The case for creative folklore in pedagogical practice

Abstract

The political question of who can produce knowledge and how we delineate epistemological standards without reproducing epistemic marginalization is central to critical pedagogy in international relations (IR) scholarship. While critical pedagogies often attempt to enact an emancipatory agenda, they largely rely on the educator as knowledge (re)producer and student as passive consumer, with little to say on what it means to be emancipated, the oppressions at stake or the means of enacting this project. Drawing on Simon Bronner’s definition of folklore, this article explores folklore as a creative practice allowing us to explore who the ‘folk’ are in the process of teaching and how we constitute disciplinary ‘lore’ to incite students to revise and reflect on disciplinary boundaries. The article focuses on IR pedagogy as a creative practice, arguing that deploying a folklore lens allows us to challenge the uncritical reproduction of disciplinary boundaries.