Working with critical reflective pedagogies at a moment of post-truth populist authoritarianism

ABSTRACT

This paper considers critical reflection as a pedagogical strategy in UK higher education at a moment of an amplification of populist, reactionary discourses. It draws on written reflections of foundation-level students in a case study cohort and offers insights into their lived learning experiences and perceptions of the value of reflection. This is situated within the UK ‘Brexit’ context, alongside a proliferation of far-right populist voices, emboldened supremacies and rising fascism. Accompanying this has been a normalisation of reactionary ‘anti-social justice’ discourses. It is vital that HE practitioners recognise, pre-empt and interrupt such discourses, developing pedagogies and curricula in response. Yet there are inherent challenges in a climate of ‘post-truth’ anti-intellectualism. This paper argues that critical reflection contributes a useful approach to learning, fostering development of students’ personal, intellectual and political capacities to navigate this complex socio-political terrain and engage with social justice.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical
• reflection
• pedagogy
• post-truth
• higher education

Introduction

This paper offers insights into the value of critical reflection, focussing on a diverse group of students situated in the politically and educationally challenging contemporary UK climate. This volatile political context – set against a prevalence of global populist authoritarianism (Giroux 2015), rising fascism (Giroux 2021), neoliberalism and ‘post-truth’ narratives – necessitates a consideration of pedagogical responses by higher education (HE) practitioners. Concerns have been raised across the sector regarding urgent challenges presented by ‘post-truth’ environments (Burke and Carolissen 2018), referring to arguments being underpinned by reactive emotionality rather than evidence (Bakir and McStay 2018), thus undermining knowledge, education and indeed democracy (Alexander 2019). Linked to rising fascism globally (Giroux 2021) and, in the UK context divisive rhetoric surrounding ‘Brexit’, this milieu has entailed ‘fake news’; a decrying of ‘experts’ or academics (Read 2018); undermining of democratic process (House of Commons 2018) and bolstering of hate speech – including in universities (EHRC 2019). Giroux (2021) outlines intensified neoliberal capitalism in tandem with emboldened fascism during the pandemic and calls on educators to rise to the challenges this context represents. This paper contributes to emerging literature surrounding pedagogical responses to post-truth contexts (Burke and Carolissen 2018), proposing critical reflection as one strategy, despite inherent challenges within contemporary neoliberalised HE.

Criticality is often referred to as a key skill within a narrow, individualising employability framework (Danvers 2018) but is here situated within a social justice framework, underpinned by critical pedagogies (Freire 1970). Drawing on a case study student cohort, it captures reflections on learning, the value of reflection and indicates potentialities to deepen learning and engagement, moving away from a narrow instrumentality. Reflection facilitates self-questioning and enables connections to be made between learning, experiences and structural contexts, underpinned by awareness of intersectional positionalities. This enables nuanced and thoughtful knowledge co-creation and provides an impetus to reimagine possibilities for a transformed world. Critical reflection therefore provides a counterpoint to uncritical, unquestioning reactions to events and opinions, helping to facilitate an awareness of power disparities and possibilities for change which post-truth political and media environments occlude (Koulouris 2018; Mondon and Winter 2020).

The wider context entails a highly charged discursive environment, including reactionary undermining of social justice movements – including feminism, anti-racism and LGBTQ + rights – in consolidation of wealthy white, western, cis-male, heteronormative privilege and power (Maldonado-Torres et al. 2017). Populist views, including scapegoating of marginalised communities, are propagated through media, entering everyday discourses and influencing understandings and attitudes (Giroux 2021), including those of university students (Phipps 2017). Academia, perceived as (too) progressive, is subject to negative representations (Read 2018); yet universities remain sites of entrenched gendered, racialised and classed inequities (Ahmed 2012; Bhambra, Gebrial, and Nisancioglu 2018; Morley 2012; Phipps 2017). There is, nevertheless, scope for educators to contribute to countering and disrupting such discourses, offering opportunities to question, resist and imagine alternative ways of thinking and being (Giroux 2021), while working to address continuing inequities in academia and beyond (Burke and Carolissen 2018). This paper therefore offers an in-depth contextualised case study which may be applicable to a range of International contexts affected by neoliberal authoritarianism (Giroux 2021) and considers the potential role critical reflection can play within this milieu.

