Fabulation as a pedagogical possibility: working towards a politics of affirmation

Abstract

The wave of student-led protests that have taken place across the South African higher education landscape over the last two years provides us, as teacher educators, with the opportune time to reflect on how our pedagogical practices relate to larger societal transformative imperatives. We engage with the relationship between pedagogical practices and social transformation by attending to questions concerning identity, intersubjectivity, and group relations. We argue that conventional pedagogical practices that work towards social justice are entangled with and regulated by identity politics, and that such a position equates these pedagogical practices with a politics of negation and ressentiment. By drawing on Deleuze's interpretation of the concept of fabulation and Deleuze and Guattari's argument that desire is a positive social force that enables experimentation to occur, we re-imagine the idea of a pedagogy as a politics of affirmation. Such politics, we argue, makes possible the constitution of new social collectivities that are able to escape the gravitational pull of identity politics and ressentiment. We posit that, in the midst of student protests, this is an important first step in generating the conditions to experiment with the creation of a different, more socially just future.

Students' sense of belonging at a South African university during COVID-19

“…The transition to democracy in 1994 was supported with many initiatives nationally and within institutions, such as the Foundation programmes, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), etc., meant to increase the participation of historically marginalised communities (Bitzer & Wilkinson, 2009). It is important to note that while these interventions resulted in increasing numbers of black students at higher education institutions in the country, particularly first-generation students, institutional cultures remain a major challenge (Kruger & Le Roux, 2017;Nyamnjoh, 2015;Swartz et al, 2018). These cultures of exclusion lead to victims not feeling that they belong to their institutions of study.…”

Diffractive memory-stories and response-activeness in teaching social justice

“…Arshard, 2012). In our context, the tapestry of self can entail an intricate interweaving of personal experiences, material conditions, disadvantage and privilege, and indirect knowledge and direct memories of apartheid (Kruger & Le Roux 2017Jansen, 2009). While higher education has become a troubled space of tensionality, our teaching for social justice has further been challenged by racial incidences at our higher education institution (Dick, Kruger, Müller & Mockie, 2019), and racial tension that plays out along language lines.…”

Transformative Pedagogy as Academic Performance: #ShimlaPark as a Plane of Immanence

“…The educator’s voice is woven from interviews conducted by Marguerite (Müller, 2016) and Liezl (Dick, 2016) during their PhD studies. Similarly, the voice of theory was strongly influenced by the work of Frans (Kruger & Le Roux, 2017) and Liezl who both use the work of Deleuze and Guattari to explore issues relating to education. Angelo, with his extensive experience in the performing arts, contributed to the script writing and formulation of the performative elements of the text.…”