(2024). Fascist Politics and the Dread of White Supremacy in the Age of Disconnections. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v46 n1 p102-117. With the rise of authoritarian politics across the globe, echoes of a fascist past are with us once again signaling a looming and dangerous threat to education and democracy. This essay argues that is it crucial to engage fascism both as a language of white supremacy and a politics of disconnection. If fascism is to be addressed both politically and educationally, it is crucial to address its underlying political, educational, and economic elements comprehensively as part of a broad politics. Any viable mode of resistance to fascism in its upgraded forms must not only make education central to politics but also analyze the problems it produces and its root causes in their interconnections and as part of a wider totality of power and exclusion. Fascism is normalized in a capitalist order when its diverse economic, political and social problems appear fragmented, disconnected, and are treated in isolation. This essay argues against this form of normalization and critiques the… [Direct]
(2024). Relational Antifascist Education: Resisting Neoliberal Fascist Productions. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v46 n3 p476-489. This essay argues that educational practices are uniquely situated to mobilize antifascist resistance. Contemporary fascism produces through macro- and micropolitical movements. The author looks to how educational practices make molecular fascist productions sensible. Educators can resist the molecular and micropolitical productions of fascist desires by creating and inviting complex relationships in educational practices and spaces. By making the complexity of each individual's partial struggles sensible, educators resist the microfascist individualizations of contemporary capitalism operative in pedagogy. The development of capitalism into neoliberalism produces new fascisms not reducible to previous fascist iterations. Neoliberalism and fascism must be attended to in their complexities and differences in order to mobilize affective antifascist resistance. In conclusion, this essay argues for complex resistance to the differing fascist tendencies operative in neoliberal academic… [Direct]
(2024). Education, Pedagogy, & the 'F' Word. Studies in Philosophy and Education, v43 n6 p605-629. This study takes up Paul Gilroy's recent call to take seriously the political problem of fascism in the contemporary conjuncture as an educational problem. Specifically, the study will begin with analytic work to identify a set of guideposts that delineate the political logics of fascism. It will then examine the still under-developed theoretical work examining the political problem of contemporary fascism as an educational problem. And, it will attempt to advance this necessary work by tracing the outline of an antifascist educational project. It will be argued that an anti-fascist educational project must, in the short-term, develop polemical strategies that articulate a new set of political logics to challenge the increasingly cemented fascist logics at work today and, in the long-term, advance structural changes to educational institutions organized around normative aims of humane and humanizing education, morality and responsibility, and sociological knowledge…. [Direct]
(2020). Marxist Feminist Pedagogies of Fascism and Anti-Fascism. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, n165 p129-141 Spr. This article uses a critical analysis of liberal democracy and its ties to a re-emergent fascism to call for a Marxist feminist pedagogy of anti-fascism…. [Direct]
(2022). The Phantom That Haunts Us (Again): Post-Fascism, Affect, and the Paradoxes of Cultivating an Anti-Fascist Sensibility in Education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, v20 n4 p558-570. This article engages with the notion of 'post-fascism' in contemporary times, and explores how attention to the affective ideology of post-fascism can inform pedagogical thinking that cultivates an "anti-fascist sensibility" in education. It is argued that to do so, it is necessary to somehow break fascism's grip on the body and its affective pull. The analysis offered in this paper enables a critical interrogation of how the education field itself may be implicated to the cultivation of 'fascist traits' by being complicit to the structures and practices that are connected to neo-fascism such as neo-liberal globalisation. Despite the paradoxes entailed in education's efforts to cultivate an anti-fascist sensibility, educators have a lot to gain from interrogating their own complicity and especially how they can engage with their students in anti-complicit actions that challenge fascist structures and practices in education…. [Direct]
(2024). Bataille's Anti-Fascism through the Lens of Affect Theory: Reflections on Antifascist Education. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v46 n3 p443-457. This article puts in conversation Georges Bataille's contributions to critical theory of fascism with contemporary affect theory, and outlines some implications for antifascist education. The purpose is to critically engage with the role of affectivity in fascism and antifascist education and unpack the risks entailed in antifascist education as a case of 'affective education,' thereby extending our understanding of the affective dimensions of antifascist education. If antifascism requires attunement to antifascist affects and sensibilities, as Bataille suggests, then there are important ethical and political risks for antifascist education. In particular, if antifascist education must stoke a passion for democracy, then there are concerns about where to draw the line that enables a non-dogmatic, non-manipulative antifascism. The article discusses whether or how it might be possible to remedy some of these ethical and political risks through particular strategies…. [Direct]