This moment prompts reconsiderations of curricula and pedagogical approaches (Alexander 2019; Burke and Carolissen 2018; Elwell and Buchanan 2019) with decolonial, feminist and critical frameworks offering ways forward (Bhambra, Gebrial, and Nisancioglu 2018; Giroux 2021). While critical thinking has been usefully problematised (Danvers 2018, 2021) and the value of reflection as a teaching tool previously explicated (Bolton and Delderfield 2018), there has been limited attention paid to critical reflection specifically as a response to current reactionary discourses (Read 2018), and so this paper aims to address this, offering contextualised practice examples attending to student/teacher positionalities. This case study presents critical reflection utilised within social justice-orientated teaching on year-long social sciences foundation course in the South of England, aimed at supporting widening participation through preparing students for undergraduate study. It is important to acknowledge firstly that the notion of ‘critical’ is politically non-neutral, with certain privileged bodies in academia read as critical (Danvers 2018); furthermore criticality can be instrumentalised as a competency to be performed in order to pass assessments in the neoliberalised academy (Danvers 2018) and individualised and psychologised as self-development and surveillance (Danvers 2018). These are important considerations when envisaging, planning and supporting critical reflection. Whilst focussing on one cohort, the need to identify contextually responsive teaching strategies is transferable to further contexts in the light of rising far-right authoritarianism and suppression of critical thought (Giroux 2021).

On the course under discussion, critical reflection is grounded within a social justice framework (Freire 1970), centred on connections between lived experiences and wider power structures, and deployed alongside a range of teaching strategies which support resistance and activism. In this pedagogical setting – the limitations of what is possible within the constraints and power structures of academia notwithstanding – this process has enabled students to navigate complex socio-political terrains, engage in meaningful learning and begin to envision transformation. Analysis of students’ reflections identifies benefits including development of critical capacities, self-awareness, empathy, shifting values and political perspectives. This paper firstly outlines broader socio-political and HE contexts then considers the teaching approach adopted with this case study cohort. Through illustrative extracts of students’ work, it explores ways in which reflective processes contribute to questioning previously held assumptions; asking questions of the socio-political environment; developing deeper self-understandings, including awareness of privilege, and engaging in knowledge co-creation and transformation. Recognising the university as a site of ongoing inequities, the socio-political context brings a sense of renewed responsibility for teaching, necessitating an interruption of the power dynamics and problematic discourses at play (Burke and Carolissen 2018; Giroux 2015, 2021).

Context

This socio-political moment in the UK has entailed political turbulence leading up to and following the ‘Brexit’ vote, accompanied by increased mainstreaming of reactionary far-right populisms propagating anti-immigration and anti-social justice discourses (Mondon and Winter 2020) and suppression of critical thought, an International trend accelerated during the pandemic (Giroux 2018, 2020, 2021). This period has seen rising hate crime, including in university contexts (Kayali and Walters 2019; O'Neill 2017). In the USA, the Trump presidency bolstered global far-right extremism and undermined social justice movements (Giroux 2015, 2021). Extremist media tends to be highly emotive and less likely than mainstream journalism to be based on evidence (Bakir and McStay 2018); increasingly commentators dismiss mainstream reports as ‘fake news’,¹ thus undermining any attempts at critique. In tandem with rising fascism is rapid global circulation of social media perpetuating racist, anti-immigration, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ discourses and violence (Giroux 2021; Tudor 2021). These serve as justification for policies which undo hard-won social justice gains, echoed in a variety of International contexts (Burke and Carolissen 2018). There have been widespread assertions that we are living in a ‘post-truth’ era (Norman 2016; Tallis 2016) whereby ‘expert’ (or academic) knowledges are positioned as less valuable than populist opinions presented as ‘common-sense’ (Giroux 2021; Read 2018); the ‘Brexit’ vote was accompanied by a decrying of ‘experts’ in retaliation to those who warned of potential problems (Clarke and Newman 2017). Challenging reactionary positionings however does not necessarily entail falling back onto reductive understandings of knowledge as fixed but opens possibilities for critical engagement and problematisation of hegemonic power relations, outlined in the next section.

Universities have been shaped through histories of colonial, racialised, gendered, classed and other forms of oppression and epistemic violences (Bhambra, Gebrial, and Nisancioglu 2018; Reay, Crozier, and Clayton 2010; Spivak 1988). They continue to be sites of reproduction of white supremacy and multiple forms of oppression, manifest through the enactment of the Prevent agenda (Phipps 2017; Danvers 2021), prevalence of racist incidents (EHRC 2019), gender-race pay gap (Bhopal 2019), discrimination against Black and minority ethnic students (UUK / NUS 2019) and provision of platforms to known misogynistic, white supremacist and eugenicist speakers² despite resistance. Nevertheless, universities are targets of media and political vitriol (Read 2018) due to a perceived emphases on social justice issues. Media tropes include depictions of students as ‘snowflakes’ unable to handle the ‘real world’ (e.g. Fox 2016), thus constructing universities as separate from the world (Read 2018). The development of an online ‘Professor Watchlist’³ in the US context targeted academics deemed to be demonstrating ‘liberal bias’, prompting targeted harassment and threats⁴; this organisation now operates on UK campuses. Feminist academics are frequently targeted with misogynistic online harassment (Ringrose 2018). The wider European context has seen enforced closures of Gender Studies, the discipline represented as dangerous ideology – a ban imposed to silence critical voices (Ahrens et al. 2018). Media commentators frequently mobilise rhetoric of ‘free speech’ (Phipps 2017), with academics depicted as radicals engaged in brainwashing students, paradoxically in order to supress critiques of social injustices and bolster powerful interests (Giroux 2021).

