Critical Dialogue Research Articles

Anti/Aunty as Critical Method: From Gendered Resistance to Soft Grace

This article chronicles the author’s transformation from an anti-aunty Tamil South Asian socialisation to a more critical acceptance of aunty–ness as a queer ethnographer. Committing to reflexive ethnographic methods, I contemplate on the figure of the ‘invisible aunty’ as a way of disrupting the field while also being self-serving to one’s queer body and psyche. Particularly, in drawing from the nourishing strain of critical aunty dialogue, especially around discourse and subversion, I share how my own research and personal identities have coalesced, allowing for a radical reimagination of once-distant terms and concepts. This return to past discomfort and resistance with soft grace and new ability, I argue, is at the core of the critical aunty—or anti/aunty—method.

Becoming competent global educators: Pre-service teachers’ global engagement and critical examination of human capital discourse in glocalized contexts

By investigating 28 pre-service teachers’ learning in a comparative and international education course at a Chinese university, this case study examined how to foster teacher students’ global competence, through their global engagement and critical dialogue with human capital discourse that focuses on measurement, competitiveness, and accountability for human capital building and quality. This study revealed that participants’ motives, efforts, and capability in acquiring global competence were affected by global human capital discourse. Results suggest teacher education programs use critical sociocultural pedagogy to empower teacher candidates to be involved in global engagement, learning, and interaction, challenge human capital discourse at global and local levels, critically reflect on sustainable, humanistic, and moral educational goals and take actions, and become competent global educators.

Revitalizing Catholic Social Thought in a Multireligious World

Religion does influence personal choices and behavior, even today. In a multireligious society, religions and religious groups influence social life and public policy considerably. Hitherto, Catholic social teaching, thought, and practice were essentially, if not exclusively, based on the Christian vision of socioeconomic and political realities, without paying much attention to the existence and role of the world’s great religions and religious traditions in this endeavor. To revitalize Catholic social teaching in today’s world, the Church must enter into critical dialogue with non-Christian religions and harness their contribution to sociopolitical transformation. The teachings of Pope Francis, especially in recent social encyclicals, emphasize the importance of such conversations and identify possible paths to pursue.

Prefatory Notes to the Roundtable: Arctic Collaboration

Prefatory Notes to the RoundtableArctic Collaboration Yoko Kamikawa By the late 2030s, the Arctic may be largely ice-free in the summers. Ongoing environmental changes in the Arctic, such as those resulting from climate change, both pose a significant threat to the ecosystems and livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples there and serve as a warning about the precariousness of the global climate system. Unfortunately, however, even as these changes are already underway, we still need more data about many aspects of the Arctic. For example, the International Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean, ratified in 2021, regulated commercial fishing in the region due to inadequate information about the fish species available. Thus, we need to collaborate with various stakeholders to ensure a sustainable Arctic. First, it is vital to deepen discussions and knowledge exchanges about the Arctic between nations through multilateral and serial events, including the Arctic Circle Forums, the meetings of the International Symposium on Arctic Research, the Arctic Frontiers conferences, and the meetings of the Arctic Encounter Symposium. Second, the efforts of Track 1.5 diplomacy—such as the Arctic Cooperation Seminar hosted by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada that formed the basis for this roundtable—are also important. We need academics and think tank experts to act as knowledge brokers to facilitate information sharing between governments and the public and to promote evidence-based research about the Arctic in interdisciplinary fields. Finally, I would like to encourage more Arctic youth forums. Young people are future leaders and should take a proactive role in shaping global environmental issues. The Arctic region must embody international cooperation and be the "ocean of collaboration." Data sharing between the Arctic and non-Arctic nations is especially critical to facilitate scientific understanding and peace in the region. As Arctic affairs are shared issues for all humankind, non-Arctic states in Asia and elsewhere should be included in these critical dialogues. This inclusivity sends a powerful message under the theme of "knowledge for a sustainable Arctic" that can strengthen a functional and effective international cooperative system for the future. [End Page 2] Yoko Kamikawa Member, House of Representatives of Japan Chief Secretary, Parliamentary League of Arctic Frontier Study (Japan) Copyright © 2023 The National Bureau of Asian Research, Seattle, Washington

