Todd, Sharon
(2015)
Creating Transformative Spaces in Education:
Facing Humanity, Facing Violence.
Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 23 (1).
pp. 53-61.
ISSN 1916-0348
Abstract
This paper considers the difficulties that accompany projects in education variously configured around a
multicultural or intercultural label, particularly when they are built upon, for example, idealised conceptions of humanity,
notions of the common good and dialogue, or ideas of recognition. My premise here is that, while such idealisations may be
constructed with the best of intentions, they occlude discussions of how to face the violent realities that can also be part of
social interaction. My focus here is on the existential conditions that frame our encounters with other people, and how such
existential concerns lead us to confront more openly the violence that can inhere in such encounters. Beginning from this
existential position, I argue, actually invites alternative ways of formulating transformative work in education, namely a focus
on the present. Secondly, I turn to explore the transformative spaces created by performance artist Marina Abramovic, and
how her projects reveal what we are up against existentially when it comes to facing humanity in the here and now, in all its
messiness. And, finally, I make the suggestion that an education committed to the existential conditions of facing humanity
can be built on a reconceptualization of conversation, as opposed to dialogue. Here I argue that conversation offers the kind of
potential for transformation in its open-endedness and anarchic sensibilities.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Transformative Spaces; Education;
Humanity; Violence; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Education |
| Item ID: |
8529 |
| Depositing User: |
Prof. Sharon Todd
|
| Date Deposited: |
01 Aug 2017 09:48 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Philosophical Inquiry in Education |
| Publisher: |
Canadian Philosophy of Education Society |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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