There have also been reports of campuses being targeted by far-right propaganda (Nickel 2017), raising concerns about the circulation of extremist views and how this dynamic might be managed; particular concerns about the implications of this rapidly emerging political context relate to the impact on marginalised students and staff. Continued validation, support and perpetuation at the highest levels for misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic and racist hate speech and actions has created a volatile, unpredictable climate (Giroux 2021). Concurrently, the Prevent agenda has meant university staff are required to report signs that students are in danger of being drawn into extremism; however, this was introduced against a backdrop of anti-Islam rhetoric (as opposed to explicitly tackling far-right extremism) (Phipps 2017; Danvers 2021) and set against a ‘hostile environment’ policy climate.

Post-truth reactionary positionings uphold neoliberalism, supporting logics of the market over principles of social justice. This environment is contemporaneous to ongoing marketisation of universities and imposition of ‘value for money’ customer satisfaction frameworks, importing private financial sector priorities to the public sector (Ahmed 2012; Giroux 2018). Neoliberalism works in tandem with right-wing authoritarianism in this respect (Giroux 2021). Brown (2015) identifies neoliberalism as a dominant force, pervading forms of governance and ways of thinking and being, a ‘market rationality’ which positions people as rational, economic actors motivated solely by self-interest. This engenders lack of empathy, including among students, towards those who are socio-economically deprived or victimised and therefore deemed to be individual ‘failures’ (Phipps and Young 2015), thus denying structural causes and state responsibilities (Phipps 2014). The dominance of neoliberalism and increased visibility and power of far-right movements are complementary forces in suppressing critical thought (Giroux 2021); Koulouris (2018) views them as working against solidarities of ‘class consciousness, collectivism, and egalitarianism’ (Koulouris 2018, 750). Positioning staff as customer service providers affects teaching, encouraging conceptions of knowledge as a commodity to be passively consumed as opposed to a process of knowledge co-creation (Rohrer 2018). In this vein, Saunders and Ramírez (2017) critique dominant research and teaching ‘excellence’ measurements within commodified education whereby complex, dynamic processes of learning are reduced to simplistic metrics focussed on test scores and satisfaction ratings. In this scenario, teachers and students become mutually dependent for crude performance measurements, undermining emancipatory learning. Brule (2004) suggests that a customer service focus discourages meaningful exploration, reflection and opportunities for failure – such learning may well be experienced as unsatisfying. Titus (2008) differentiates between ‘educated students’ and ‘satisfied customers’, the former potentially encountering intellectual, political and ontological challenges. Questioning preconceptions may involve discomfort at a time where students may be already undergoing profound personal, ontological transitions (Brookfield 1995). Rohrer (2018) observes that impositions of narrow versions of ‘normality’ is a further consequence of transplanting financial marketplace values into educational institutions and further devalues marginalised students.

Current university environments therefore encompass numerous pedagogical challenges, exacerbated by increased casualisation, highly pressurised academic settings (Gill 2009) and an encroachment of neoliberal market values exacerbating cultures of competitive individualism. ‘New managerialism’ in prioritising ranking and performativity has introduced values which are ‘antithetical to the caring that is at the heart of good education’ (Lolich and Lynch 2016, 9), empathetic pedagogies at odds with this milieu. Conversely, attention to the ‘whole student’ is at the heart of critical pedagogical practice (hooks 1994), understanding students (and academics) as emotional, caring, intellectual and political beings. Acknowledging contemporary challenges alongside problematic histories and exclusionary practices of universities, I contend in line with Giroux (2021) that in the current moment, it is vital that educators facilitate questioning, deconstruction of dominant discourses and resistance to neoliberal modes of thinking and being, opening up opportunities to engage in activism including calling those in power to account.

