Addressing the ‘citizenship assumption’ in critical pedagogy : exploring the case of rejected female sub-Saharan African asylum seekers in Malta

Abstract

The degree to which an individual can or cannot confront domination is determined by his or her place within the social relations of production, the hegemony of ideological beliefs, including patriarchy and other cultural constructions, and institutional rules, regulations, and practices. These interactions are also shaped by the ways in which members of specific social groups understand, perceive, and act in, through, and on, their reality. This article considers the Maltese context, and the case of sub-Saharan African (SSA) female asylum seekers whose request for asylum has been rejected. The article aims to provoke a critical re-evaluation of the adult education and critical pedagogy literature, and calls for an epistemological shift in the way we theorise the non-citizen within the nation state. The article argues that the ‘rejected’ status limits the possibilities to speak unto power and to mobilise for transformative change. It concludes that a ‘statist’ hegemony is ubiquitous within critical pedagogy literature, wherein ‘citizenship’ is assumed.