(2024). Educating for Radical Hope in Face of Rising Fascism. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v46 n3 p422-442. In recent years right-extremist ideologies, parties and regimes are gaining popularity and power all over the globe, and as days go by, hope for equality, freedom and peace seems more and more unrealistic, delusionary, perhaps even dangerous. To what goals and in which ways should one educate in a reality that offers no end in sight to oppression? And should educators be satisfied with the hope to merely slow down or temporarily pause what seems to be inevitable? In this essay, I show that educators and their students might get caught up in state of "stuckedness" (Hage, 2009), to which fascist hope and fascist unique temporalities offer relief. I argue that from this situation, a particular and strong kind of hope can arise — radical hope that is immanently transcendent and whose objectives are incomprehensible and cannot be imagined at present. Paradoxically and while difficult to attain, this almost desperate hope can free educators from the discursive and temporal… [Direct]
(2024). Antifascist Praxis in Developmental Science: Possibilities for Collective Resistance to Fascism. Child Development Perspectives, v18 n2 p73-81. Antifascists have developed action-oriented principles and practices for collective resistance to fascism. In this article, we discuss antifascism as "praxis," which is the nexus of theory and practice through collective reflection and action. Antifascist praxis can inform developmental science at individual and contextual levels of analysis. For the study of individual developmental trajectories, we examine how antifascist praxis can inform research to stop fascist recruitment of youth and counter-recruit youth into liberation movements. For the study of developmental contexts, we use the example of family separation to examine how antifascist praxis can inform research to identify fascist threats and support collective action against fascist violence. We also present next steps for developing a field of scholarship in which communities of developmental scientists engage in antifascist praxis. As developmental scientists, we must see ourselves as part of – not objectively… [Direct]
(2021). Science Education against the Rise of Fascist and Authoritarian Movements: Towards the Development of a "Pedagogy for Democracy". Cultural Studies of Science Education, v16 n2 p581-607 Jun. In the twenty-first century, the rise and support of fascism-related views threaten freedom of speech, freedom of sexual orientation, religious tolerance and progressive agendas that advocate equity. We argue that mainstream science education generally does not, but should, educate students against fascism-related views–such as racism, sexism, homophobia and religious intolerance–with a view to strengthening mutual respect and the common good. We argue some science teaching practices are found to be suitable to fascism-like ideologies (e.g. race in genetics teaching), and that the use of the concept of 'scientific literacy' has focused on neoliberal possessive individualism. As a consequence, mainstream science education overlooks the development of sympathy, altruism and interpersonal skills. We also discuss the activity of science education in authoritarian, undemocratic regimes in history, showing that fascist regimes have long used 'apolitical' scientists' achievements to… [Direct]
(2022). Teaching Anti-Fascism: A Critical Multicultural Pedagogy for Civic Engagement. Multicultural Education Series. Teachers College Press This timely book examines how fascist ideology has taken hold among certain segments of American society and how this can be addressed in curriculum and instruction. Vavrus presents middle, secondary, and college educators and their students with a conceptual framework for enacting a critical multicultural pedagogy by analyzing discriminatory discourse and recommending civic anti-fascist steps people can take right now. For teacher education programs and policymakers, anti-fascist civic assessment rubrics are provided. To help clarify contemporary debates over what can be taught in public schools, an advance organizer highlights contested and misunderstood terminology. Featuring historical and contemporary patterns of fascist politics, this accessible text is organized in four parts: (1) "Good Trouble," (2) Unpacking Ideological Orientations, (3) Indicators of Colonial Proto-Fascism and U.S. Fascist Politics, and (4) An Anti-Fascist "Reading the World." Readers… [Direct]
