Dreaming of ‘nowhere’: A co-autoethnographic exploration of Utopia-dystopia in the academy

Abstract

In this postformal co-autoethnographic research, the authors explore the changing landscape of American research universities from their respective locations as mid-career, post-tenure critical pedagogy scholars. By using autobiographical narratives in parallel with a running discussion of rodent habits and habitats, they explore the influence of Enlightenment humanism and Western epistemology in a) forming ‘the academy’ as an institution, and b) regulating how research and knowledge production are taken up within a rapidly neoliberalizing context. They recalibrate their ‘theories of change’ to recast critical researchers and critical pedagogy in relation to a volatile and hostile institutional context. By moving away from progress narratives of education for social change, the authors posit that critical pedagogy and critical research can be thought of as akin to ‘wayfinding,’ providing guidance, direction and reprieve while within the disorienting and violent flux of neoliberalization.

Keywords:

• Critical pedagogy
• autoethnography
• Utopia
• neoliberalism
• postformalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tricia M. Kress

Tricia M. Kress is an Associate Professor in the Educational Leadership for Diverse Learning Communities Ed.D. Program at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, NY, USA. Her research uses critical pedagogy, cultural sociology, and auto/ethnography to rethink teaching, learning and research in urban schools in the US. She is coeditor of the book series Imagination and Praxis: Criticality and Creativity in Education and Educational Research with Brill/Sense Publishers and Transformative Imaginings: Critical Visions for the Past-Present-Future of Education for DIO Press. She has published in numerous academic journals and is the author or editor of several books including Critical Praxis Research: Breathing New Life into Research Methods for Teachers and Paulo Freire’s Intellectual Roots: Toward Historicity in Praxis (edited with Robert Lake) which received the Society of Professors of Education 2014 Book Award.

Robert Lake

Robert Lake is a Professor of Social Foundations of Education at Georgia Southern University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in diversity and multicultural education from both a local and global perspective .Robert is the author of (2012) Vygotsky on Education for Peter Lang and (2013) A Curriculum of Imagination in an Era of Standardization: An Imaginative Dialogue with Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire: Information Age. He is coeditor of the book series Imagination and Praxis: Criticality and Creativity in Education and Educational Research with Brill/Sense Publishers and Transformative Imaginings: Critical Visions for the Past-Present-Future of Education for Dio Press.