Journeying Toward Transformative Teaching in the Age of "Alternative Facts"

• In Event: 67.053 - Rethinking Our Understanding of Curriculum, Teaching, and Students Through Collaborative Interdisciplinary Inquiry

Abstract

Purpose: We are at a historical juncture that is punctuated by the rise of white nationalism, an exacerbation of racial tensions and divisions, and an increase in school violence targeting immigrant youth, along with a legitimation of the above by a recourse to “alternative facts.” Thus we explore how we as educators in higher education might retain a commitment to transformational pedagogy while simultaneously honoring the lessons of postmodernism, which include (1) the warning against any simple reversion to positivistic discourse that purports to change hearts and minds with a proliferation of the “right” facts and (2) the warning against the reduction of ethics to politics, which signifies the inevitable exclusions and foreclosures that occur when one draws on metanarratives and universals to mobilize against injustice.

Perspectives/ Theoretical Frameworks: We draw on philosophical insights derived from postmodernism, intersectionality, whiteness studies and contemporary phenomenology that extends the work of Merleau-Ponty to an analysis of racism, in order to ground our understanding of the practice of teaching and teacher education that strives to be attuned to issues of social justice. The possibility of such attunement is explored through the socio-political materiality of the body (Mills 2014; Alcoff 2014), its racializing and racialized movements (Ahmed 2007), and “pre-thematic habits” (Lewis 2016; Ngo 2016; Al-Saji 2014).

Modes of Inquiry: We deploy phenomenological and intersectional analysis intertwined with a narrative accounting of both authors’ classroom experiences as they attempt to engage college students at predominantly white universities with issues of racism, white privilege and marginalization.

Materials: We utilize a presentation titled, “Teaching in a Diverse World: Case Study of Culturally Responsive Pedagogies in a New York Public School,” given by one of the authors to the other author’s class. We draw on our reflections and analysis of the mixed reactions, lack of openness and at times overt resistance elicited from our students in response to the content of the presentation. Additionally, we also draw on a reflection of our own pedagogical limitations in conjunction with a critical accounting of what was done to prepare our students for the presentation. Texts by Sara Ahmed, Alia Al -Saji, Helen Ngo, Patricia Collins, David Theo Goldberg, and Tyson Lewis, ground our critical analysis.

Conclusions: Educators at the crossroads of a postmodern ethos and the social, cultural and political shockwaves of Trumpian politics, cannot circumscribe their teaching that aspires to address social justice concerns to the realm of cognition or beliefs alone (Al-Saji 2014). They must also address the lived affect of the habituated, racializing and racialized bodies of their students, and enable the exploration of the possibilities for its interruption and reorientation.

Significance: This paper foregrounds the particular challenges facing educators who are situated within postmodernity and facing the cultural, social and political shifts that point towards the need for some form of advocacy. We highlight how research in phenomenology and intersectionality is uniquely positioned to respond to these challenges, and we extend the existing phenomenological research by envisioning the sorts of classroom practices that they might entail.

Authors

• Shilpi Sinha, Adelphi University

• Shaireen Rasheed, Long Island University - C.W. Post Campus