and transformative panic 101 Conclusion: pedagogical science fictions 104 References 105 Part Two Ethics and Response-ability in Pedagogical Practices 108 5 Each Intra-Action Matters: Towards a Posthuman Ethics for Enlarging Response- ability in Higher Education Pedagogic Practice-ings 110 Introduction 110 Why we need to exit the cul-de-sac of humanism 111 Posthuman Ethics/Relational Orientations 115 Pedagogic Practice-ings for Enlarging Ethical Sense-abilities and Response-abilities 122 Conclusion 123 References 124 6 A Pedagogy of Response-ability 126 Introduction 126 Ethics of care and posthumanism as relational ontologies 127 Attentiveness 130 Responsibility 134 In conclusion – moving towards a pedagogy of response-ability 139 Notes 140 References 140 7 Me Lo Dijo Un Pajarito – Neurodiversity, Black Life and the University As We Know It 142 Neurodiversity in the University 143 Power/Knowledge 146 Research-Creation 149 The Outside 150 Emergent Socialities 152 The Free Indirect 154 More-Than Human 156 In the Ruins 157 References 158 8 An Ethico-Onto-Epistemological Pedagogy of Qualitative Research: Knowing/Being/Doing in the Neoliberal Academy 160 Teaching ← → Learning of Qualitative Research: Neoliberalism and The Material Turn 162 Intentional Planning: What We Sought To Do 164 Entangled Becomings: (Some of) What We Did and Why 165 Data Production/Theories/Methods: Our (Processes of) Th inking 167 An Ethico-Onto-Epistemological Pedagogy: What It (Can) Produce(d) 171 Notes 173 References 174 Part Three Locating Social Justice Pedagogies in Diverse Contexts 178 9 Finding Child Beyond ‘Child’: A Posthuman Orientation to Foundation Phase Teacher Education in South Africa 180 Decolonisation, coloniality and child 180 Age performativity and justice-to-come 182 Posthuman Teacher Education in South Africa 184 Posthumanism and child as ‘fellow traveller’ 186 Childhood studies in the historical period of the ‘Great Dithering’ 188 Acknowledgement 196 Funding 197 Notes 197 References 197 10 Embodied Pedagogies: Performative Activism and Transgressive Pedagogies in the Sexual and Gender Justice Project in Higher Education in Contemporary South Africa 200 Introduction 200 Young women disrupting the colonial project of higher education: the ascendancy of African femininity in the case of the fall of Rhodes 203 Troubling the erasure of bodies 204 Unruly bodies against sexual violence 206 Thinking performative activism with social justice pedagogical imperatives 208 Conclusion 210 Acknowledgements 212 Notes 212 References 213 11 Narrative Vases as Markers of Subjectivity, Agency and Voice: Engaging Feminist Pedagogies Within the Context of #feesmustfall 218 Situated knowledges 220 Matrixial trans-subjectivity 221 Agential Realism 222 Background to the Design Foundation Course 222 Case study: Design your own Greek vase 223 Conclusion 233 Notes 233 References 234 12 Thebuwa and a Pedagogy of Social Justice: Diffracting Multimodality Through Posthumanism 238 The case study and its context 239 Moving towards a diffractive analysis 241 Thebuwa and the wave of multimodality 242 Thebuwa and the wave of posthumanism 246 The overlapping of waves: social justice, human rights and posthumanist becoming 249 Acknowledgements 251 References 251 Index 256