Abstract
In my doctoral research, which examines oppressive correctional education, I originated an existentialist educational philosophy toward cultural liberation, that is, a pedagogy of life. In this paper, I first describe the essence of my pedagogy. This philosophy offers the means to transform students’ existential suffering caused by structural contradictions, such as racial and gender disparities, to emancipate themselves from cultural oppression. Second, I present a teaching methodology based on this alternative philosophy which affirms the co-existence of human beings and builds more harmonious social relations. The key ideas are the students’ critical reflection of themselves, the cooperative interactions between and among students and teachers, and the co-production of a new, humanistic knowledge. Third, I describe the results of this alternative education by presenting my practice as a Chief at a juvenile correctional facility for eighteen- to nineteen-year-old females in Eastern Japan. The main task for the students is to confront intersectional social oppression. And fourth, I discuss several hurdles that occur in the practice and explore a future direction of the pedagogy of life. The primary goal is to guide the students to overcome their uprootedness – both psychologically and relationally. In brief, this alternative philosophy is an answer to the “Can-the-subaltern-speak-?” question, the cultural conundrum raised by post-colonial feminist literary critic Gayatri Spivak, and has great possibilities for human liberation and social transformation.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus: Agency in an Era of Displacement and Social Change
KEYWORDS
Cultural Oppression, Uprootedness, Pedagogy of Life, Communal Agency, Knowledge Co-Production
