Southern Theory Contributions to Initial Teacher Education in an Australian Program: A Developing Pedagogical Political Project

This chapter is both an account of the process and an attempt at ‘thinking from a southern point of view’ in an initial teacher education course in Brisbane, Australia where I incorporated Southern Theory into my teaching. As a Brazilian migrant living in Australia for many years, I deliberately reveal my most Southern self to help me navigate the uneasy and often conflicting neoliberal waters of an Australian initial teacher education program. First, this chapter locates both Postcolonial and Decolonial thought by highlighting two central works: Edward W. Said’s Orientalism (1979/2019) and Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1963/2004). This is followed by a brief history of the development of the concept of Global South which in turn leads to how Southern Theory is conceptualized in the chapter: as a pedagogical project. Doing Southern Theory is the second section where I briefly justify the use of Southern Theory in education as a possibility for pursuing epistemic justice. I then introduce the concept of a pedagogical political project as an example of a product of Southern thought and describe how I adapted its guiding principles to redevelop and adjust an initial teacher education course for secondary pre-service teachers at an Australian university.