Comunidade internacional de práticas: aprendendo com experiências de desenvolvimento comunitário e de terapia ocupacional social

Abstract Introduction Increasingly, occupational therapists and scientists across the globe are calling for a shift away from individualised western medical approaches, to working with communities and collectives, and in the social field. This signals the growing motivation to engage in socially responsive and transformative practices that address political structures and oppressive colonial systems. Objective The purpose of our Community of Practice (CoP) was to explore and describe the epistemologies, vocabularies, and understandings that underpin community development and social occupational therapy within diverse global contexts to advance theoretical perspectives and practices. Method As a CoP of occupational therapy and science scholars situated in four countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa), we met virtually bi-monthly from March 2020 to January 2023. Scholarly work involved critical narrative literature reviews, reflexive presentations, group dialogues, and individual and collective reflections and analyses. Results Individual narratives, four thematic threads, and a selection of vocabularies and epistemologies are presented. The thematic threads were: Connecting and making space for decolonial praxis, Questioning the disconnect between occupational therapy practice and contexts, Examining vocabularies that shape contextually relevant practice, and Engaging a reflexive stance to work towards equity, justice and social rights. Conclusions Generating knowledge that supports ways of knowing, being and doing reflective of multiple languages, sciences, and contexts will strengthen occupational therapy. Maintaining the pluriversal and resisting ‘one size fits all’ approaches to human occupation/everyday life is essential. This paper offers practitioners a catalyst for initiating decolonising praxis for learning across global contexts.

Italian University Museums challenges and perspectives

The recent history of Italian University Museums starts with the first Network created by 12 Italian Universities, coordinated by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, for a project, approved and financed in the year 2013 by the Ministry of the University and Research, The Network realized a bilingual web portal to increase the interest for science through the knowledge of museums collections and to promote a critical, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary dialogue (https://of.unimore.it/retemusei/www.retemuseiuniversitari.unimore.it/site/home.html). This Network, increased in 2014 with the inclusion of two Universities, between 2015 and 2018 realized a new project concerning educational paths for lifelong guidance to the scientific method and culture published in the second section of the Network web portal. In 2019 the Network, with other Universities, for a total of 29, created a quarterly web magazine University Heritage. Cultural Heritage on the web (https://universityheritage.eu/). Another relevant initiative for Italian University Museums is the first census promoted and carried out by CRUI – Conference Italian University Rectors – between 2017 and 2019. This census revealed that 40 Universities have museums for a total of 182, number certainly set to increase. Now for the Italian University Museums, like for all Italian museums, there is a challenge: to become part of an articulated network coordinated by the Ministry of Culture, the National Museum System.

Trauma Through the Lens of Colonial and Critical Psychology within an Indigenous Community and Favela in Brazil

This paper details two ongoing pilot studies exploring the perspectives of a group of indigenous Brazilian students and a group of dwellers in a Brazilian favela, who have experienced and continue to experience trauma. The paper explores the difference in perspectives, values, and trauma as experienced by these communities, when seen through the lens of colonial psychology and seeks to contribute to a dialogue within psychology that promotes critical psychology and dialogue

Freire for twenty-first-century, austerity-driven schools: creating positive educational relations with and among students at the margins

Despite the rhetoric of successive governments in England to engage all students with their learning there has been a substantial increase in suspensions and permanent exclusions from secondary schools since the early 2000s. This removal of students from school is particularly high among underperforming students, most of whom come from low-income families. These concerns, amplified by well-being and mental health issues related to the lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, accelerated government calls for new and innovative approaches to re-engage students with education. Particular emphasis is placed on mentoring and tutoring projects. This article discusses a relational pedagogy employed in the initial stages of a mentoring project called Beyond the School Gates that emerged from a research study carried out by the University of Portsmouth in 2018 and was established as a charity association in 2020. Specifically, it analyses the mentoring processes that draw on Freire’s decoding model to create relational spaces within excluded students’ homes in order to facilitate critical dialogue between mentors, students and their parents. Mentors facilitate relational encounters that involve mutual dialogue and a series of relationship-building activities so that students are able to voice their social realities and educational experiences. Students depict their circumstances in image metaphors or art forms, some of which are illustrated. These frame conversations about their educational and social developmental interests, needs and goals. Mentors then facilitate activities that help the students develop confidence and the skills necessary to access resources to meet these needs and realise their goals. This extends to facilitating conversations between students, parents and teachers in order to address social and curricular barriers in school.

