Abstract

Pedagogy is often depicted in current educational policy as a process of knowledge transmission from teacher to student. This presentation explores a notion of pedagogy that instead places transformation and relationality at the centre of its processes. In particular, I discuss how transformation occurs through: a) our narratives in relation to the world; b) our actions in the world; c) and our bodily entanglements with the world. Drawing on the philosophies of Adriana Cavarero, Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler as well as some feminist materialists, I explore diverse ways of conceiving of these intersections. Whilst these different theoretical lenses sit in tension with one another, my aim is to explore how they enable a dynamic conception of pedagogy as a process of change and renewal, moving beyond how it is usually understood as a teaching and learning of content.

Sharon Todd is Professor of Education at Maynooth University. She is author of Toward an Imperfect Education: Facing Humanity, Rethinking Cosmopolitanism (Paradigm Press, 2010) and Learning from the Other: Levinas, Psychoanalysis and Ethical Possibilities in Education (SUNY Press, 2003); She is co-editor with Morwenna Griffiths, Marit Hoveid and Chris Winter of Re-imagining Educational Relationships: Ethics, Politics, Practices (Wiley Blackwell, 2015) and with Oren Ergas of Philosophy East/West: Exploring Intersections between Contemplative and Education Practices (Wiley Blackwell, 2016). She is currently co-editing with Rachel Jones and Aislinn O’Donnell a Special Issue of Gender and Education on Shifting Education’s Philosophical Imaginaries: Relations, Affects, Bodies and Materialities (forthcoming).