Teaching approach and context

In the light of this context, I share a case study of working with critical reflective pedagogies on an interdisciplinary course for foundation students, the majority being young (18–21-year-old) students from diverse backgrounds in terms of class, gender, disability and ethnicity. This course focusses on welfare, wellbeing and their interconnections across the life-course, exploring how policy contexts shape lives. The pedagogical approach is primarily informed by critical pedagogies (Freire 1970), particularly feminist theorist bell hooks (1994) who brings together critical, feminist and decolonial perspectives. It also reflects engagement with the recent student-led drive to ‘decolonise the university’ (Bhambra, Gebrial, and Nisancioglu 2018); while a contested term, decolonisation relates broadly to recognising western universities’ complicity in coloniality and seeking to make reparation. Decolonial and feminist theoretical perspectives and pedagogies hold different histories and encompass multiple positionings; they can be understood as in a dynamic and synergistic, if at times conflictual, relationship which de Jong et al. (2018) characterise as ‘productive tension’ (p.xvii). While it is not possible to do justice to this rich, varied and complex heritage here, these positions in different ways and with different emphases, seek to challenge limiting western conceptions of knowledge and ways of thinking, premised on hierarchies and binary divisions along racialised and gendered lines. They seek to undo interlocking systems of oppression including racism, sexism, classism and ableism and ultimately to dismantle inequitable material and discursive structures of power. In practical pedagogical terms, this entails moving away from transmissive teaching approaches towards encouraging learners to actively create knowledge (Freire 1970); challenging canons of knowledge dominated by powerful voices; disrupting hierarchical relations of power and authority in learning spaces and beyond; enabling marginalised voices to be heard and seeking to transform the world (hooks 1994). Knowledge is understood in feminist thought as historically situated and grounded in embodied experience in the world rather than a fixed, abstract entity thus attending to positionality (Haraway 1988; Harding 2003). Notions of the ‘knowing being’ as privileged white, rational male (Code 1991) are decentred, rather there is engagement with caring, embodied and emotional aspects of knowledge (Motta 2013). Decolonial perspectives offer a decentring of western-centric ways of knowing and being (Bhambra, Gebrial, and Nisancioglu 2018) alongside recognition of the need to address ongoing colonial power disparities and violences (Tuck and Yang 2012). Such framings run counter to reactionary post-truth environments which reproduce hegemonic power relations, manipulate audiences and provoke hate responses rather than facilitating critical engagement and which work against the possibility of alternative imaginaries (Mondon and Winter 2020).

Reflection can be broadly understood as ‘ … intellectual and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understandings and appreciation’ (Boud, Keogh, and Walker 1985, 3). Reflection is utilised across academic disciplines; there has been particular significance accorded to reflective practice in professions (Schön 1991) including health sciences (Smith 2011), education (Thompson and Pascal 2012) and social work (Morley and Dunstan 2013), whilst reflexivity is a valued component of social research (Mauthner and Doucet 2003). However, reflection is not used as widely in social sciences as in professional education. In the context under discussion, it has been adopted for a number of reasons, including enabling students to work carefully with sensitive, multi-layered and – at times – politically charged issues. As students undergo multiple personal, social and intellectual transitions opportunities to reflect allows them to make sense of these complex experiences (Boud 2001). Reflective activities deepen learning through enabling connections between learning and experience, drawing on Dewey (1916) who observed that an activity alone does not amount to experience but rather the meaning-making accorded to it through reflective processes. An added element is supporting students’ developing self-awareness (Mezirow 1981) at personal, political and intellectual levels as they explore different perspectives and gain a sense of where they are positioned. Far from media tropes of ‘brainwashing,’ it is made explicit to students that we want to hear what they think. We encourage students to consider a range of positions before arriving at their own; reflection is one way to safely engage in explorations and develop critical capacities. Further, when introduced carefully, it fosters engagement in doubt and not-knowing, to fail safely and adopt a questioning mindset in stepping back from their learning. Indeed, Dewey (1933) asserts that it is such moments of doubt which open up possibilities for reflective learning. I would further suggest that it opens up a space for questioning and imagining the limitations and possibilities of ideas. This then is one strategy to move away from reductive notions of knowledge in the dominant transmissive, outcomes focussed pedagogical model. It further eludes temptations to retreat into rigid certainties and positivistic modes of thought as a reaction to ‘post-truth’ discourse, inviting rather a position of open-mindedness and ‘radical doubt’ (Parker 1997).

Students are encouraged to write reflectively as part of their learning journey over the course of a year. They are encouraged to keep formative reflective learning journals, with guiding prompt questions to scaffold this activity if needed. At regular intervals, students were invited to share sections of this writing for formative feedback which mainly took the form of encouragement and extracts were also submitted as part of formative assessment. However, reflection is not solely viewed as an isolated, individualised writing activity; it may involve thought and discussion between sessions, ‘reflective pauses’ within lectures, quiet periods of reflection at the end of seminars to process and expand learning or at the beginning of seminars to stimulate high-quality discussion. Reflection is done by individuals, in pairs, small groups and as a class and often involves visual materials such as photographs, mood boards, mind maps or collaging, although the data here is text-based.

Methodology

I here draw on a case study of a cohort of students from a UK university and analyses of written reflections which provide insights into perceptions and lived experiences of learning in this moment, alongside delineating the value of this particular approach. This case study approach was adopted in order to generate rich, detailed insights, carefully contextualising perceptions and pedagogical approaches within this setting (Yin 2018), contextualised within the broader milieu. Reflective writing is a recognised research (as well as pedagogical) method (Fook 2011), providing first-hand accounts whereby participants construct their own narratives. Foundation learners at the research-intensive institution are mainly based in London and the South-East of England and represent diverse backgrounds in terms of gender, ethnicity, class, disability and sexuality: 26.9% of the foundation cohort are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds – slightly above the sector average⁵ – and 20.6% disclose disabilities, significantly higher than average.⁶ While there is a lack of available institutional data on class, anecdotally there is a broad spectrum of learners, including those from privileged to relatively deprived backgrounds. There were 80 students in this particular cohort, going on to study primarily in social sciences, psychology, business and arts and humanities subjects.

