Authority, collective learning and agentic action in teaching: tracing a pedagogy from Franz Fanon

Abstract

This paper is based on acknowledging dilemmas and on tracing tensions between the schooling and the colonisation processes from one of Franz Fanon’s main texts, namely The wretched of the earth (1961/2007). We start from the continuing relevance of Frantz Fanon’s insights in light of the continued need for diversity, equity, and inclusive pedagogy. In the first section, we trace the tensions which exists in the schooling process seen as a colonisation process. The dilemmas occur in relation to a) the concept of authority in the teacher-student relationship, b) the knowledge sources and c) the final goal of the educational process. In the second section, we discuss decolonisation and schooling as a process of self and collective discovery, wherein the distortions of the split intellect and the resultant theory-practice gap are examined. Finally, we encourage a transformative and creative agentic action in multimodal learning engagement, with teaching implications. This paper invites further readings of Fanon, as part of a project of elaborating critical perspectives in education to fully express students and teacher agency.

Keywords

• agency
• critical pedagogy
• decolonisation
• fanon
• schooling