4. Nelson Mandela and Dialogic Lifelong Learning

PETER RULE

4. NELSON MANDELA AND DIALOGIC LIFELONG LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

Dialogic pedagogy has diverse roots, including the emancipatory approach of Paulo Freire, the Russian dialogism of Mikhail Bakhtin and his circle and American traditions of progressivism and pragmatism, and critical pedagogy. The life and work of Nelson Mandela, together with compatriots such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Steven Bantu Biko and Beyers Naude, and informed by the historic influence of figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Sol Plaatje, Albert Luthuli, Helen Joseph and Bram Fischer, point towards a South African contribution to dialogic education. Such a contribution is based on notions of human dignity, justice, reconciliation and active peace making and peace building across boundaries. It comprises a daring confrontation with and recognition of the other, not as an enemy but as ‘another’ with whom one can engage and experience transformation in striving towards a ‘we’, not of uniformity that erases all differences, but of dynamic co-being. This chapter explores Nelson Mandela’s exemplary dialogic lifelong learning, and the dimensions and implications of a South African dialogism for education within a lifelong learning perspective. Like everyone else, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a flawed human being with his own quirks and limitations: he was known to be short-tempered, impetuous, and had an autocratic streak. Acknowledging his greatness and pondering his legacy for education do not mean succumbing to hagiography. On the other hand, his visionary embodiment and enactment of values of justice, love, dialogue and reconciliation, coupled with his own practice of lifelong learning and the esteem in which he himself held education, warrant attention to his educational legacy. This legacy has manifold dimensions: Nelson Mandela was himself an exemplar of lifelong learning; he was a passionate advocate of education and its benefits, both for personal development and social transformation; as President of South Africa, he oversaw important educational changes in the transition from apartheid to democracy; he left an institutional legacy, including the Nelson Mandela Institute of Education at the University of Fort Hare, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Mandela-Rhodes Foundation, among others; and his writings, speeches and example bequeath an invaluable point of reference for leadership education (Ramphele, 2003; Slabbert, 2003; Tuckett, 2013; Butler-Adam, 2014; Waghid, 2014). This chapter focuses particularly on the contribution of this legacy to our understanding of dialogic lifelong learning.

My approach is to see Mandela‘s legacy for education not in isolation but as part of a broader progressive South African tradition which both precedes and elaborates his legacy. This includes key figures in the liberation tradition who were themselves educational visionaries, such as Mahatma Gandhi, John Dube, Sol Plaatje, Albert Luthuli and Steve Biko, as well as contemporary figures such as Desmond Tutu and Jonathan Jansen. My discussion of Mandela’s possible contribution to our understanding of dialogic pedagogy will be interwoven accordingly with the patterns of influences from others within this broader tradition. While this is not possible to accomplish in any great depth within the constraints of this chapter, I gesture towards it as a significant dimension of Mandela’s legacy for education.

DIALOGIC PEDAGOGY

Dialogic pedagogy refers to a broad family of approaches to teaching and learning that are informed by the notion of dialogue. While the roots of this approach extend back two and a half millennia to Socrates, the great Greek provoker and protagonist of dialogue, it has received considerable contemporary emphasis, partly as a counterpoint to neoliberal technicism and instrumentalism (Matusov, 2009; White & Peters, 2011; Wegerif, 2013; Lefstein & Snell, 2014). While all these approaches emphasise the importance of dialogue, they differ in how they conceptualise it in relation to education. For example, Lefstein and Snell (2014) see dialogue as a form of interaction through which teachers and learners critically engage with topics, as well as multiple voices and points of view, and create classroom relations which are based on respect and equity. A Latin American tradition, associated with the Brazilian adult educator Paulo Freire, embraces an emancipatory approach which views dialogue as a political praxis of action and reflection for reading the word and the world, and acting to transform it (Freire, 1973, 1994; Boal, 1979; Gadotti, 1996). For writers within the tradition of the Russian literacy theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin, and his circle (Bakhtin, 1981, 1984; Voloshinov, 1973; Sidorkin, 1999; Matusov, 2009), dialogue is not simply a method but an ontological aspect of human being: to be human means to be in dialogue – with others, with oneself, with the world. As such, dialogue underpins all pedagogy, whether it overtly promotes dialogue as a form of interaction or not, because “meaning is inherently dialogical” (Matusov, 2009:1). In this chapter I situate Nelson Mandela’s dialogic lifelong learning within the ontological and emancipatory traditions of dialogue. An analysis of Mandela’s own education and his patterns of lifelong learning, as revealed in his autobiography and biographies, his speeches and other sources, reveal dialogue as intrinsic to his sense of his own person and his learning throughout his life: dialogue with himself, with others, with the collectives of the struggle and of the democratic era, and with his changing context. On the other hand, