Ethical Globalism in Education Vanessa de Oliveira (Andreotti) Professor of Global Education University of Oulu, Finland http://oulu.academia.edu/vanessaandreotti
MY WORK INTERCULTURAL TEACHER EDUCATION MA in EDUCATION and GLOBALIZATION EDUCATION DIVERSITY GLOBALIZATION & ETHICS RESEARCH GROUP (EDGE) POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES SIG CHAIR (AERA) ETHICAL INTERNATIONALISM RESEARCH NETWORK (WERA)
(CRITICAL) INTERCULTURAL TEACHER ED PROGRAMME ITE MA graduates are qualified teachers who are able to: exercise socially responsible leadership in the field of intercultural, and global education conduct and utilize research creatively as a basis for teaching, learning, curriculum design and assessment make informed and ethical decisions in complex and diverse education environments in local and global contexts work ethically and productively in partnership with diverse individuals, groups, families, communities examine the constantly changing nature of education and society, recognizing professional development as a collaborative process of lifelong and lifewide learning exercise professional autonomy and participate in the coconstruction of the curriculum
EDGE Research Group International, inter-disciplinary and cross-sectoral research collaborations and seminars in the areas of global citizenship, ethical globalism, language and culture, global, intercultural, multicultural, indigenous, anti-racist and transformative education, critical and post-critical pedagogies, pedagogies of difference and dissensus (radical democracy) EDGE is committed to ethical internationalism, epistemological pluralism, North-South-East-West dialogue, intellectual and theoretical rigor, research based education and the creation of an equitable, vibrant, safe and constructive collaborative atmosphere for research and research training.
(Andreotti, Souza, Räsänen & Forghani, 2007) GE as ENLARGEMENT of possibilities for living together in COMPLEX, DIVERSE, UNCERTAIN & UNEQUAL GLOBAL SOCIETIES GLOBAL EDUCATION GE Self Local/Global Contexts Perceptions Relationships & Flows Other GLOBALISATION: advanced capitalism, vast international migration, ecological fragility, technological interconnectivity, cultural hybridity and reconfiguration of political power (Todd, 2009).
OUTLINE Global Imaginaries Reflection or reflexivity? Engaging with different discourses Dispositions and Encounters Theorizing teaching and learning Student teachers dispositions Taking it further Discursive strand of postcolonial theory (informed by poststructuralism): Theory as tool-for-thinking rather than description-of-truth
Imagine a field of corn with ripe corn cobs Harvest your corn and take off the husks Place all your corn cobs in front of you Compare your corn cobs to the corn cobs in the picture... GLOBAL IMAGINARIES
GLOBAL IMAGINARIES
genderized, sexualized, racialized world (Morrison, 1992:4) of unequal divisions of vulnerabilities, wealth and labour (Spivak, 1999:45 ). GLOBAL IMAGINARIES
Justitia (the European Goddess of Justice): I am sitting at the back of a man. He is sinking under the burden. I will do anything to help him (as I am a very good goddess), except get off his back. Jens Galshiot
Anthropocentrism! Individualism! Universal Reason! Cartesian Subject! Property Ownership! Nation-states! Rule of Law! Nuclear Family! Education! Freedom! Healthy Living! Happiness! Autological subject : autonomy, independence, self-sufficiency, and control Engineered Progress! Teleological Thinking! Protestant Ethics! Linear Time! Modernity s shine
Cognitive normative - procedural Preservation of Modernity s shine Renouncement of Modernity s shadow Affective existential - relational
GLOBAL IMAGINARIES GLOBAL/DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION: imagining social change beyond patterns of Hegemony (justifying superiority and supporting domination) Ethnocentrism (projecting one view as universal) Ahistoricism (forgetting historical legacies and complicities) Depoliticization (disregarding power inequalities and ideological roots of analyses and proposals) Salvationism (framing help as the burden of the fittest) Un- complicated solutions (offering easy solutions that do not require systemic change) Paternalism (seeking affirmation of superiority through the provision of help) LEARNING FROM RECURRENT MISTAKES OF THE PAST/PRESENT IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO MAKE DIFFERENT MISTAKES IN THE FUTURE.
REFLECTION or REFLEXIVITY?
REFLECTION or REFLEXIVITY?
niversal raeson, unanimous consensus, antropocentrism non-cartesian, non-teleological, non-anthropocentric, etc. ENGAGING DIFFERENT DISCOURSES cartesian subject (conscious awareness of self), teleological thinking (aiming at defined goals) Technicist: Social engineering as economic rationalization decided by experts Humanist: Social engineering as human progress decided by representatives SOCIAL ISSUE CHANGE Critical humanist Social engineering as fair distribution done by (ordinary) people Other (s)?
