Links to culture and cognitive justice

Gale (2009) argues that the majority of social theory that informs higher education teaching is from the perspective of the global north, failing to “account for voices and knowledge from non-dominant peoples” (p. 2). In my teaching I have found that groups of largely international students, continue to be drawn to models of leadership, which can be applied without real regard for context. The ethnocentrically focused models of leadership, framed on individualistic assumptions which assume a “false universalism” (Wilkinson & Bristol, 2018, p. 13), make context seeming to be of little significance. Connell (2006) argues that the ‘northernness’ of theory arises from the embedding of “viewpoints, perspectives and problems of metropolitan society, while presenting itself as universal knowledge” (Connell, 2006, p. viii). I incorporate the work of Connell (2006) on ‘Southern Theory’ and the Portuguese intellectual and sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2014, 2015), exploring concepts of abyssal thinking, ecology of knowledges and intercultural translation which might help in addressing the cognitive injustice that exists in the presentation of ‘knowledge’ in higher education.

Santos (2016) argues that modern Western thinking is an abyssal thinking which divides social reality into “this side of the line” (Western or Northern thinking) and “the other side of the line” such that ““the other side of the line” vanishes as reality, becomes non-existent, and is indeed produced as non-existent” (p. 118). Santos argues that we benefit from a diversity of perspectives. The focus of my teaching on critical thinking about leadership requires links between culture and leadership, and therefore location within a broader focus of knowledge production. Santos (2016) identifies that inquiries into ways of knowing cannot be separated from inquiries into ways of intervening in the world. Such intervention or transformation needs a post-abyssal way of thinking, as Santos (2016, p. 133) calls it, which goes beyond the Western claim to universality and monopoly of truth (Zembylas, 2017, p. 403). Santos advocates for an ecology of knowledges (Santos, 2016, pp. 188-189), where there are many and diverse concepts of what counts as knowledge, and a “broader context of dialogue with other knowledges” recognising the incompleteness of all knowledges. Ecology of knowledges engages with the idea of a “radical co-presence” of both sides of the abyssal line (Santos, 2016, p. 191). This enables pluralistic thinking and goes beyond the separation of North/South, because “no single type of knowledge can account for all possible interventions in the world, all knowledges are incomplete in different ways” (Santos, 2016, p. 201).

Intercultural translation allows for dialogue and interpretations across cultures, while raising the awareness of reciprocal incompleteness of knowledges. Building on the three key ideas of abyssal line, ecology of knowledges, and intercultural translation, Zembylas (2017) identifies pedagogical implications for challenging assumptions of the universality of Western understandings.

(1) Firstly, the possibility of post abyssal thinking interrupts assumptions about the dominance and universality of Western concepts of leadership. The analysis and awareness of the concept of abyssal lines may be the first step.

(2) Secondly, providing a forum for an ecology of knowledges, which recognises other epistemologies of ‘leadership’ by developing critical and interpretive engagement across different contexts, emphasises a provisional and more tentative nature of knowledge production. It also recognises that Western traditions are only one kind of knowledge.

(3) Thirdly, the support of a more local and tentative criticality which recognises that we are not seeking a substitute for the universality of Western models of leadership, but seeking an ongoing dialogue which gives a voice and place to global South and indigenous knowledges, in addition to those from the global North.

Intercultural translation recognises that there are a range of resources that can provide meaning to social experiences without an automatic conferral to Western assumptions. As Santos (2016) argues “the understanding of the world by far exceeds the Western understanding of the world” (p. 237). Santos (2016) also points out that creating a better world is not possible without “global cognitive justice” (p. 233). Cognitive justice is aimed at acting on two ideas—that “different types of knowledge are incomplete in different ways and that [we need to raise] … the consciousness of such reciprocal incompleteness” (Santos, 2016, p. 212).

Western-centric general theories assume that such concepts can be ‘transferred’ across cultures without understanding differences or similarities. This is exactly what I realised has been an initial assumption in my teaching which needed to change.

Philosophy of Teaching | Dr Bev Rogers This page is part of the collection 'I teach who I am - but who am I? A collection of personal philosophies of teaching from Flinders University staff'.

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