Перспективы антропоцентризма в оптике цифровой эпохи

The article discusses the prospects for using the concept of “thinking together-with-complexity” as a tool for forming the prerequisites for a critical dialogue with the post-anthropocentric philosophy of post-humanism of the digital age. This is the central problem of philosophical understanding of the phenomenon of man in the era of the Anthropocene, which is becoming artificial intelligence, the world of co-evolving neuromorphic networks. One of the “entry points” to the understanding of thinking-together-with-complexity is the concept of E. Moren’s complexity paradigm, as well as focusing on Deleuze’s key idea; The idea of the need to “think in the between”. Another entry point is Spencer-Brown’s Laws of Form. And, finally, the third entry point is the philosophy of G. Simondon, which focuses on the principle of individuation of beings, overcoming the binary hyleomorphism of matter and form of Aristotle and interpreting individuation as an ontogenetic, form-creating process of becoming unfolding between pre-individual and transindividual. It is emphasized that thinking together-with-complexity is a procedural, non-reductionist, recursive-temporal thinking “between” order and chaos, subject and object, mechanical and organic, system and its surroundings (environment), between network and hierarchy, between being and becoming, conscious and unconscious, observer and observed, as well as between simplification and complication. This is thinking of open post-classical rationality (Vyacheslav S. Stepin): it is focused on abductive search, thought experiment, contact with the Other, construction of means of dialogical connection between different conceptual perspectives and it is important to emphasize, connection as a process of unlimited semiosis according to Peirce.

EKPHRASIS IN KEATS’S “ODE ON A GRECIAN URN”

In order to fully question the issue of ekphrasis in John Keats’s ”Ode on a Grecian Urn”, this paper begins by giving a brief historical and theoretical framework of ekphrasis, and then analyses a concrete ekphrasis in Keats’s poem. Historically speaking, the meaning of ekphrasis made a large shift in modern times compared to the original. Ancient Progymnasmata do not narrow the term based on subject matter, but rather define it using the category of vividness, enárgeia, and only later through the examinations of ancient ekphrasis of works of spatial arts, in literary texts as well as in rhetorical ones, ekphrasis becomes narrowed to a literary evocation of works of spatial arts. This happens in Spitzer’s analysis of the poem in the second half of the twentieth century, thus proving “Ode on the Grecian Urn” to be a crucial text in rethinking the term. This paper tends to reconcile the original and modern theories of ekphrasis through the poem itself. In a theoretical context, ekphrasis’s share in narration and description, and its discursive features are shown, opening the debate on the common linkage of ekphrasis to description, and alienation from narration. Choosing to address ekphrasis from the perspective of the ekphrastic poetry itself rather than a theoretical point of view, the paper shows how the urn cannot solely be seen as “silent” since it strives to tell a legend, a narrative, which is contained in the urn as an aesthetic object and work of sculptural art. This text does not tend to discover the real models for the ekphrasis, but it does offer some sculptural works and paintings which could have inspired Keats. The text is more inclined toward unveiling the discursive context which could have influenced the poet: the (meta)aesthetics of ancient Greece, derived both from poetry and philosophy. The most important objective of the paper is to offer a new reading of the poem through a critical dialogue with the most accepted readings of the “Ode”, primarily those of Spitzer and Brooks, and through questioning of common places in literary criticism of the poem.

"You have to make it cool": How heterosexual Black men in Toronto, Canada, conceptualize policy and programs to address HIV and promote health.

