“I Almost Died”: Knowledges of Pain in a Finnish School for Refugee-Background Adults

Abstract

This critical ethnographic study investigated how knowledges of pain (KoP) surfaced and were negotiated in the classroom discourse of a Finnish adult basic education (ABE) context, more specifically, a school for adult learners with forced migration experience. The emergence of students’ KoP, for instance, their stories of war, violence, and injury, are analyzed through the framework of Critical Race Pedagogy (CRP), which aims to validate and center the experiences of people of color (POC) in educational settings. Conceptualizing KoP as world knowledges, as invitations for self-reflection and re/positioning, and as interruptions, allows for an examination of their pedagogical and transformative potential. The findings show that a variety of KoP came to the fore, claiming and receiving different amounts of space and attention, including instances when they complemented the lesson content. KoP tended to cause minor interruptions to traditional power dynamics and classroom roles, which could nevertheless be entry points for developing ABE-specific CRP. Also, instances of teacher-imposed KoP were documented, which raises the question of how antiracist education can legitimize and incorporate students’ desire for peace and belonging.