Pragmatic Disalienation: A Fanonian Intervention into Deweyan Pragmatism

• In Event: Deweyan Responses to Authoritarianism, Artificial Intelligence, and Threats to Democratic Education

Abstract

This paper introduces pragmatic disalienation as a conceptual and methodological framework by situating John Dewey alongside Frantz Fanon. As a public high school teacher, I apply critical auto/ethnography (Hanson, 2012) to explore how Deweyan growth and Fanonian failure reframe pedagogy as a reflective process of recognition and reconstruction. Drawing on thematically analyzed classroom conversations and professional reflection, I examine how sociodiagnosis—naming the psychic and structural effects of schooling—can extend Dewey's vision of democratic growth by integrating Fanon's analysis of power and domination. Conversely, Fanon's psycho-social disalienation gains pedagogical grounding in Deweyan inquiry. This teacher-led model contributes to justice-centered pedagogy, where dialogue becomes the central condition of both pragmatic and decolonial transformation. No individual student data is retained.

Author

• Ryland Frost, Williamsburg Charter High School