Having gained ethics approval from the University of Sussex Cross-Schools Research Ethics committee, permission was sought from students to share examples of their reflective work for research purposes. They were reassured that personal and sensitive aspects of their work would not be shared and all identifying features would be removed; only short illustrative extracts are used rather than publishing writing in its entirety. Reflections were analysed thematically with a view to capturing processes of reflection and identifying the benefits and limitations of this approach, with a particular interest in engagements with wider socio-political contexts and connections between personal experience and societal structures. Multiple readings across this data-set produced themes which have been organised into the broad themes of ‘self-awareness and positionality’ and ‘towards transformation’ in the findings presented below and illustrated through extracts. Frequently students engaged in meta-reflection, providing valuable testimonies as to its benefits.

In terms of my own location, I write from a privileged position as a white, western, English speaking middle-class woman. As a university worker I am highly aware of the inequitable structures I work within and potentially my own complicity with these exclusionary structures. My own vulnerabilities experienced over the life-course, relating to relative poverty, gender-based violence, precarity, family, sexual and relationship status and invisible disabilities, alongside being a mother of young people, has provided an entry point to understanding some of the barriers faced by many HE students. Complicated power dynamics nevertheless come into play; I recognise my inevitable power as a lecturer making value-judgements about students’ work yet simultaneously reliant on them providing high enough ratings, with my livelihood at stake. As a long-term precariously employed academic worker balancing multiple fractional contracts while undertaking this research, I was conscious of treading a path of being simultaneously inside and outside the academy (Lipton 2019; Morris et al. 2021). My position as a feminist scholar committed to social justice in the current climate creates additional layers of uncertainty and concerns about backlash (Ringrose 2018). Challenging working conditions and fear of job loss constrains what is possible in terms of innovation, critique and boundary pushing (Leathwood and Read 2020; Morris et al. forthcoming). Nevertheless, I concur with Burke and Carolissen (2018), that educators hold responsibilities to identify pedagogical strategies which enable moments of resistance in this context. This case study therefore offers insights into possibilities as well as limitations for critical reflections as one potential strategy for working carefully with learners at this particular juncture.

Student reflections

Fostering awareness of social justice is foundational to this course: through interrogating the wider neoliberal policy environment and impacts on individuals and communities it is hoped that students will develop critical awareness and desire to make a difference. Students are encouraged to question positionalities and assumptions and critical reflection plays a crucial part in this process as it enables meaningful engagement with key issues, drawing on personal experience where relevant. Reflection is woven through teaching in multiple ways; in interludes during lectures, at the beginning of sessions so that students can gather their thoughts before expanding their ideas in discussion with peers, as reflective pauses to focus analysis and debate or at the end of sessions in order to pull together different strands of learning and process responses to contentious, complex and challenging issues. Reflection can initiate rich pedagogical relationships; at the beginning of their learning journey, students write their first short reflection on the theme of ‘Who am I?’ which is shared with their tutor: This has the additional benefit of tutors getting to know students and is an opportunity for students to informally raise concerns. Following on from this, students are encouraged to keep reflective learning journals and write between sessions – enabling the bringing together of intellectual, political and personal domains of experience. Often reflection takes place in class in the form of ‘free writing’ whereby students write whatever is on their minds without worrying about making mistakes. Weaving moments of deep reflection throughout the learning process and relating learning directly to experience enables profoundly personal journeys and this emerged in many reflections. Such deep learning (Marton and Säljö 1976) allows students to safely and meaningfully develop critical awareness; it provides space to ask questions, explore perspectives and standpoints of others, work with newly learned theories and take a step back from their learning and the world. Reflection at the beginning of sessions can form a valuable starting point for discussions and enable deep listening.

Self-awareness and positionality

For the first student quoted here, this more critical stance, bringing into view experiences of marginalisation and vulnerability, has prompted a more empathetic approach. The second extract captures a student's reflections on their relatively privileged position, having not encountered social issues such as poverty prior to studying on the course. This runs counter to neoliberal and post-truth reactionary discourses which undermine empathy and concern for the other (Phipps and Young 2015) and reproduce dominant hegemonies (Mondon and Winter 2020), discounting marginalised experiences:

‘[This] module has been a very personal journey for me, but I think it is that which is the most valuable aspect of the module. It encourages us to think critically about society and the human lifespan, and to evaluate how we treat the most vulnerable members of our society. I believe that this module shows us the importance of compassion, and that we should use it when making policies and interacting with others.’

‘I think this term has helped me to become more self-aware which will subsequently lead me to becoming a more critical and analytical thinker, and a more thoughtful and empathetic person.’

