Dialectical materialism: an alternative way of thinking and doing education alternatively

Abstract

ABSTRACT “Dialectic Materialism as a Method of Doing Education” - was written over 30 years ago by one of us – Huebner. Following an interesting dialogue we had over the last years, Dwayne suggested co-re-writing a revised piece to be published under both names. It explores at greater length the ideas that structured the initial piece and offers new avenues toward a better understanding of the importance of dialectical materialism as an alternative way to do education and curriculum. It dissects current dominant traditions of understanding education as undialectical; it explores how ‘undialecticality’ is intimately connected with the yoke of positivism and learning theories fostering what one of us have coined as curriculum epistemicide (Paraskeva, 2011) that colonializes the way we think and debate education, curriculum, and teacher preparation. It explores dialectical materialism as the best way to help educators accurately grasp multiple nexus that determine reality and profoundly impact our schools, teachers, and students’ daily lives. It advances how dialectical materialism provides the tools to engage with non-derivative approaches through an itinerant curriculum theory (ICT) as an alternative dialectical way of a decolonial reading of the word and the world.