The possibility of mutual recognition

I first began seriously thinking about the term “mutual recognition” after reading bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress when I was a doctoral student in 2007. Since then, it has been central to my pedagogical practice at the City University of New York where I teach beginning and pre-service teachers...

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Main Author: Gene Fellner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Linköping University Electronic Press 2025-06-01
Series:Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://confero.ep.liu.se/article/view/5499
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author Gene Fellner
author_facet Gene Fellner
author_sort Gene Fellner
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description I first began seriously thinking about the term “mutual recognition” after reading bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress when I was a doctoral student in 2007. Since then, it has been central to my pedagogical practice at the City University of New York where I teach beginning and pre-service teachers as well as doctoral candidates. The writings of hooks, alongside those of Paulo Freire and Lisa Delpit, and with a tradition that extends back as far as Socrates, embrace dialogical engagement to guide students to know themselves and each other. With that awareness, as Freire writes, they have the potential to “intervene in their reality” and “emerge from submersion.” Mutual recognition also, vitally, requires teachers, who are in a position of official power in the classroom, and who often come from radically different backgrounds and life experiences than their students, to purge themselves of their beliefs and biases, at least temporarily, so that they can guide their students and themselves in this process of acknowledgment and empathy. This is very difficult to do well. Though much has been written about mutual recognition within educational scholarship, my recent reading of Emily Wilson’s new translation of the Iliad, and the current state of the world which the Iliad well reflects though it was composed over 3000 years ago, impressed upon me the urgency of practicing mutual recognition in the wider world that we share.
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spelling doaj-art-954962a7502f4057930da34fc392bc432025-08-20T02:33:39ZengLinköping University Electronic PressConfero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics2001-45622025-06-0110.3384/confero.5499 The possibility of mutual recognitionGene Fellner0City University of New York I first began seriously thinking about the term “mutual recognition” after reading bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress when I was a doctoral student in 2007. Since then, it has been central to my pedagogical practice at the City University of New York where I teach beginning and pre-service teachers as well as doctoral candidates. The writings of hooks, alongside those of Paulo Freire and Lisa Delpit, and with a tradition that extends back as far as Socrates, embrace dialogical engagement to guide students to know themselves and each other. With that awareness, as Freire writes, they have the potential to “intervene in their reality” and “emerge from submersion.” Mutual recognition also, vitally, requires teachers, who are in a position of official power in the classroom, and who often come from radically different backgrounds and life experiences than their students, to purge themselves of their beliefs and biases, at least temporarily, so that they can guide their students and themselves in this process of acknowledgment and empathy. This is very difficult to do well. Though much has been written about mutual recognition within educational scholarship, my recent reading of Emily Wilson’s new translation of the Iliad, and the current state of the world which the Iliad well reflects though it was composed over 3000 years ago, impressed upon me the urgency of practicing mutual recognition in the wider world that we share. https://confero.ep.liu.se/article/view/5499Mutual recognitionDialogic pedagogyGazaIsraelPalestinebell hooks
spellingShingle Gene Fellner
The possibility of mutual recognition
Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics
Mutual recognition
Dialogic pedagogy
Gaza
Israel
Palestine
bell hooks
title The possibility of mutual recognition
title_full The possibility of mutual recognition
title_fullStr The possibility of mutual recognition
title_full_unstemmed The possibility of mutual recognition
title_short The possibility of mutual recognition
title_sort possibility of mutual recognition
topic Mutual recognition
Dialogic pedagogy
Gaza
Israel
Palestine
bell hooks
url https://confero.ep.liu.se/article/view/5499
work_keys_str_mv AT genefellner thepossibilityofmutualrecognition
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