Understanding positionalities and recognising experiences of relative advantage and disadvantage is facilitated through an engagement with intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991), which students are encouraged to consider throughout the course, informing developing awareness of how people are differentially affected by socio-political contexts:

‘The concept of intersectionality has also interested me. Studying the topic has encouraged me to reflect further on how my position in society influences the way I see things. It has opened my eyes and has enabled me to reflect on the potential disadvantages I face. As an Asian female from a single parent family and not being about to consider myself ‘privileged’ in terms of wealth, I see how the creation of interdependent systems of disadvantage are formed.’

Reflection becomes more than an insular classroom or assessment activity, transforming into a way of thinking and being which helps students to make sense of their learning, interlinking course content with their lives and the world. This student identifies reflection as enabling such connections to be made, running counter to knowledge presented as abstract and divorced from everyday human experience. It furthermore creates a space for a consideration of values:

‘Reflection, as a result, has become a valuable part of my learning as I learn about the way I think and what I value whilst also helping to put my learning into context. This is important because often students complain that what they are learning is pointless or question how it relates to the world and them. Reflection for me is the bridge that connects the two.’

Opportunities to reflect complement experiences of starting university, interacting with peers from a wide variety of contexts and being exposed to multiple perspectives. This opens the way to reflecting on privileged positionalities and gaining a deeper understanding of social injustices. For the student below, reflection on a growing awareness of social issues such as homelessness, has contributed to a desire for change and to make a difference; there were many such expressions of wanting to get more involved through raising awareness, volunteering, working directly with particular social groups, pursuing careers which contribute to society and becoming more politically engaged. Such transformations can be viewed as the cornerstone of critical reflection (Freire 1970; Thompson and Pascal 2012). This engagement comprises resistance to a broader neoliberal context in which those such as homeless people who are socio-economically vulnerable are positioned as failures. Students’ deepening and historicised understanding of social polarisations contrast with post-truth positionings which disregard and delegitimise social justice concerns (Koulouris 2018):

‘This particular topic encouraged me to reflect further on the homeless, especially after realising that the area that I live in has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the UK. Seeing such a rate of homelessness on a day-to-day basis, especially during a harsh winter has encouraged me to reflect on the differences between my life the lives of those homeless and to see just how privileged I am in comparison. The topic has opened my eyes further as to why people end up homeless and how anyone can be a victim of poverty.’

Towards transformation

As students journey through myriad changes, exploring understandings, beliefs, knowledges and identities while navigating university, set against a volatile socio-political backdrop, reflective writing helps to capture and make sense of such experiences. For students who have experienced multiple forms of disadvantage, reflection can facilitate confidence in their own ideas and voice and the ability to critique ongoing injustices. For the student below, reflection contributed to enhancing academic and personal confidence as they developed capacities to make informed judgements and articulate their own position rather than uncritically regurgitating facts, or indeed reactionary post-truth positions presented as ‘common-sense’ (Mondon and Winter 2020). This is also indicative of the move away from ‘transmissive’ approaches (Freire 1970) to education whereby learners uncritically accept hegemonic ideas and so remain unquestioning about dominant power relations. This process can be an empowering experience as students realise that their voices count and are taken seriously:

‘One of the greatest advantages I have gained from this course and the process of reflective writing is being able to create a link between the content I have learnt and my own personal experiences. Before, I have never been able to reference myself or my own opinions, instead I have simply had to quote those who are believed to have more justifiable and logical thoughts. However, constructing an argument around my own opinion has made it easier to delve into a deeper level of my argument … This, combined with class discussions, has allowed me to feel much more confident in my own thoughts and opinions, and allowed myself to open up to new ideas and other people's perspectives.’

Transitions are often political, developing political consciousness facilitated through growing awareness and continual questioning at a deeper level than in previous educational experiences; for the student below, this process enabled emergent critical capacities, more nuanced understandings and prompted a questioning of previously held opinions and certainties. This is of paramount importance in this era of ‘post-truth’ populism in terms of questioning unfounded opinions and media environments which play on insecurities and contribute to shaping prejudices (Giroux 2015), as the student below describes. This extract captures profound and multiple interlinking transitions for this student:

‘Everyone had so many different opinions and experiences about any subject we discussed … We are humans and we all experience life differently than everyone else. I loved how throughout this year we were constantly asked to question the things we did not always think about, or had negative perceptions on. I was shocked to see how I had so many prejudices about the things I did not have much knowledge about, which I am happy to say that I was encouraged to think more wisely about the issues and the world around me.’

