Pedagogic ai
Activismy "=
Pedagogic
Paternalism
Maria do Mar Castro Varela“Bdueational disadvantage cannot be cured by
relying on education within the school.”
—Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society
times of increasing violence, in times of grow-
poverty, in times where mass migration has be-
e a metaphor for the failure of decolonization
the political right is globally gaining ground,
‘question of education is more than pressing. The
ion of education must scrutinize both content
form and also those to whom it is addressed.
is education understood to be in Europe now?
is this linked to the European civilizing mis-
? How is knowledge produced? And who is in
position of the knowledge producer? Each of
questions directly indicates that education is
within the realm of the political. To postu-
this in neoliberal times is radical in so far as
is actually encouraged to keep education and
ities distinetly separate. As if one had nothing to
with the other—or should not do so. However,
position still—indeed more than ever—deter-
whether a person is granted education and,
‘so, what kind of education. It is well known that
Germany children from migrant families leave
with lower average grades than children from
-migrant families. Critical studies also show not.
that racism hinders children of color from ac-
fring knowledge and/or enjoying an education
also how this happens. Not all people have the
opportunities to participate in education, and
quality of education clearly varies considerably.
‘well-equipped private or free schools may be
le to some, children and young people from
ian migrant families have to be satisfied
the very worst state schools. In such a context,
and social development is only possible
.e who receive sufficient inspiration and sup-
outside of school or whose resilience is unusu-
strong, For proletarian migrant pupils, failure at
[MARIA DO MAR CASTRO VARELA
~Bildungenachicile lassen sich nicht
‘abetelen, wenn man sich auf die
-Erzichung in der Schule verse."
~Tvan Mich, Entachnlung der
Geselischaft
{In Zeiten zunchmendee Gewal in Zeiten
wachsender Armut, in Zeiten, in denen.
lucht zur Metapher einer gescheiterten
Dekolonisicrung geraten ist und rech-
te politische Gruppen weltweit immer
‘mehr an Territorium gewinnen, ist die
Frage nach Bildung eine, die mehr als.
kommen. In den Sehulen werden sod
fir den globalen Kapitalismus notwes
digen Arbeitekrifte reproduziert
Widerstand gegen denselben méglich
verhindert. Wie Althusser betont,
‘nur Brhaltung der Hogemonie
‘Ausnahmen ansgesprochen wiehtg
wegen die ertikale Mobiltteiniger
niger durchaus erwinscht ist. Das
talistische Narrativ braucht le Belspil
‘vor :Tellerwiseher_in zum/aur Mil
‘onir_in” schaffen kann, Insbesonder
‘und an sie glauben, Mitfatalen Eifektes
idagogische Interventionen sin
smachtvoll und durchdrungen von ge
‘waltitgen Momenten. Die gut ge
plldagogische Erklirung, die eigentlidl
nichts weiter als cinen pidagogisehe‘spaces—in order to also shake this powerful colonial
cation in post-colonial times.
‘A supplementary education compensates for a
anistic education which is aimed at only a priv
eged minority while the majority is not reached.
is concerned not with the replacement but with
‘transparent inscription of subordinate knowledge
nto the prevailing landscape of knowledge. For
is to succeed both the “teaching machine” and
canon must be constantly called into question.
se who appear socially predestined to assume
positions of “knowing” and “ruling” must learn
question their knowledge, while those who are
atically distanced from education must have
ss to an education which puts them in a posi-
on to articulate themselves politically and contin-
redefine themselves. For Spivak an education
the humanities is of the greatest importance
In this, she follows The Souls of Black Folk
‘WE.B. Du Bois (1903), who had thought deeply
out what an education for freed slaves would
to look like in order to give them a chance to
recognition as citizens with equal rights. In his
jinion, such an education would have to edueate
extend their thinking in order to emancipate
em effectively from the submission they had
ed and the repression they had suffered. It is
humanities in particular, according to Spivak,
ch allow the imagination to unfold in such a way
a different thinking is possible. Literature, for
aple, Spivak argues, isin a position to take what
oric by surprise and as a result to intervene
course of things. It is bafflement of this kind
is capable of transforming the hegemonic
. If something new enters the spaces of the
terror of racism, sexism, or classism, the
of the everyday becomes possible.
