Henry Giroux, the renowned critical pedagogue, emphasizes the crucial role universities play in connecting us to each other, our communities, and pressing social and political issues. Our recent event emerged from this bridging work, fuelled by intellectual curiosity and a chance encounter between me, in Sociology, and Deniz Ortactepe Hart, in the School of Education. After attending the launch of Deniz’s incredible book, Social Justice and the Language Classroom (2023), last August, I felt an immediate connection to her work as I was also finalising my own book, Developing a Critical pedagogy of Migration Studies (May 2024). This connection was deeply rooted in our shared commitment to teaching differently, particularly in centring colonial histories to learning praxis, fostering anti-oppressive education, placing undoing of dominant approaches at the centre of our work, and embracing discomfort as a transformative tool for effecting social change. 

A coffee meeting soon followed, where we realised that if we could find each other, there must be others in our learning communities interested in similar conversations about radical pedagogies. This inspired us to organize a small event on Radical Pedagogies in Higher Education and Community Learning on 21st May 2024, to facilitate these connections and begin some of the work of undoing, and rebuilding. And what a day it turned out to be - critical, reflective, funny, caring, and deeply moving.  

We began by remembering Srabani Maitra, a dear colleague from the School of Education who passed in 2023.  Her commitment to social justice pedagogies continues to inspire us and this day honoured her memory and legacy. Sarbani's name and work would come up in the discussions over the day as we talked about how we can continue her work in sustainable ways.  

PhD students Jeehan Ashercook & Shruti Shukta opened the event with vital, critical reflections on their work on decolonizing the classroom, emphasizing that "it cannot be soothing work" and that "dialogical exchange is oxygen." They introduced their model of “decolonial investigations” as a much-needed resource for our teaching to help us ‘move the centre’.  

Dustin Hosseini (University of Strathclyde) explored rehumanizing educational practices through radical pedagogy, drawing on Ubuntu pedagogy that centres co-existence, cohesion, and inclusivity in education, “learning doesn’t happen to students, but with them”. He challenged the dominance of individualised approaches, advocating for more community and collaboration instead, not just in teaching but also in assessment. Amanda Douge then gave a provocative and visceral performance on eco-critical pedagogy, linking climate inertia and inaction to oppression and highlighting the educative challenge of climate change. Steve Brown from the School of Education spoke lucidly about the neoliberal academy, critiquing the marketization of higher education. He posed a vital question: "If our pedagogies are not about making the world a better place, then what are they for?" He highlighted the neoliberal treatment of programmes as products, students as clients, and academics as entrepreneurs. His colleague Luke Ray di Marco Campbell followed with his anarchist model of learning, questioning hierarchical models while acknowledging the inherent tensions within; and locating the place of narratives at the centre to de-centre dominant knowledges. 

Our wonderful panel then offered reflections on their radical work in learning contexts.  Zandra Yeaman, Curator of Discomfort at the Hunterian Gallery, talked about her path-breaking work on curating discomfort in museum spaces - “discomfort is about making mistakes” and her scepticism about decolonizing the university, and indeed what it means to be radical – “it shouldn’t be radical to be anti-racist!” Pinar Aksu, Human Rights & Advocacy Coordinator at Maryhill Integration Network and PGR at the University, located her praxis within the context of rapid legislative change, and talked us through how she uses forum theatre for community learning through campaigning and advocacy, and as a way of bridging radical acts in the everyday lives of people subjected to specific immigration violences.  Amanda (Mindy) Ptolomey, Lecturer in Social Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University, explored care as radical practice, questioning whether care can be considered radical and emphasizing the importance of “taking care with care” in educational and community contexts. 

Finally, Zaki El-Salahi, Community Educator and James McCune PGR, asked hard questions “To all those radical pedagogues, how do you get to call yourselves radical?” He shared beautiful wisdom, compassion, and criticality on radical praxis and how it translates into the academic space, connecting difficult histories, memories, identities & what it means to belong for Scottish Sudanese Communities.

What Did We Learn?  

Building community is essential. This work thrives on connection; it provides the emotional and intellectual support, courage, and ideas we need. Our attendees brought enthusiasm and openness, embracing a pedagogy of possibilities and exploring how to move from ‘what is’ to ‘what if.’ On the 21st May, we took a first, important step together in finding each other and asking where this work might take us. We asked our attendees if they would like more work to follow: “Yes, definitely! Moving from the 'what' of radical pedagogies, to the 'why', to connect more explicitly with the purposes of people's work - the 'so what?' / 'what do we do about it?' "  

What Questions Remained? 

  • To what extent do we remain complicit in upholding systemic, intersectional, and oppressive structures?
  • How do we hold ourselves accountable, and how are we held accountable by others?
  • How do we recognize and challenge the co-option of ‘radical narratives’ by the institutions we work within and across? 

What Do We Need to Do?

We need to continue bridging and connecting! Creating spaces to share ideas, resources, and praxis is crucial. But we must build something sustainable, not only to honour Srabani’s memory but also to explore the richness of possibilities that arise when we look beyond ourselves and reach out to others. 

We also need to be more radical! As scholars in UK Higher Education, we have so much privilege when it comes to being able to raise our voices and articulate what we see as the problems of the neoliberal academy, but we need to do more to turn this into action for social change. 

A final thanks to our PGR students Dan Jordan and Tina Beshkenazde for their invaluable help with organizing and running our event, Sociology, the School of Education, GRAMNet, and ELINET for supporting this event, and to Milk Café Glasgow for the delicious lunch that sustained our discussions throughout the day. 

Written by Dr Teresa Piacentini, Senior Lecturer, Sociology

 

First published: 2 July 2024

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