Towards a humanising pedagogy through an engagement with the social–subjective in educational theorising in South Africa
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Abstract
This article is an attempt to bring the social complexity of education into a conversation
with what is referred to as a humanising pedagogy. In the article, I work with a definition
of humanising pedagogy based on a three-dimensional conception of social justice.
Drawing on Nancy Fraser (2009), I suggest that such a pedagogy should involve 1) the
question of knowledge redistribution, 2) recognition of the knowledges, literacies, and
identities of students, and 3) an emphasis on participation that brings process
pedagogical orientations back into view to counter the rigid pedagogical orientation that
informs South Africa’s curriculum approach. The article unpacks what it means to insert
a conception of the social–subjective into educational theorising in South African
education academic work. I argue that this dimension is largely absent in hegemonic
educational academic orientations, the consequence of which is a thinned-out focus on
curriculum and pedagogy, devoid of how the complex social–subjective frames the
subject’s access to education. Based on my ethnographic work in urban sites, the article
offers a view of the social–subjective that is aimed at disrupting South African
educational theorising and provides a “pedagogical justice” view of education that may,
conceptually, be able to account for the complex social–subjective in education—and
thereby better enable the emergence of a humanising pedagogy in our educational
discourses.
Description
CITATION: Fataar, A. 2016. Towards a humanising pedagogy through an engagement with the social–subjective in educational theorising in South Africa, Educational Research for Social Change, 5(1):10-21.
The original publication is available at http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za
The original publication is available at http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za
Keywords
Habitus (Sociology), Education -- Study and teaching -- South Africa, Education -- Social aspects -- South Africa
Citation
Fataar, A. 2016. Towards a humanising pedagogy through an engagement with the social–subjective in educational theorising in South Africa, Educational Research for Social Change, 5(1):10-21