‘Education is an “epistemological project” which,
‘to Spivak, can be described as an “uncoer-
re-arrangement of desires.”
[MARIA DO MAR CASTRO VARELA
Paternalisrmus darstell,impliiertim-
ser dio ,Platzzuweisung”. Pidagogische
Ratschlige welsen den Lernenden die
Position zu, den sie in ihrer nahen Z3-
kunftbesetzen soln, denn die Pidago-
sik interveniert auch und insbesondere
in die Welt der Imaginationen. Welche
‘Zukinfte ertraume ich mir? Was kano,
‘ch bewirken in der Welt? Will ich Ma-
nager_in werden oder die Welt veria-
‘dern? Die Welt der Imaginationen be-
stimmt zu einem grofen Tei de eigene
Handlungsmacht.
Begeiren und nicht-dominante
Zulkiinfte
‘Fir Spivak bleibt ein epstemischer
Wandel an die Etablierung einer sup-
plementierenden Bildung gebunden,
die auf beiden Seiten der kolonialen
GGrenzziehung stat¥inden muss. Anders
als diejenigen, die glauben, dass nur
Subalterne das Ziel eines Bildungsakt-
vismus sein sollten, pliiert sie fir ein
‘Zusammendenken der unterschiedlichen
ume, auch um die machtvolle kolonia-
Je Grenzziclung in postkolonialen Zeiten
sn Schwingung 2u versetzen
ine supplementicrende Bildung
Kompensiert eine humanistische Bil-
dung, die sich nur an eine privilegieste
‘Minderhet richtet, wabrend die Meht~
hbeit von dieser nicht erreieht wird. Bs
‘geht ihr nicht um den Ersatz, sondern
cher um ein transparentes Kinsehreiben,
‘von subalternem Wissen in die hegemo-
nlale Wissenslandschaft. Damit das Ge-
Tingen kann, miisen die teaching macht-
ne und der Kanon bestindig hinterfragt
‘werden. Dicjenigen, die gesellschatich
‘dazu bestimmt scheinen, die Postionen
der ,Wissenden" und -Herrschenden*
‘2 besetzen,miisen lernen, thr Wissen
infrage zu stellen, wihrend dicjenigen,
die systematiseh von Bildung fern ge-
halten werden, Zugang.2u einer Bildung
crhalten miissen, die sie in die Lage
versetzt, sich politiseh zu artikulieren
‘und immer wieder neu 2u erfinden, Fir
Spivak it cine gesteswissenschafliche
Bildung dabei von héchster Bedeutung,
Sic folgt hier deen aus W.E.B. Du Bois!
Die Seelen der Sehvearsen (1903), derIn this, desire is identified as being socially pro-
duced. The processes of forming a society, the as-
sumption goes, produce subjects with a specific
desire: thus the notion that, for example, there is
a natural desire to educate oneself can be exposed
as an ideology which is determined by racist, sex-
ist, and classist stereotypes, which claim that people
are poor because they are “stupid” and “lazy” Viewed
from a post-colonial perspective, educational pro-
cesses and institutions play a central part in subject
formation which stabilizes anthority. They produce
the “bourgeois intelligence” of “imperial subjects”
just like the “efficient bodies” of workers and ‘“subor-
dinate subjects.” This is why the de-univeralization
of imperial knowledge forms an important strategy
in the process of decolonization. De-universalization
means that knowledge which is claimed to be uni-
versally valid is questioned and at the same time the
power effects of universalization are made trans-
parent. Here post-colonial studies make profitable
use of the poststructuralist tactic of deconstruction
which exposes the (social) text to intense scrutiny,
thereby questioning the apparent harmlessness of
knowledge as well as of knowledge production. As
Spivak notes, the point is not to claim that there is
no truth but instead to make transparent how truths
are formed.
