Conceptualising praxis, agency and learning: A postabyssal exploration to strengthen the struggle over alternative futures

Abstract

Educational researchers are increasingly striving on the edge of possibility to re-imagine and realise the future. Activist scholarship requires appropriate philosophical and theoretical bases, what Stetsenko refers to as ‘dangerous’ – useful in the struggle for a better world. How might praxis, agency and learning be charged with transgressive spirit? This paper considers the Theory of Practice Architectures and Transformative Activist Stance, established frameworks that dangerously address praxis, agency and learning. Adopting a postabyssal approach, contributions from the Global South and East are drawn on to develop an epistemologically plural basis for thinking differently about praxis, agency and learning. Recent Latin American scholarship reinvigorates Freirean ideas through connections with Fals Borda and contemporary feminist pedagogues, centred on a notion of feeling-thinking. Luitel’s interpretations of Vedic philosophy provide radically different ideas of negative dialectics, chaos, responsibility and liberation. An open-minded, open-hearted, open-ended approach is crucial to making these ideas more useful in the struggle over alternative, more equitable and just futures.

Keywords:

• Praxis
• agency
• learning
• transformation
• activism

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank all my colleagues who have engaged in productive dialogue in matters relating to praxis, agency, learning and the ideas presented in this paper. In particular: Anna Stetsenko, Annalisa Sannino, Yrjö Engeström, Anne Edwards, Bal Chandra Luitel, Stephen Kemmis, Jane Wilkinson.

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Vedic refers to a body of Sanskrit texts (Vedas), the oldest scriptures in Hinduism.

2 Shankara was a Vedic scholar and teacher, often regarded as being alive in the eighth century.

3 In Luitel (2019) this is romanised from Sanskrit as lila-rita. In Luitel (2022) it is lilaa-ritaa. The latter better captures the extended ‘a’ sound at the end of each word.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nick Hopwood

Nick Hopwood is Professor of Professional Learning at the University of Technology Sydney, School of International Studies and Education. Nick gained his PhD from the University of Oxford, and was later awarded an Honorary Doctor of Medicine from the University of Linköping, reflecting his contribution to work on education and learning in healthcare. Nick’s research encompasses diverse workplaces, including schools, hospitals, community centres, parent education, and universities. Nick’s interest in the relationship between learning and practices (see Professional Practice and Learning: Times, Spaces, Bodies, Things, Springer 2016) has recently been reinvigorated by confronting difficult questions of learning in its connection with radical change (see Agency and Transformation: Motives, Mediation and Motion, Cambridge University Press 2023).