Black Canadian communities are disproportionately impacted by HIV. To help address this challenge, we undertook research to engage heterosexual Black men in critical dialogue about resilience and vulnerability. They articulated the necessity of making health services 'cool'. We draw on the analyses of focus groups and in-depth interviews with 69 self-identified heterosexual Black men and 12 service providers who took part in the 2016 Toronto arm of the weSpeak study to explore what it means to make health and HIV services 'cool' for heterosexual Black Canadian men. Our findings revealed four themes on making health services cool: (1) health promotion as a function of Black family systems; (2) opportunities for healthy dialogue among peers through non-judgmental interactions; (3) partnering Black men in intervention design; and (4) strengthening institutional health literacy on Black men's health. We discuss the implications of these findings for improving the health of Black Canadians.

Mezirow’s Theory of Transformative Learning and Freire’s Pedagogy

Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) and Paulo Freire (1921-1997) are two of the most important contributors to understanding adult learning. Mezirow (Bloom, 2015) frequently acknowledged the impact that Freire had on his thinking and one can wonder if there is a distance between the critical consciousness of Freire and the critical reflection of transformative learning? This study is restricted to the works of Freire and Mezirow and engages in a critical dialogue about their contribution. It does not focus on the multiple ways in which each has been amplified and reinterpreted by sympathetic scholars. These are the main focus of the study: an autobiographical moment; a look at Dewey as the precursor of both Freire and Mezirow; Hegel’s influence; a theological moment that divides the two educators; their contributions to teaching methods useful in critical pedagogy.

FILIAL DEPENDENCE AND AUTONOMY IN THE STURM UND DRANG: READING KLINGER, WAGNER AND MÜLLER WITH ROUSSEAU

ABSTRACTThe essay examines the representation of relationships between children on the cusp of adulthood and their parents in dramas by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, Heinrich Leopold Wagner and Friedrich Müller (known as ‘Maler Müller’). It positions the Sturm und Drang in dialogue with the wider European Enlightenment, and especially with Rousseau's theorising of human dependence in his Discourse on Inequality and Emile. In particular, it suggests that these writers demonstrate an association between inequality and social dependence, whereas flat social structures promote pluralism and autonomy. The article argues that, in contrast to the common view of the Sturm und Drang as characterised by wild filial rebellion and blind adoration of Rousseau, a close reading demonstrates how it sustains a critical dialogue with major currents of European thought and develops a subtle and self‐critical sense of the possibilities and limits on autonomy. Indeed, it demonstrates how these writers were able to use literature to foreground the antinomies of their social order in a more radical way than direct approaches could – and thus illustrates the importance of considering literature as a serious participant in Enlightenment dialogues.

What I write about writing/dancing/writing

Artistic writing as research is in itself a method of making for artists in the academy. As creative practitioners in performative research paradigms (Haseman, 2010) we require a critical dialogue with/in the practice of writing through our artistic approaches. The process of writing I propose, parallels the process of making critically contextualising writing, critiquing and reflecting on the making, and analyzing the process in tandem with making-as-writing. To write as praxis, a tool for the artist as academic; I practice an approach to play and experimentation through improvisation around the writing. I practice what I propose that the artist adapts to an approach paralleled in their discipline(s). For me, this is in dance/theatre scholarship and praxis. Ideally, the writing may occur in-tandem with disciplinary choices, provocations, prompts, and interrogations. In this Project essay, I reflect on the current durational performance research project I’m making, as research project titled Move. Writing/dancing/writing Move, contextualizes my emergent process of play through improvisation with writing/dancing/writing approaches during the 2020-2022 Global Pandemic. I write about how I have been writing dance and making in isolation.

Hacia una política latinoamericana

The concept of Politics has undergone a significant process of narrowing, reaching contemporary times as a concept that seeks to define the whole by an inarticulate and insufficient part. Therefore, the aim of this article is to reflect on politics from Latin American materiality and with a liberating and intercultural ethic. This reflection locates and articulates two of the most significant philosophical currents in Latin America, Liberation and Intercultural. Additionally, it positions itself in a critical dialogue with the orthodox ways of approaching politics and politics.

Latinos in the United States: Mestizo Logics vs. the Black-White Binary?