(2024). Antifascism as an Educational Question and Openness as a Meta-Value. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v46 n3 p388-409. Within the framework of the reemergence of the theme of antifascism in contemporary educational theory, this paper raises the question of whether antifascism may be considered as a genuinely educational concept. Moreover, it investigates whether and to what extent the idea of antifascist education should remain anchored to an explicit reference to (anti)fascism as a historical phenomenon. Focusing, in particular, on the Italian scene, a distinction is established between antifascist education and education for antifascism. While understanding the concern of the scholars who appeal to a more strictly historical use of the category "(anti)fascist," the article vindicates the significance of the idea of antifascist education broadly understood, by drawing upon Umberto Eco's notion of Ur-fascism. In this endeavor, some key tenets of two Italian thinkers–Aldo Capitini and Guido Calogero–are marshaled and three main ideas are pinned down as representing the tripod of… [Direct]
(2024). Neo-Fascist Trends in Education: Neo-Liberal Hybridisation and a New Authoritarian Order. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v22 n2 p125-170. In this article the way in which current neo-fascism is penetrating education is analysed. For this purpose, a case study sample of three prominent figures was chosen linked to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an organisation that has woven global networks and managed to have an important political presence worldwide: Steve Bannon (USA), Javier Milei (Argentina) and Santiago Abascal (Spain). The research methodology used was Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), examining the texts and documents produced by these figures regarding the debates on education. The results show a basic similarity, albeit centred on different specific focuses: a) the warning of a leftist threat in education, sometimes characterised as an effect of 'cultural Marxism'; b) a generalised rejection of educational proposals that seek to address cultural differences within schools and particularly with regard to sex education policies and the critical analysis of ethnic and cultural relations; c)… [Direct]
(2024). Arendt's Conception of Love and Anti-Fascist Education. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v46 n3 p490-505. Recent scholarship on anti-fascist education has stressed the role of everyday manifestations of power and oppression as the locus of molecular or microfascism, a term coined by Deleuze and Guattari. While identifying the ways in which power structures operate at the quotidian level is undoubtedly an important educational task, this paper argues that an anti-fascist educational approach must also account for the ways in which such structures are connected to concrete political manifestations of fascism. To this end, it explores the potential contributions and challenges of an Arendtian conception of love in the context of anti-fascist education. Drawing on Arendt's polemical interactions about love with Israeli scholar Gershom Scholem, this paper suggests that Arendt's conception of love as belonging outside the realm of the political, and her rejection of a love for the nation and for collectivities in general, can serve as important pedagogical tools in uncovering and critiquing… [Direct]
(2021). Neo-Fascism and the Public University: The Brazilian Conjuncture in the Bolsonaro Government. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v19 n1 p312-342 May. The examination of neo-fascism, especially in Latin American countries such as Brazil requires the examination of some differences that make the expression of the phenomenon irreplicable in social backgrounds as different as in Brazil. Thus, the objective of this article was to problematize the contemporary socio-political configuration of Brazil under neo-fascism and reflect on the public university in this context. For this purpose, we opted for the textual modality of essay, due to the possibility that guidance is given not by the search for answers and true statements, but by questions that can guide the subjects towards deeper reflections. The text addresses the neo-fascistizing traits and their manifestation in the context of Brazilian higher education policy based on five characteristics that bring with them arguments to take stock of the current social scenario in Brazil under the Bolsonaro government…. [PDF]
(2021). Rethinking Neoliberal Fascism, Racist Violence, and the Plague of Inequality. Communication Teacher, v35 n3 p171-177. After decades of a savage global capitalist nightmare both in the United States and around the globe, the mobilizing passions of fascism have been unleashed unlike anything we have seen since the 1930s. The denial of the most basic elements of neoliberal fascism appears more difficult in the age of mass pandemics. Neoliberal violence now takes place under the assumption that it has escaped all control. How else to explain the collapse of public health systems underfunded for years as a result of neoliberal rule; the language of hate and violence aimed at people of color, especially under the former Trump administration; and the staggering increase in inequality in American society and its shameless counterpoint in massive increases in wealth among the ruling financial elite in an era of growing unemployment, and humans suffering in the age of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Immediate solutions such as defunding the police and improving community services are important, but they… [Direct]