When the academic 'tourist gaze' evolves into collaboration with the parent 'other'. Parents as protagonists of knowledge production

Abstract

Many pre- or in-service professionals I have taught complain that university classes are too theoretical, expert-driven and far removed from reality. They often describe universities as too self-centred, ranking-obsessed and research-driven to maintain genuine, long-lasting relationships with societies, communities and families. While, globally, universities’ presence within communities is becoming more visible, their commitment to society is predominantly outreach in character, and mostly on their own terms. Frustrated by my professorial participation in the curricular and pedagogical status quo, a few years ago I decided to rapture the cycle of pedagogical transmission, student passivity and the objectification of parents and families as data for research by engaging parents as active participants in dialogue with university students. These intermittent attempts within the teacher-formation course have now developed into a study programme aimed at developing a community of learners, constituted mainly of parents, would-be or in-service educators, and academics; a community of praxis committed to: deprivileging access to knowledge; power sharing; foregrounding the marginalised voices of disadvantaged parents; and welding critical reflection with communal action.