The more than 60 million inhabitants of the U.S. who fall into the Latino (or “Latinx”) category constitute an excellent laboratory for studying forms of “in-betweenness”, in terms of ethnoracial identity, language and cultural expression, and possibly even politics. In critical dialogue with Ed Morales, author of Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture (2018), this article examines a range of different modes and sites of in-betweenness to be found in the history and the contemporary life of Latinos in the U.S., emphasizing the importance of constantly changing social and historical contexts.

‘‘Reclaiming our time’’: Black mothers cultivating the homeplace during times of crisis

AbstractThis collaborative auto‐ethnography provides an account of the sociohistorical context of Black mothering in the United States and highlights how our complex, intersectional identities as Black‐(other)mother‐scholars shape our cultivation of the homeplace—a place where Black children are nurtured as “subjects, not objects,” in a society that aims to dominate black bodies. Drawing on Black feminism and Black Woman's Geographies, we document how time at home with our children during COVID‐19 allowed for critical dialogue regarding racial injustice and exposure to culturally sustaining educational content endeavored toward resilience building. This work highlights the strength of Black mothers’ collective experiences in fostering resilience amidst crises. Societal implications of COVID‐19 amidst ongoing racial traumas reify the need to reclaim not only our time as Black mothers, but also our voice, agency, and the spaces we cultivate for Black children's liberation. We also discuss recommendations for amplifying Black mothers’ voices in education policy efforts such that schools are better prepared to serve Black children.

Practicing Change, Changing Practice: Gallery Educators’ Professional Learning in Times of Reckoning and Upheaval

Art museums are increasingly responding to calls for exhibitions, community engagement, and institutional changes that confront and unsettle taken-for-granted knowledge, structures, and ways of working. Grounded in such a dynamic and evolving field, this qualitative study asked the following: What does gallery educators’ own learning look like -- and what motivates it? How does ongoing competency building inform critical dialogue with visitors and support wider efforts to reshape the field through an ethos of social justice? Drawing on tenets of critical pragmatism, transformative adult learning, and constructivist grounded theory, my thesis comprised three manuscripts based on findings from two series of interviews with gallery educators in Canada and Scotland. This article highlights my findings, contextualizing my analyses on the shifting ground shaping gallery education in both countries. In doing so, it contributes to both a relative paucity of scholarly research on critical professional learning in art museums and an emerging body of literature addressing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the working lives of gallery educators and the futures that lie ahead.

Sguardi, corpi e posizionamenti. Esperienze educative e di ricerca tra Kenya, Senegal e Italia

The paper reinterprets the body as an essential dimension of the pedagogical design and educational relationship, with a focus on two contexts of international cooperation. In action and cooperative research in heterogeneous environments, the body of the researchers becomes an essential element of interaction. A critical dialogue on investigations carried out in Kenya and Senegal allows to deepen a methodological and pedagogical reflection in a comparative key. The proposal focuses on the interaction between communities and researchers and on the deconstruction of colonial thought, oppressions and stereotypes from an intercultural and intersectional perspective. Body, corporeality and reciprocal representations are essential for the subjects of action research. Starting from the educational and research positioning, a space for communication is promoted in order to share ideas and meanings emerged in the community and facilitate collective participatory processes in marginal contexts.

Challenges and possibilities for transformative human rights education in Icelandic upper secondary schools

Transformative human rights education (HRE) implies a pedagogic intention to generate human rights cultures, protecting against and preventing human rights violations. This article draws on Freirean critical pedagogy to define transformative HRE as requiring four pedagogical principles: an explicit pedagogic intention; critical engagement on purposes of education; a critical holistic approach; and cosmopolitan perspectives. A thematic analysis of ten upper secondary school teachers’ narratives on working with human rights in Iceland reveals reliance on tacit rather than explicit pedagogical intentions, a lack of critical engagement on purposes of education, and limited opportunities to develop human rights and HRE knowledge, inhibiting a critical holistic approach and cosmopolitan perspectives. However, the narratives offer content and contexts that provide possibilities to develop the four pedagogical principles required for transformative HRE through processes of critical relational dialogue. This paper raises questions of significance for teacher education in Iceland and internationally.