A Humanizing Pedagogy in
support of the DDPA
Human Rights Council (IGWG on the DDPA)
Prof Andre Keet
Universities of Free State and Pretoria
October 2011
.
13 April 2015
 The
human?
 Meaning of HP
 Development of HP
 [Ex] changing pedagogies
 The nature of HP
 Practical Principles
 Conceptual Principles
13 April 2015
What is the human?
Where is the human?
Humans are animals of culture/ active
agents who create cultures
In systems that they create
Developments in biogenetics,
biotechnology, bio-prospecting/
In structures that they develop to
imprison them
Bioethics and the concept of ‘dignity’ vs
personal autonomy
In Derrida’ text from where language
speaks us (not us speaking it)
Technology
In Foucault’ discourses ... As by products
of discursive regimes
Human genome projects ... Reaffirming
“race”
Becoming machine
Ethics ... “Reflections from a damage
life”
Human consciousness follows production
13 April 2015

Meaning of ‘human’:
 French: ‘humain’ … of or belonging to ‘man’
 Latin: ‘humanus’ … related to homo … ‘man’
 humus "earth" … notion of "earthly beings”

Meaning of ‘ize’:
 Suffix forming verbs/ thus to ‘imbue with humaneness’

Pedagogy: “Art of teaching”

Humanizing Pedagogy: Art of teaching that is ‘imbued with and
advances humaneness’ … a pedagogy that ‘cultivates humanity’
(Nussbaum)
13 April 2015
Dominance of Behaviourist Pedagogies
1990
1970
Critical
Pedagogy/
the work of
Freire and
others
1960-1970
1960
1950’s
Biomedical
concern for
cure
Concern
for
humane
healing
Attempts
to merge
critical and
humanizing
pedagogies
HP emerged
within the
health and
medical
Progressive Education Theories
sciences
Postcolonial/ poststructuralist ET
Positivist Education Theory
13 April 2015
 Fundamental
pedagogics
 Critical Pedagogy
 Pedagogy of Hospitality
 Messianic Pedagogy
 Post-structural/ postcolonial
pedagogies
 Pedagogy of discomfort
 Hopeful pedagogies
 Pedagogies of nostalgia
 Post-conflict pedagogies
 Humanizing pedagogies
13 April 2015
 “Humanization
 “A
is the ontological vocation of
‘man’”.
humanising pedagogy expresses the
consciousness of the students”.
(Freire, 1970)
13 April 2015
“There is no learning or humanization
without the act of mutual dialogue. Yet
for dialogue to be transformative it
needs to be carried out in relations of
love, mutual respect, and trust. If the
capacity to dialogue offers an
alternative to the ‘‘banking concept’’ of
education, it does so because it no
longer reduces the oppressed human
being to the status of a thing or
object”.
(Freire, 1970)
13 April 2015
A
“humanizing pedagogy” is a pedagogy in
which the whole person develops and they do
so as their relationships with others evolve
and enlarge. Hence the teacher and the
teacher’s development become part of the
equation. Humanizing pedagogy becomes a
process of becoming for all parties.
(Price and Osborne, 2006)
13 April 2015
 Courageously
humane teaching – borne of a
commitment not only to transfer specific and
meaningful academic knowledge but to
further the overall wellness of human beings
– is needed by all students [and teachers].
(Michael Mwangaza, 2006)
13 April 2015
A humanizing, democratic education needs to emphasize the
multiple possibilities of agency as well as the hope of
living in a more emancipated society.
A democratic education would seek to develop a process of
learning that assisted public forms of participation but also
enabled students to produce new forms of democratic
knowledge.
(Giroux, 2006)
13 April 2015
A humanizing pedagogy will point us toward a
world that is more harmonious and more
humane, less discriminatory, and more just.
(Donaldo Macedo, 2006)
13 April 2015
Participatory,
Affective,
Problem-posing,
Situated,
The
Pedagogical
Encounter
should be
Multicultural,
Dialogic,
De-socializing,
Democratic,
Researching,
Interdisciplinary, and;
Activist
13 April 2015
 Communicating
expectations;
 Providing constructive feedback;
 Designing teaching methods that consider:




diverse learning styles,
abilities,
ways of knowing, and
previous experience and background knowledge;
 Creating
multiple ways for students to
demonstrate their knowledge
13 April 2015
 PCS
model of exclusion/ inclusion:

Personal/ psychological exclusion: thoughts, feelings,
actions, prejudice, attitudes: etc.

Cultural exclusion through shared ways of seeing,
thinking and doing … normative frames as the “totality
of background meanings, norms, discourses, and
practices” to “which the self orient itself”

Structural exclusion though networks of social divisions
and social forces sewn into fabric of society
13 April 2015
Social justice …
… generally refers to the
idea of creating a
society or institution
that is based on the
principles of equality
and solidarity, that
understands and values
human rights, and that
recognizes the dignity
of every human being.
13 April 2015
Mutual Vulnerability


Students must suspend their cultural default drive (that critical
minimum of ways, customs, manners, gestures and postures that
facilitate uninhibited, unselfconscious action) in favour of that of
the lecturer … this is the burdensome condition of critical selfconsciousness.

Some students are included (and advantaged) since they share the cultural
default drive of the lecturer/ institution

Others are excluded … (and disadvantaged)
Through mutual vulnerability the burden of constant selfconsciousness must be shared between lecturers and students
and amongst students…to work against cultural arrogance and the
normative frames of the dominant cultures
13 April 2015
Challenging Epistemic Injustice
(Fricker, 2007)
EI refers to a wrong done to someone
specifically in their capacity as a knower
One form of epistemic injustice is testimonial injustice which
occur…
when prejudice causes a hearer to give a deflated level of
credibility to a speaker’s word (for example, you are less
believable as a speaker or writer when you are black).
13 April 2015
Curriculum as Discourse
Refers to the relationships between disciplines, curriculum, courses,
vocations and the professional, intellectual and institutional
practices that create and maintain modes of classification,
control and containment that construct disciplinary and
professional identities along social, economic, cultural, racial
and other fault-lines already resident in society.
Exclusion is already facilitated by the way in which
curricula and disciplines are organised!!
13 April 2015
Understanding Power and Privilege

Social practices, like education, are supported by power
arrangements

Power refers to relations based on social, political and
material asymmetries (structural and otherwise)… by
which some are rewarded and others are sanctioned.

These asymmetries allow the workings of social systems to
perpetuate privilege …/ and inequalities
13 April 2015