Deconstructive pedagogy is closely related to critical pedagogy, but is derived from an (even) more complex conception of the “subject”.
All categories and norms for our classification as individual human beings – sex, skin colour or a “handicap” – are regarded as socially constructed, rather than natural givens. This therefore means, for example, that the actions and attitudes of a subject cannot be explained and justified by the assignment of identity categories – the category “man”, for example.
At the centre of attention is rather the investigation of the factors and relationships that make it possible for categories to be experienced and asserted in the first place as immutable truths (“that’s just the way men are”), and the ways of speaking and acting that produce and constantly update these truths (“be a man!”). Since all subjects participate through their actions in the production and updating of these categories, and are therefore involved in the subjectification process, there can be no such thing as an autonomous, i.e. self-referring, self-producing subject.
In renouncing the idea of an autonomous subject, deconstructive pedagogy questions the paradigm of the emancipated, liberated subject found in critical pedagogics. The idea of liberation is contrasted with an (even) more complex conception of power, as an element permeating all subjects. This means there is no way to place oneself outside the domain of power, to “liberate” oneself from it, and to become entirely “self-defined”.
Given these conceptions of the “composed” nature of subjects and power, deconstructive pedagogy asks how critique and emancipation may nonetheless be possible – because even if there can be no emancipation from power, emancipation from control and the creation of justice remain worthy aspirations.
One possible answer proposed by deconstructive pedagogy is to focus pedagogical activity on efforts to analyse and change the factors, relations, discourses and actions that define power categories for the classification of subjects, and therefore establish and perpetuate control relations. Another proposed answer is not to relinquish the approaches of critical pedagogy, but rather to extend them through a stronger emphasis on seeking and searching, detours and wrong turnings, relinquishment of control, productive self-doubt, interrogation of one's own privileges and learning goals and content, along with other formerly unquestioned self-evident certainties, and by continually adapting pedagogical relationships.
Queer pedagogy shares these concepts, but focusing particularly on the consequences of heternormativity. It addresses linkages between critical pedagogy and queer theory, exploring and interrogating the learner–teacher relationship against this background. For example, it asks questions about the structuring role of desire and eroticism and identity constructs in the teaching and learning process, the role of identity constructs, and the sexual (heteronormative) “composedness” of structures and content.
Literature
- Mary Bryson; Suzanne de Castell: Queer Pedagogy: Praxis Makes Im/Perfect. (Download)
- Fritzsche, Bettina; Hartmann, Jutta; Schmidt, Andrea; Tervooren, Anja: Dekonstruktive Pädagogik. Erziehungswissenschaftliche Debatten unter poststrukturalistischen Perspektiven. Opladen 2001.
- Patty Lather: Getting Smart: Feminist Research and Pedagogy within/in the Postmodern. London/New York 1991.
- William F. Pinar (ed.): Queer Theory in Education. 1998.
- Karl-Josef Pazzini (ed.): Wenn Eros Kreide frisst. Anmerkungen zu einem fast vergessenen Thema der Erziehungswissenschaft. Essen 1992.
- Melanie Plösser: Dekonstruktion ~ Feminismus ~ Pädagogik: Vermittlungsansätze zwischen Theorie und Praxis. Sulzbach 2005.
- Ludwig Pongratz, Michael Wimmer, Wolfgang Nieke, and Jan Masschelein (eds.): Nach Foucault: Diskurs- und machtanalytische Perspektiven der Pädagogik. Opladen 2004.
- Sharon Todd: Learning Desire: Perspectives on Pedagogy, Culture, and the Unsaid. London/New York 1997.
- Dr. Elisabeth Tuider: Queer Theory und eine Pädagogik der Vielfalt. (Download)