Questioning underpins criticality; below, a student reflects on a decision to no longer take everything ‘at face value’ but to interrogate and develop a sound base for knowledge and understanding, a crucial skillset for navigating a ‘post-truth’ environment and resisting dominant discourses. This more critical lens is presented as valuable, premised on enhanced insights into societal structures and the grounded realities of daily lives, especially for disadvantaged groups. For some students, this means breaking away from neoliberal tendencies to view problems through purely individualising terms. The following quote conveys a move away from understanding topics through preconceived ideas towards a critically reflective way of thinking, ‘taking a step back’, seeking deeper understanding, maintaining a ‘healthy scepticism’ and taking different positionalities into account. Such strategies are recognised as holding value in life beyond university:

‘In the future I would like to think that when studying a topic rather than seeing an issue through my own lens of preconstructed beliefs, I would instead take a step back and contemplate the topic from a third party’s perspective. In addition, I will be more sceptical of the media and how it can distort ideas and concepts.’

For some students then, the transition to university and exposure to new people, learning and ideas, is accompanied by a growing political consciousness and desire for change. Many begin their studies from a position that government is divorced from everyday lives but develop an awareness of the impacts of policies on life chances and the need to hold those in power to account: ‘Studying policies on single parents and the welfare system, I have realized the importance of being more aware of the government's actions as it can have major consequences for some people.’ This is particularly important at a time when young people may be at risk of becoming disengaged from politics or unduly influenced by ‘the loudest voices’ in social media forums. The majority of young people in the UK did not vote to leave the European Union⁷ and lack of voting rights for those under 18 remains a contentious issue, and so young people can feel their views are not valued. Critical reflection, alongside opportunities for meaningful debate, scaffolds emerging political awareness and student are guided in taking a transformative problem-solving approach (Freire 1970). In some cases, there were profound shifts in perspectives; reflections helped to facilitate and capture this, enabling self-questioning of assumptions alongside increased awareness of inequalities and the devastating impact of certain policies on people's lives. The following three extracts encapsulate such transformations:

‘My personal opinions have changed over the course of this module, providing me with a better awareness on the inequality within Britain. In the future I aim to work in the public service sector, this module being useful in that journey. As someone who considers themselves right-leaning I have learnt how exclusionary my ideas were … better equipping me with the wider knowledge of what problems exist within society and the importance of policy within the welfare and well-being of people's lives.’

‘My exposure to marginalised groups such as the LGBTQ community has caused me to question my initial political beliefs. My lack of understanding before undertaking this course meant that my political and societal views were shallow and not fully explored. Having been made aware of such, my perspective on society has transitioned. I have been encouraged to explore more specifically my personal place in society. In turn, exploring my advantages or disadvantages to others.’

‘I’ve even shifted the path I’d planned for myself – I’m no longer content to make small, individual differences to a small group of people. While that is admirable and fundamentally necessary, I want to be in on the big decisions. I want to be making change, making history – to stop this trend of marginal older, cis-gendered, straight, white men making decisions that do not reflect its constituents.’

It is important to note that the use of critical reflection is not used in isolation as the only means of engaging students in personal, intellectual and political development. There is potential for it to be utilised in an individualising way which runs counter to collective resistance (Danvers 2019); however, the material presented here is indicative of its transformative possibilities when used in conjunction with a variety of opportunities to process, articulate, dialogue and potentially engage in problem-solving. Whilst reflection can be done in isolation and in some cases can reinforce western-centric notions of an individualised ‘knowing subject’ (Sheik 2020), learners are encouraged to critically consider multiple selves, knowledges and ways of being.

Critical reflection needs to be implemented with care: As one student stated, ‘Using personal experience in academic work can be very difficult and generate a lot of emotion but equally it can make our work more meaningful’. Heightened focus on personal, emotional dimensions of life may be unsettling and so fostering supportive pedagogical relationships is imperative. Valuing affective alongside rational domains may seem counter-intuitive to students used to more positivistic epistemologies; however, most students become used to this way of working and draw many benefits from it, enhancing their learning experiences. Some students feel initial uncertainty at being pushed out of comfort zones and may feel inhibited but it is a practice which can be gently introduced and developed over time. Macfarlane and Gourlay (2009) writing from the context of professional education raise the prospect that reflection as assessment runs the risk of learners strategically conforming to institutional norms; however in these contexts there may be an absence of criticality and considerations of wider structures. There is, especially with assessed work, the possibility that students will write what they think lecturers want to hear (Smith 2011) and perform their criticality in instrumental ways (Danvers 2019); nevertheless, the progress students make and integrity and insight they bring to their writing is tangible. As an educator I witness the developing critical awareness, insights and articulations in written work and class discussions; much of this work is formative and the trust built over time means learners feel free to express opinions and have opportunities to interrogate these. Finally, some critics may raise concern about too much introspection and focus on the self (Smith 2011) – however, on this course, the focus is on understanding personal experiences in relation to broader societal structures. Critical reflection is not an isolated activity divorced from other learning activities but provides space and time to process, make links, explore, question and apply different lenses. Ideally therefore, critical reflection means to look inwards, interrogating preconception and experiences (Mezirow 1981) and outwards, at structures and power disparities which contribute to shaping those experiences (Danvers 2019; Freire 1970) with the ultimate aim of transforming those structures.

