An analysis of the reality of authoritarianism in pedagogy: A critique based on the work of Deleuze, Guattari and Bhaskar

Abstract

When analysing authoritarianism in pedagogy, one is immediately faced with a question: How real is the authoritarianism that one is describing? There is an inevitable «loop» or mode of reciprocation between the object of investigation; i.e. authoritarianism, and one's own subjective projections about what authoritarianism is, how one has felt it in the past, and connected it to education. Certainly, societies in the West have, in general, changed in their attitudes to pedagogic authoritarianism since the 1960s and 1970s, perhaps under the influence of the mores of post-War, mass education. This article takes two paths of explication to these changes, one through the combined work of Deleuze and Guattari, the other through the critical realism of Roy Bhaskar. The theoretical and intellectual work of Deleuze and Guattari points to and makes plain the ways in which authoritarianism in education is continually under threat and being undermined by a myriad of «minor» forces, for example, exemplified by the relations between the authoritarian teacher and his/her students. In contrast, the critical realism of Roy Bhaskar enacts a critical and realist investigation into authoritarianism in pedagogy, as the name of his approach implies. The point of this analysis is not to simply compare the two approaches, but to try to understand the reality of the authoritarianism in pedagogy that we are presently confronted with in variant degrees and at different levels.

The flash of a van: A cartography of a mobile educational initiative in the Claymore district of Sydney

“…Such research might consider socio-economic indicators for a district such as Claymore, as well as employment and education statistics, and social digital nodes, to enable a numerical understanding of the social landscape, in terms of the assignment of values to aspects of society, as its shape. In contrast, social researchers deploying a methodological framework derived from Bourdieu (Fogle, 2011) or Bhaskar’s (Cole and Mirzaei Rafe, 2018) critical realism, might look to understand social topology in terms of the construction of habitus, dialogue, and how constrained social relations might affect the local social landscape through their shapes. Researchers working with Foucault’s (e.g., Ratliff, 2019) discourse analysis will present social topology in terms of its historical genesis, and conflicting means of expression, and this resulting discourse shape might have an important impact in places such as Claymore.…”

The application of critical realism as a basis for agency in environmental education: The case of Roy Bhaskar

“…At this point, students and teachers will legitimately come up against hard questions with respect to their positions on climate change, and may wonder what they can do about it. Research into the effects of critical pedagogy has found that it democratises the classroom and puts under pressure any authoritarian relationship between the teacher and the students (Cole & Mirzaei Rafe, 2018b). This will also occur at this point in the investigation of climate change, with a necessary ongoing questioning of authority happening due to the Bhaskarian design and thinking behind the educational encounter, and the laminate systems as he perceived them.…”

Emancipation of young agroecological peasants in Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, Brazil: an identity in-the-making

“…The practices of popular education we studied demonstrate that this social pedagogy is an example of an anti-authoritarian pedagogy (Cole and Mirzaei Rafe 2018). This does not mean that these learning practices are a power-free utopia but, rather, that power relations are intentionally changed (hooks 1994).…”

“…Various affective modes of being are possible and shape the capacity to act: "Affect is a prepersonal intensity corresponding to the passage from one experiential state of the body to another and implying an augmentation or diminution in that body's capacity to act (with body taken in its broadest possible sense to include "mental" or ideal bodies)" (Deleuze and Guattari 2005, p.8). Interpretations of Deleuze's work describe the role of affect in education as a connective element that allows for building relationships (Cole 2011;Cole and Mirzaei Rafe 2018). Two roles of affect can be distinguished for the purpose of education: 1) undermining authoritarianism, or 'unmaking', and 2) developing unexpected social-cultural relationships.…”

“…Popular education entails both the first and the second role of affect. This article in particular investigates the possibilities of multiple relationships that are being constructed and altered by popular education (Cole 2011;Cole and Mirzaei Rafe 2018).…”