‘What's more, this also attacks the learned selec-
tive amnesia as a result of which deconstruction ean
also be described as the work of memory. Decon-
struction is therefore, in Spivak’s words, a “re-read-
ing.” Ignorance and forgetting emerge as the other
side of knowledge. For this reason education must
be outlined as an operation which sees learning and
unlearning in connection with each other. While
classical educational approaches see their task
principally in terms of closing gaps in knowledge,
a pedagogic activism—in entirely opposite fashion
to pedagogic paternalism—particularly addresses
ignorance produced through education—a lack of
MARIA DO MAR CASTRO VARELA
sich extensive Gedanken darber g
‘macht hat, we eine Bildung, fir bef
‘Sklavinnen ausschen misste, die ds
«eine Chance geben wiirde als gleich
rechtige BirgerInnen Anerkennung:
finden, Eine solche Bildung misste
‘ner Meinung nach ihr Denken ausbid
‘und erveitern, um sic so effeltv ans
cerlernten Unterwerfung und elitr
Unterdrickng au emanzipieren. Es
50 Spivak, die die Imagination de
ausfichern, dass ein Denken des An
‘ren mélich sind. Die Literatur etwa,
Siva, st in der Lage, das Historische:
‘iberraschen und in Konsequenz in d
‘Lauf der Dinge zu intervenieren. Es
diese Verblitfangen, de die
Strukturtransformieren kénnen,
etwas Neues die Ritume des allt
‘Terrors von Rassismus, Sexismus of
lassismusbetit, wird die Revol
des Alltags miglich.
Bildung ist cin epistemelogisch
Proje welche, Spivak fled ale
sit bestimmtem Begebren hervor:
kann erwa die Vorstellung, es gebe e
natiriches Begehren sich zu bilden,
deologieentlarst werden, die won
tischen, sexistisehen und klasistish
Stereotypen bestimmt wird, nach
‘Mensclen arm sin, weil ie damn"
faut sind. Von einer postholonialen.
spektive aus betrachte, sind Bildu
prosesse und ~institutionen sentra
ormicrung beteiligt. Sie produzicren
irgertiche Ineligens” der imperial
Subjekte® wie auch die ffizienten
Bev er Arheterinnen nd ta
dass Wissen, von dem behaupret wit
cs sel universal gig, hinterfragt
und gleichzeitig die Machteffekteledge which is socially rewarded (“sanctioned
ce”).
Apedagogic activism will therefore always ques-
the universality of knowledge and the harm-
of educational processes in theory and in
etice. Changing structures is just as important
n the perspective of post-colonialism as the ex-
ination of the knowledge which is passed on. If
‘margins step into the center of the “teaching
chine? if those who are already stigmatized as
noved from learning” when they enter the edu-
institution express contradictions and the
demic canon is confounded by deconstructive
then a positive questioning of (human-
) education can be felt, as Spivak describes in
tside in the Teaching Machine. Ifthe aim is to de-
onialize thinking then the mind must constantly
shaken. Every situation is unique and calls for
Jal tactics for which knowledge must be made
ble.
Spivak describes education in subordinate spac-
.as unendingly weaving invisible threads into an.
existing texture. The pattern which results
m this cannot be determined in advance and the
are simultaneously workers and the mate~
to be worked. The consequences of historical
ence are tentatively and cautiously overwritten
egy of taking away from them the authority
of their marginality, the centrality of their
marginality, through the strategy of careful
teaching, so that they come to prove that that
authority will not take them very far because
the world is a large place.”
—Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Outside in the
Teaching Machine
MARIA DO MAR CASTRO VARELA
Universalisierang transparent gemacht
‘werden. Postkoloniale Studien nutzen
bier gewinnbringend die poststruktu-
ralistische Taktik der Dekonstruktion,
dic den (sorialen) Text einer intensiven,
Hiinterfragung aussetzt und damit die
scheinbare Harmlosigheit von Wissen
‘wie auch von Wissensproduktion in
Frage stellt. Wie Spivak anmerkt, geht
cs dabei nicht darum, 2a behaupten, es
sgebe keine Wahrheit, sondern stattdes-
sen darum, transparent u machen, wie
‘Wahrheltengoformt werden.
Angegriffen wied tberdies die elern-
te slektive Amnesie, weswegen Dekon-
struktion auch als Erinnerungsarbeit be
schricben werden kann. Dekonstruktion
ist in Spivaks Worten also cin Wieder
sen” (re-reading). Ignoranz und Verges-
sen erveisen sich dabel als die andere
Seite von Wissen. Daher muss Bildung
als ein Vorgang skiaziert werden, der
‘Lemen tnd Verlemen in einem Zasam-
‘menhang sieht. Wirend Klasssche Bil