In search of inclusive non-dualistic pedagogies through collaborative and affective learning events

Abstract

Despite growing consensus that dualistic thinking and hierarchically organised binary categorisations must be challenged if inclusion is to be achieved, advice on the design and implementation of non-dualistic pedagogies is less readily available. The role of teacher educators should therefore include: the modelling of possible actions that provoke thought, support for experimental learning events, and the fostering of vocabularies that defy sanctioned narratives about the nature of teaching, learning and achievement. Illustrational material is provided from an audio project which evolved as an exercise in open-ended collaborative experimentation between members of two faculties. An unanticipated outcome of the production process was the use of parody and frivolity to assert inclusive pedagogic values. The authors draw on relational aesthetics inspired by feminist poststructuralist theory and Deleuzean philosophising to describe the paradoxically singular and relational nature of learning. A version of achievement is proposed which avoids the cognitivism that permeates educational discourse. Behaviourist assumptions are similarly rejected as another manifestation of an enduring philosophical mind–body dualism.

Keywords:

• inclusion
• educational practices
• teacher education
• parody