Post-Critical Global Citizenship & Psychoanalysis (Poster 6)

• In Event: Theory-Stories and Social Studies Education

Abstract

Post-Critical Global Citizenship

This presentation explores our efforts to apply a post-critical global citizenship lens to our research on social studies education. Post-critical and decolonial scholarship in global citizenship education emphasizes the limitations of critical perspectives rooted in Western-centric frameworks, including inherent biases and prescriptive universalism. A post-critical global citizenship lens engages with diverse knowledge systems in an attempt to trouble enduring colonial power relations. We offer two reflexive case studies, illustrating the transformative potentials of post-critical global citizenship in education research and practice. Our stories from the field highlight shifts towards non-anthropocentric, multilayered citizenships and research methodology that recognize interconnected responsibilities to Indigenous sovereignty and ecological well-being. By fostering epistemic humility and relational ethics, post-critical global citizenship offers a path towards more equitable and holistic understandings of global citizenship. We hope a post-critical global citizenship orientation will enable researchers and educators to navigate complexities beyond nation-state borders and towards a future characterized by radical inclusivity and solidarity.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis provides social studies teachers and researchers with a vocabulary
for the processes of thought; not so much the “what” of content but the “how” of pedagogy and the manner of encounter by the student within these situations. Psychoanalytic theory complicates our ideas about learning in that learning is not just acquisition of new knowledge to be used on a test or applied on a job. Psychoanalytic theory provides a rich vocabulary for understanding and describing emotional life. And in education, the presumption it brings is that teaching and learning are emotionally situated. This is especially true when the teaching and learning involve encountering the devastation of systematic violence, loss, social upheaval, suffering, death, and others. The idea of difficult knowledge (Britzman, 1998; Garrett, 2017; Pitt & Britzman, 2003) remains an incredibly important concept for social studies teaching and research. It gives a way to understand the concerns that people have, the passions that are enlivened, because of the knowledge being constituted through social studies lessons.

Authors

• Timothy Patterson, Temple University

• Jenni Conrad, Oregon State University

• H. James Garrett, University of Georgia