Decolonial Philosophy of Praxis: Resituating "Activism" in Curriculum Studies

• In Event: 75.015 - Advocacy and Activism in Curriculum Studies: Reconceptualizing the Field

Abstract

In this essay I revisit Paulo Freire’s dictum that without action, learning leads to verbalism and that action devoid of reflection yields empty activism. Freire emphasized the importance of ‘thinking’ with ‘doing,’ a dialectical approach to understanding the embodied character of teaching as a political act. Otherwise referred to as a philosophy of praxis, Freire’s contribution to curriculum studies has resulted in a range of theoretical and practice-oriented approaches with sundry degrees of relevance to the current social moment. Whether it is a critique of capitalism, the corporatization of knowledge production, or the continued legacy of racial, sexual, and gendered bias (and discrimination) in curriculum, there has been an attempt to bridge the divide between theory and action in curriculum/teaching for social activism. In line with Malewski’s call to reconceptualize the field of curriculum studies (CS) and resituate ‘activism’ within shifting paradigms, I explore a nascent approach in CS, the Latin American school of decolonial thought. This approach, I argue, provides an important conceptual scheme for reconsidering Freire’s philosophy of praxis.
In the last decade a number of countries in the South American continent have undergone radical social, political and economic transformation. Specifically, the social movements of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela have introduced new concepts and ideas that broaden our understandings of ‘praxis’ in education. With a renewed focus on the historicity of social, political and economic oppressions, these movements represent the efforts of educators, indigenous activists, the poor, and organic intellectuals who have consistently decried the ongoing colonialism of people’s land and ways of life. In response to the overriding logic of brute individualism and Eurocentric knowledge production, these movements have reintroduced the importance of anchoring our ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ in the decolonial concepts of well-being and living well. The terms of ‘justice’ have been expanded to include economic, political, ecological, epistemological, historical and gendered justice. In education, this translates to a range of efforts to broaden access to knowledge and to create spaces for meaningful and reflective praxis.
The intent of this essay is to enter into conversation with decolonial thought from the contextual specificity of teachers’ work in the U.S.. Rising pressures and increasing demands upon teachers to deliver ‘results’ have in many cases, led to a general apathy about the potential of education to aid in social transformation. It is also the case that many educators see no need to transform education or society, for that matter. Can Latin American experiences and philosophies contribute to a reconsideration of teaching as social activism? In what ways does decolonial thought expand, challenge, or negate our understandings of praxis and its importance to teaching as a political act? These questions animate the overall framing of what I call a decolonial philosophy of praxis.

Author

• Nathalia E Jaramillo, Kennesaw State University