THEORIZING TEACHING/LEARNING COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE (EMBODIED, NOT ALWAYS CONSCIOUS) FROM SOCIALIZATION INTO ABSOLUTE CERTAINTIES TOWARDS SOCIALIZATION INTO PROVISIONAL CERTAINTIES (Andreotti, 2010) FROM SOCIALIZATION INTO ANTAGONISM TOWARDS SOCIALIZATION INTO AGONISM (Mouffe 2005, Todd 2009) PERFORMATIVE/ POLITICAL TEACHING/LEARNING: NOT LINEAR, NOR INDIVIDUAL FROM COMPETENCIES TOWARDS DISPOSITIONS FROM SOCIALIZATION INTO RELATIONSHIPS GROUNDED ON CONSENSUS TOWARDS SOCIALIZATION INTO RELATIONSHIPS GROUNDED ON ETHICAL IMPERATIVE TO RELATE BEFORE WILL (Maturana, 2002, Spivak 1994)
ENCOUNTERS Three dispositions of global mindedness Based on Hannah Arendt understand the other within your own framework Attempt to have all worlds into one s world: fusion of perspectives /projected sameness international mobility experience bringing your home with you when you travel open to being taught by and being exposed to the world Being at home in a plural and undefined world: enlargement of worldview Projection of own world as everyone else s world: singular truth /hierarchical differences (Biesta, Andreotti, Ahenakew 2011)
ITE TEACHER S DISPOSITIONS self-reflexivity as a commitment to analyzing critically the collective referents and political projects of our individual thoughts so that we can see ourselves implicated in the issues/problems we are trying to address open/global mindedness so that we will develop the strength and resilience necessary to construct other possible worlds together with others critical historical memory so that we can learn to heal our historical pains, to learn from the past and only make different mistakes in the future okness within the self so that we can learn to live with and not be overwhelmed by uncertainty, complexity, multiplicity and agonistic conversations humbleness as a safeguard against seeing ourselves as heading humanity relationality, mutuality, reciprocity, hospitality so that we develop the capacity to create solidarity particularly with others who disagree with us divergent thinking and intellectual autonomy to keep conversations always open and alive for ourselves, for others and for generations to come.
TAKING IT FURTHER... How can we resist hegemony(ies) without transforming our resistance into a new hegemony(ies)? How can we address ethnocentrism without falling into absolute relativism? How can we address ahistoricism without using history to simply reverse hierarchies? How can we address depoliticization without high jacking the political agenda for self-serving ends? How can we address salvationism without crushing generosity and altruism? How can we challenge the push for uncomplicated solutions without producing paralysis and hopelessness? How can we address paternalism without closing important opportunities for redistribution?
What if racism, sexism, classicism, nationalism and other forms of toxic, parasitic and highly contagious viral divisions are preventable social diseases? What if the medicine involves getting to terms with our violent histories, learning to see through the eyes of others (as impossible as it sounds), and facing humanity (in our own selves first) in all its complexity, agonism and imperfection: agonistically embracing everyone s capacity for love, hatred, compassion, harm, goodwill, envy, joy, anger, oppression, care, selfishness, selflessness, avarice, kindness, enmity, solidarity, malice, benevolence, arrogance, humility, narcissism, altruism, greed, generosity, contempt and reverence? What if our holy texts (both religious, activist and academic), our education (both formal and informal), our politics and agency, and our ways of knowing and being have carried both the mutant virus that spreads the disease and the medicine that cures and prevents it? What if learning to distinguish between toxins, viruses and medicines involves disciplining our minds, bodies, psyches, and spirits by confronting our traumas and letting go of fears of scarcity, loneliness, worthlessness and guilt (generated precisely by the imperative for autonomy/independence, selfsufficiency and control)? What if we have to learn to trust each other without guarantees? What if the motivation to survive alongside each other in our finite planet in dynamic balance (without written agreements, coercive enforcements or assurances) will come precisely through learning collectively from and with the disease itself?
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED... I recommend: Sharon Todd (2009) Towards an imperfect education Chantall Mouffe (2005) On the political Walter Mignolo (2007) Critical cosmopolitanism Gert Biesta (2009) Beyond learning George Sefa Dei (2009) Teaching Africa Paulo Freire (2002) Pedagogy of Freedom My work can be found at: http://oulu.academia.edu/vanessaandreotti Andreotti, V. (2011). Actioniable postcolonial in education. New York: Palgrave. Andreotti, V., Souza, L. (Eds.) (2011). Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education. New York: Routledge. Andreotti, V. (Ed.) (2011). The political economy of global citizenship education. Special double issue of Globalisation, Society and Education, 9(3-4).