Pedagogies of indifference

Abstract

This paper draws on a large Australian commissioned research study that mapped classroom pedagogies called ‘productive pedagogies’. The model of pedagogies derived from an admixture of theory and empirical observations and worked together what Fraser ( 1997 Fraser, N. 1997. Justice interruptus critical reflections on the ‘postsocialist’ condition, New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar] ) calls a politics of redistribution and a politics of recognition in its desire to make a difference in relation to schooling as a positional good, a good in and of itself, and in terms of making a difference in relation to the multiple differences extant in contemporary society. Statistical analysis of classroom observations indicated there were four dimensions of productive pedagogies, notably intellectual demand, connectedness, supportiveness and working with and valuing of difference. The actual pedagogies mapped were more akin to ‘pedagogies of indifference’, not in relation to the extent of teacher care and teacher work as therapy, but in respect of making a difference, in the low levels of intellectual demand and connectedness, and in the virtual absence of the difference dimension across the approximately 1000 lessons observed. In working across the critical pedagogies literatures and empirical studies of classrooms the paper constitutes a pedagogical theory of the middle ground and attempts to provoke debate about future pedagogical research, related policy and classroom practices.