Adorno on democratic pedagogy and the education of emotions: Pedagogical insights for resisting right-wing extremism

This paper examines Theodor W. Adorno’s notion of democratic pedagogy and the role of emotions in re-educating and democratizing a society, particularly in light of the current political situation in many countries around the world in which right-wing extremism is on the rise. The paper revisits Adorno’s educational thought on critical self-reflection, focusing on his views on educating emotions and the tensions between democratic pedagogy and a schooling of the emotions. It is argued that Adorno’s contribution to discussions of the role of emotion in education and his suggestions about how to resist and counteract fascism and right-wing extremism are not only illuminating today, but also provide remarkable clarity and force of argumentation in educational efforts to create critical spaces in the classroom in which moral and political learning does not end up a form of sentimental manipulation.

Teaching together: Reflections on developing a collaborative approach to pedagogy within a tertiary teaching team

In this reflection, we discuss our experience of engaging in collaborative teaching underpinned by principles of democratic pedagogy in a new bachelor degree aimed at leadership for social action. By collectively developing a common pedagogical framework for a select group of core courses within the degree, our intent was to provide a consistent and coherent approach to teaching and learning. Here, we share some of the opportunities and challenges that we experienced on our journey of teaching together, including questions regarding our responsibilities to one another as educators, and the complexities of practicing democratic pedagogy.

Spatially Democratic Pedagogy: Children’s Design and Co-Creation of Classroom Space

Young children’s participation has been specifically foregrounded as a pedagogical element within education policy in Wales. However, there is currently little evidence that this policy concerned with participation has been enacted. This research describes an intervention, Spatially Democratic Pedagogy, as a pedagogical approach to foster young children’s participation, through design and co-creation of their classroom space. A group of six children, aged 4–5 years, alongside their teacher, were supported through a design-based intervention to enact, document and analyse this process. The research draws upon social understandings of space, as well as Froebel’s ideas about construction of communal gardens. Findings illustrate notable differences in the roles and relationships that formed between the teacher and the children when using Spatially Democratic Pedagogy. Children were teachers, planners, architects, negotiators and problem-solvers, as they participated in co-construction of their space. The argument is made that it is the process of design and co-creation that becomes the mediator for pedagogical change and acts as the driver for children’s participation. The co-construction of space is an important element to support young children’s participation in early years classrooms.

Progressive Education and Modernist Literature: Black Mountain College, 1933–1940

Black Mountain College (1933–57) is famous for the creative artists who taught and studied there. But behind its celebrated alumni was a modernist institution, whose liberal arts curriculum entwined modernist aesthetics with progressive principles developed from John Dewey. Under John Andrew Rice's pioneering leadership, Black Mountain College began to work out a democratic pedagogy of creative experience quite different from most other US institutions of Higher Education. Modernist principles of method informed the entire teaching situation and the relations between students and staff, rather than just being studied inside discrete textual objects.

‘Messy Democracy’: Democratic pedagogy and its discontents

This paper reflects on a recent participatory installation by the artists’ collective @.ac, entitled Messy Democracy, as a case study to raise questions concerning the ‘distribution of the sensible’ within the neoliberal art school. The project set up a quasi-autonomous artists’ space within Hanover Project gallery 9 April–3 May, 2018 at University of Central Lancashire, Preston. This exhibition functioned as a space of collective pedagogy, co-labour and ‘dissensus’ situated in relation to the wider operation of the department of Fine Art. It also sought to operate as a critical alternative to contemporary models of the art school, rooted in notions of usefulness and romantic self-realisation, but re-structured in the service of ‘commodification’ and ‘financialisation’ in wake of the Browne Report (2010). Most importantly, Messy Democracy represented a ‘theatocractic’ ‘undercommons’ for alternate and counter-hegemonic subjectivities to emerge. However, hierarchical logics, resulting from the hegemonic ‘distribution of the sensible’ stubbornly persisted even within this nascent pedagogic democracy.