The Classroom as Privileged Space

Psychoanalytic Paradigms for Social Justice in Pedagogy

The Classroom as Privileged Space: Psychoanalytic Paradigms for Social Justice in Pedagogy examines the psychic and emotional effects of the dehumanization of children based on social discrimination and difference within schooling. Used as a tool to critique the current state of social justice within education, psychoanalysis allows for a focus on the individual within the social context of schooling. It highlights the emotional structures that can develop in children and learners through the oft repeated trauma of racism and homophobia. This book draws from the articulated experiences of three writers and urges the reader to approach the work of the writers and this book as a witness and as one who is enabled to respond through acquiring knowledge and acting on it. Drawing from scholars in psychoanalysis, sociology, and education, Tapo Chimbganda posits that perhaps the “safe space” education has been touting is not what is necessary to cultivate diversity, equity, and inclusion in classrooms. Rather, privilege, re-imagined through psychoanalytic technique, can make possible the elements of social justice that have long frustrated, silenced, and escaped the classroom.