The Ideological Becoming of Moral Agency

• In Event: Freireian Dilemmas: Confronting Contradictions in the Practice of Critical Pedagogy and Participatory Action Research in Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract

Objectives:

This paper examines the pedagogical potential in Freireian and Bahktinian dialogical discourse in deepening the sense of responsibility for Human Rights (HR), and fostering moral agency. I propose that this potential can be harnessed by engaging rather than avoiding ideological divides, through theoretical deconstruction, and Participatory Action Research (PAR). I look at how meta narratives about the moral and legal purposes of HR connect to localized / personalized experiences of disenfranchisement and silencing; how a lack of understanding of HR can inhibit a sense of agency in fighting structural inequalities; and how acknowledgment of divergent perspectives can counteract ideological polarization, and cultivate cosmopolitan moral agency.

Theoretical Framework:

This research paper is grounded in three theoretical frameworks. First, I use Bakhtin’s “ideological becoming” and his distinction between authoritative and internally persuasive discourse. For Bakhtin, the coming together of different voices in any social space is essential to growth, it is “the very basis of our ideological interrelations with the world” (Bakhtin, 1981, 342). Second, in line with Freireian thought, Bakhtinian authoritative discourse is oppressive, while internally persuasive discourse reflects critical consciousness. Third, I use Turiel’s (1983), domains theory which emphasizes the role of social struggle in developing moral agency, arguing that morality, regardless of culture, is concerned with justice, harm, and rights. Cosmopolitan moral agency in this sense, refers to critical consciousness that we owe justice to distant others as well as those close by. This triple framework helps imagine how tensions created by sociocultural diversity can be harnessed for their positive potential, rather than experienced as barriers.

Methodology:

The sociocultural and academic diversity of the four classrooms under study afforded the creation of Bakhtinian “contact zones” - social spaces where ideological plurality creates tension, leading to critical dialogue. Mixed methods were used to compare shifts in thinking, including: entry/ exit point surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, student journals, and online forum writing. Open-ended and focused thematic coding was applied for analysis.

Preliminary Findings:

1. The use of the classroom as a contact zone, curricular emphasis on human rights, and practice of dialogic discourse, supported students to question the premises of ideological divides, as well as examine their own assumptions, historicity and positionality in the context of global justice.

2. Engaging with theories on a wide ideological spectrum, in combination with PAR work, fostered perspective taking, leading to written and practical work that reflected a more cosmopolitan sense of moral agency.

3. Careful facilitation of classroom dialogue was necessary to avoid reifying the very narratives that critical pedagogy seeks to dismantle.

Scholarly significance:

A Freireian / Bakhtinain curriculum focused on Human Rights and critical analysis of cultural ideologies, complemented by PAR, can lead students to see a paradigm shift in the purposes of education, understanding cultural diversity as essential for cognitive and moral development. Examining this shift and the extent of its success, may tell us how to harness the potential of diversity in educational spaces, in such a way as to build cosmopolitan moral agency.

Author

• Zinaida Besirevic, University of California - Berkeley