Learning to live together: humanism and education after the postcolonial challenges

© 2016 Dr. Stephen Eric ChatelierThe idea of humanism has a long history in philosophies of education. Within the Western philosophical traditions, humanism has assumed different forms, often in response to the shifting historical conditions. It has provided a basic template for envisioning educational goals, and for the kind of individuals and society education is expected to produce. In more recent decades, humanism as a philosophical construct has, however, been the subject of criticisms from a wide range of political and disciplinary perspectives. Such criticisms have arisen from a variety of sources, including structuralism, post-structuralism, feminist, environmental and animal studies. One of the more distinctive criticisms has emerged from postcolonial theorists. These theorists have suggested that while humanism was often portrayed as a liberating project, it in fact served as a driving force behind colonial oppression itself. In colonial education, it legitimized the construction of colonial relations. Postcolonial theories have challenged this role performed by humanism. A question emerges then as to whether this implies a rejection of humanism itself. This thesis engages in a critical analysis of the challenges that three major postcolonial theorists – Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Edward Said – pose to the viability and desirability of humanism. After constructing an historical account of humanism and its connections to education within Western traditions, it briefly explores some of the contemporary debates about humanism as a construct. It then suggests that in different ways and to varying degrees, Fanon, Spivak and Said, in their prioritizing of the lived experience of the subaltern, keep open the possibility, and desirability, of humanism as a matter of justice. They do not thus entirely abandon humanism, but suggest the need to rearticulate its meaning and significance so that it is used as a moral resource with which to negotiate the shifting conditions of cultural difference and exchange. The thesis contends therefore that the conditions of globalization have made the idea of humanism more relevant and urgent than ever. Rather than making grand claims or guarantees about its success, this thesis makes the more modest argument that a humanism emerging from the postcolonial challenges needs to be treated as a dynamic notion whose meaning is rearticulated through on-going dialogue and negotiations within and across communities. Education has a major role to play in this, in developing the conversational skills and moral dispositions that enable us to live together, despite our differences