COVID 19 and the Pedagogy of Culture-centered Community Radical Democracy: A Response from Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

In this essay, drawing on our ethnographic work at the “margins of the margins” in Aotearoa New Zealand, we depict the role of communicative pedagogy for radical democracy in sustaining spaces for community participation in pandemic response. Based on accounts offered by community advisory group members and observations of emergent community spaces of co-operation amidst the pandemic, we suggest that the ongoing work of building co-creative pedagogy for “habits of democracy” is vital to community response. The work of learning to learn together the habits of radical democracy in communities is permanent work that prepares communities for crises, simultaneously building anchors for imagining radically transformative futures.

Postcolonial pandemic publics: examining social media health promotion in India during the COVID-19 crisis

“…Emerging scholarship on the COVID-19 crisis has seen several approaches trying to understand best practices for crucial health information dissemination. An approach particularly relevant to our intervention is the culture centered approach (CCA) ( Dutta et al , 2020a ) which operationalizes communities at the ‘margins of margins’ as sites where challenges to health and well-being can be identified and new solutions developed ( Dutta et al , 2020b ). CCA’s conceptualization is deeply rooted in a participatory communication framework that is willing to ‘learn from the below’ [( Dutta et al , 2020a ), p. 2] and resonates with our analysis that subaltern communities cannot find effective empowerment through a primarily social (new) media centric health promotion paradigm.…”

“…An approach particularly relevant to our intervention is the culture centered approach (CCA) ( Dutta et al , 2020a ) which operationalizes communities at the ‘margins of margins’ as sites where challenges to health and well-being can be identified and new solutions developed ( Dutta et al , 2020b ). CCA’s conceptualization is deeply rooted in a participatory communication framework that is willing to ‘learn from the below’ [( Dutta et al , 2020a ), p. 2] and resonates with our analysis that subaltern communities cannot find effective empowerment through a primarily social (new) media centric health promotion paradigm. Instead, the voices of marginalized collectivities must be amplified through community owned media networks, which would allow them to be informed, engaged and active participants in the transition to a new normal ( Habersaat et al , 2020 ).…”

How Do We Learn Now? Pluralising Urban Pedagogies in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The challenge of simultaneously diagnosing and tackling inequalities across these four dimensions demands learning processes that sustain and expand individual and collective knowledges and practices (Kamalipour & Peimani, 2021; Simon et al, 2021). Within the context of community learning and intersecting vulnerabilities, Dutta et al (2020) call for ‘permanent work that prepares communities for crises, simultaneously building anchors for imagining radically transformative futures’ (p. 12). Nurturing pedagogies for change of and with urban practitioners, such as government officials, organised civil society, academics and ordinary citizens, is considered a key lever to strategically activate and build pathways to urban equality while navigating rapidly changing and uncertain contexts (Florida et al, 2021).…”

Teaching Global Communication During COVID-19: Challenges, Mitigation, and Lessons Learned

“…However, it should also be noted that digital technologies are as useful as they are accessible, especially during a pandemic such as the novel coronavirus when remote instruction is the only viable conduit to education. As Dutta et al (2020) aptly note, "digital spaces reify and reproduce ongoing inequalities, coalescing with the inequalities that are magnified by . This echoes Reich's (2020) evidencerich warning that learning technologies, including those that are freely available, are designed to benefit affluent users and fail to address the increasing inequality in education.…”