Resistance, reflexivity, and rest: Critical pedagogical rituals of “Ubuntu”

Abstract

In the rapidly changing demographic landscape of the country, our classrooms have become more culturally diverse, but our pedagogy is often unprepared. Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) teachers and students, whose identities are “othered” and marginalized, are often muted and struggle with contextualizing racial and ethnic trauma and anxiety in the classroom. The bell hooks quote above is a call to action for teachers to utilize the classroom as a political space to engage these difficult experiences and create enlightening moments around diversity, power, social justice. Through this essay, we will discuss the self-reflexivity that scholars with marginalized intersectional identities experience, the intentional resistance to the status quo, and the rest that is required daily in the face of structures and systems that deny our pain. As two educators of marginalized identities (a Black woman and Indian woman with an immigrant status, who both lived in South Africa), we are dedicated to utilizing the philosophy of Ubuntu as a ritual to resist divisive and silencing structures within the classroom. Ubuntu is a Zulu and Xhosa saying that can be loosely translated as, “I am because we are.” We assert that Ubuntu provides an intersectional, transnational, postcolonial, feminist paradigm for critical communication pedagogy—valuing the humanity of all—while centering the humanity and communicative acts of the marginalized. As BIPOC instructors, we have a position of privilege to guide our classrooms while also living as members of communities oppressed by structural inequality. Our intersectional positions give us a unique opportunity to collaborate with each other and develop relationships inside and out of the classroom as we advocate for peace and social justice. Ubuntu is a form of resistance to divisive structures like institutionalized racism and unjust immigration policies. Chandra Mohanty (2003) asserts that “[r]esistance lies in self-conscious engagement with dominant, normative discourses and representations and in the active creation of oppositional analytics and cultural spaces” (p. 196). As communication scholars, we understand that resistance is a communicative act that is conscious and continual. We posit that resistance should be framed as a ritual for those who believe in social justice—a ritual that should take place within the classroom. A ritual is something we partake in as a tradition, and it requires discipline that is more wholly connected to our identities. Resistance involves being mindful of who we are in the context of our shared identity as human beings whose lives matter.