Anti-oppressive Pedagogy



“The value of lessons about the Other comes not in the truth it gives us about the Other, but in the pedagogical and political uses to which the resulting (disruptive) knowledge can be put.”

—Kumashiro, 2002


I found this line to be a very succinct crystallization of where my teaching philosophy is heading. The content covered in any given moment of school is always secondary to the new avenues of thought opened up to students and to the new vehicles they develop to explore those avenues. Kumashiro (2002) brings up the valid point that in a finite world, there is no way to achieve anything even approaching total knowledge, but one can develop a desire to know more. In the chapter, this is linked with the idea of empathy, and this is cited as a shortcoming of educating about the Other. Teaching for empathy, Kumashiro (2002) suggests, is a necessary but not sufficient mode of engaging in anti-oppressive pedagogy. I feel like something that underpins much of Kumashiro’s writing is an assumption that an informed human will naturally gravitate towards a peaceful, harmonious engagement with the Other. I disagree with this premise. I do, however, think that individuals with critically scaffolded curiosity will seek out the unknown and the Other to learn more about it simply for the sake of knowledge. There does not need to be empathy to find understanding, though empathy will likely arise as a result. Kumashiro (2002) makes the claim that this knowing of the Other does not in itself bring about structural change, but I would argue that it is the only way to foment true and lasting cultural shifts that will move towards less oppressive social structures. I feel like the problem is that this is a generational approach, whereas most people want to find fixes for things that will make changes now. This seems to me, as it is noted by Kumashiro, as an excellent way to create large-scale cultural backlash such as the current global pandemics of militant populism, white-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism. These changes need to happen, I agree completely. I just don’t know that the quickest method, the most direct action, is the best path to follow.




“Students can learn how their identities correspond to both the privileged and Othered identities about which they are learning, and they can learn how they often unknowingly can be complicit with and even contribute to these forms of oppression when they participate in commonsense practices that privilege certain identities.”

—Kumashiro, 2002


This quote brings me back to the idea that the chapter assumes a baseline desire among humans to be good. There is an implied lack of desire to oppress linked with being educated and informed. Again, I just don’t know that this is true. Just because you are teaching anti-oppressive ideologies, that does not mean that other people will buy into them. Kumashiro (2002) notes in the chapter that crisis caused by anti-oppressive pedagogy can lead to more entrenched resistance. Can anti-oppressive pedagogy itself be oppressive in that it assumes one ideological framework as superior to all others? Is it the exception to its own rule in that it is a justifiable use of oppressive force to dismantle normalcy and suppress the Othering of others?



As a whole, I agree with the ideologies put forward by Kumashiro (2002). However, as the chapter itself does, on a philosophical level I struggle with the ethical implications of this form of dramatic action within its own ethical framework. Personally, I think that certain ideologies are dangerous and they should be suppressed. Yet, if I as a white male react in such a way to certain ideologies of a Somali-American man, or a Latin@ woman, where does that put me on the scale of oppression?

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