Final frontiers? globalisation, pedagogy and (dis)location

Abstract

In recent times, spatial metaphors such as border crossing, border pedagogy, speaking from the margins, spanning the abyss, occupying in-between spaces and diaspora space have emerged to characterise educational and other cultural practices. This is particularly the case in critical, feminist and postcolonial pedagogy influenced by poststructuralist and postmodern theory. This article argues that the increased emphasis given to spatial metaphors can itself be located in contemporary globalising trends where forms of location also and inevitably entail forms of dislocation – of disidentifying and being positioned as other. We suggest that the term ‘(dis)location’ provides a useful, non-essentialising metaphorical resource through which to analyse, understand and develop changes in pedagogy in conditions of globalisation. A pedagogy of (dis)location signifies an ambivalent pedagogy or a pedagogy of ambivalence in the uncertain reconfigurations taking place under contemporary conditions.