Valuing Dis/agreement: Teacher Education and democracy

This project explored teacher educators’ perspectives on valuing dis/agreement in education, and their preparedness to enable dis/agreement. The forward slash in dis/agreement has been used throughout, informed by physicist Karen Barad’s adoption of slashes between words to bring binary oppositions into question – see Juelskjaer & Schwennesen (2012). Research team members are based at the universities of Cape Town, South Africa; the Azores, Portugal; Strathclyde, Scotland; and Plymouth, England. The methodology was informed by the theory and practice of communities of philosophical enquiry. Methods included a literature review, an online questionnaire and face-to-face workshops in each setting. An online workshop brought participants together from all four settings for shared reflection. Thematic analysis was structured through the research questions on: a) associations with dis/agreement; b) perspectives on its place in teacher education; c) experiences of dis/agreement; and d) approaches to its enablement. Participants generally welcomed opportunities to explore dis/agreement, some for the first time. There were differences in interpretations of dis/agreement within and across the settings. Many expressed concerns about whether current conditions are favourable for the expression of dis/agreement in education, given the emphasis on standardisation and assessment, student teachers’ reluctance or nervousness about open dis/agreement and a seemingly chronic shortage of time. Teacher educators expressed commitment to a wide variety of theoretically informed approaches to enabling dis/agreement. Findings indicate that the adoption of dis/agreement requires significant time and attention to building conducive relationships and creating discomfort friendly conditions in classrooms, so that contestation can be deliberately enabled, with care for the affective dimensions of dialogue. Having undertaken this project, we dare to propose that this topic is worthy of further exploration in other sectors of education, and more widely in higher education.