Conclusions

This paper has explored the use of critical reflection as one pedagogical strategy in countering the contemporary discursive environment shaped by post-truth populist authoritarianism, with implications for educational practice. It draws on foundational theorists of critical pedagogy, demonstrating how this framework can offer ways forward; it also contributes to an emergent literature surrounding ways in which HE institutions and practitioners can respond to this climate. It further provides insights into pedagogical experiences in this moment and the possibilities, alongside potential limitations critical reflection affords. Critical reflection can be part of a move away from a transmissive model in line with critical approaches which seek to transform power relations (Freire 1970; hooks 1994). Pedagogically, it allows for meaning-making beyond a simplistic relaying of information or imparting of theory which students are then expected to regurgitate. Politically it enables a questioning of preconceptions and populist post-truth discourses presented as ‘common-sense’ and supports developing awareness of social in justices and power inequities within and beyond the academy. In an era of educational emphases on testing, students have frequently come from school environments where they, as they themselves report, are not encouraged to think for themselves or develop their own voices. Particularly for marginalised students, critical reflection can be experienced as empowering. Conversely, it enables students to reflect on relative privilege, an awareness of positionality and intersectionality fostered throughout the course. Students move towards becoming co-creators of knowledge, developing critical capacities in the process. Fundamentally, it is the encouragement of questioning through reflection, as in all aspects of their studies, which puts the ‘critical’ into critical reflection; it is vital given current media post-truth environments that students develop their capacities to hold problematic discourses up to scrutiny and challenge populist constructions. While reflection is widely used in professional subjects, there is scope for it to be embedded across further disciplines working within a critical social justice-orientated framework. Care should be taken that it is not implemented in formulaic ways which occlude possibilities for criticality (Macfarlane and Gourlay 2009) and that there are opportunities to engage in critical reflection as a formative process.

In the current moment, it is crucial that students are able to develop self-awareness, empathy and criticality alongside emergent political understandings, awareness of power disparities and confidence that change is possible and they have a part to play. The concept of intersectionality provides a prism through which students can begin to develop reflexivity surrounding privileges or, in some cases, begin to articulate experiences of disadvantage. There are further potentialities to engage students in questions of identity, knowledge and power. In contrast to non-empathetic subjectivities fostered within neoliberalism, students engage emotionally and intellectually with course content, allowing themselves to be vulnerable and empathetic. Reflection does not solely entail introspection but also questioning structural processes and power dynamics at play. There is potential to transform understandings, enabling paradigm shifts, enhanced awareness of the workings of power and a desire to resist and transform them. Alongside further strategies, it can help to ‘bring topics to life’, allowing the development of expansive understandings as students ask difficult questions of themselves and the world. The openness of this approach – which does not dictate right or wrong answers – runs counter to populist depictions of academics forcing a specific agenda (Read 2018). Finally, time and space for formative reflection built into provides opportunities to undertake deep learning rather than being solely focussed on measurable outcomes and assessments. In an era of ‘fast academia’ (Gill 2009), exacerbated by a fast-paced digital environment, these are rare opportunity for ‘slow learning’, for students to enjoy quiet moments to safely explore without fear of failure amid multi-layered pressures to achieve in an era of neoliberalism, austerity and high graduate competition. Critical reflection is not a panacea for the current challenges of HE amid a turbulent political climate – indeed HE is far from being at the centre of meaningful change (Rohrer 2018) – yet as a teaching tool it continues to hold relevance for social justice-orientated education. Reflective processes allow students to develop strategies for navigating and resisting complex political terrains. Critical reflection potentially contributes to refusing neoliberal competitive individualism, in some cases enabling transformative personal and political shifts, and to opening up possibilities for students to reimagine their worlds.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the many amazing feminist and critical scholars who have supported, advised, guided and inspired her along the way and without whom this work would not be possible, including Laila Kadiwal, Barbara Read, Sara Motta, Reva Yunus, Saba Hussain, Alison Phipps, Emily Danvers, Tamsin Hinton-Smith, Liz Sage, Savannah Sevenzo, Louise Morley, Anna Bull, Ann Emerson and Rachel Masika along with many others.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See for example: http://drwho.virtadpt.net/files/2017-01/conservatives-take-aim-at-mainstream-media.pdf

2 Speakers on eugenics, here reported in The Metro: https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/11/university-investigates-racist-eugenics-conference-held-campus-since-2014-7221211/

3 A website started in 2016 and run by Turning Point USA which now holds chapters in UK universities.

4 Reported by the American Association of University Professors: https://www.aaup.org/news/targeted-online-harassment-faculty#.XVGpH-hKg2w

5 22% (UUK & NUS 2019)

6 13% (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2019)

7 As indicated in this Lord Ashcroft poll: https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/03/a-reminder-of-how-britain-voted-in-the-eu-referendum-and-why/