Teaching Africa, presenting, representing and the importance of who is in the classroom
| Author | Laura Routley |
| Published date | 01 November 2016 |
| Date | 01 November 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0263395715618414 |
| Subject Matter | Special Section: Teaching Africa and International StudiesGuest Edited by Julia Gallagher (Royal Holloway, University of London) |
Politics
2016, Vol. 36(4) 482 –494
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0263395715618414
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Teaching Africa, presenting,
representing and the
importance of who is in the
classroom
Laura Routley
Newcastle University, UK
Abstract
Teaching Africa within international relations (IR) carries a responsibility to engage students
with the power relations that dominate Africa’s global position and ‘western’ knowledge of
the continent. The key contribution of this article is to highlight the significance of difference
and power relations not only when these are manifested in the identities present within the
classroom but also just as importantly when they are not. The article argues that positionality and
representations profoundly shape engagement with Africa. Who is in the classroom particularly
matters when teaching material embedded in ongoing colonial relations. Disrupting students’
assumptions, such as their alignment with Western actors who will ‘solve’ Africa’s problems, may
therefore involve disempowering them. By doing so, it is possible to potentially establish more
productive starting points for learning about Africa within IR.
Keywords
Africa, politics, positionality, representations, teaching and learning
Received: 15th September 2014; Revised version received: 14th June 2015; Accepted: 30th June 2015
Introduction
The classroom is a political and cultural site (Mohanty, 1989–1990: 183). It is, however,
not an isolated one; rather, it is shaped by the broader political social and cultural context
in which it sits. The key contribution of this article is to highlight the significance of dif-
ference and power relations within the classroom not only when these are manifested in
the identities present in the classroom, as has been addressed by some pedagogic litera-
ture, but just as importantly when they are not. It argues that teachers of African politics
need to confront the pre-conditions and power relations that form their classroom con-
text through absence as well as presence as these reshape the engagements students can
have with the issues. There are three key elements of this context that I will discuss here.
Corresponding author:
Laura Routley, School of Geography Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, 40-42 Great North Road,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK.
Email: laura.routley@ncl.ac.uk
618414POL0010.1177/0263395715618414PoliticsRoutley
research-article2016
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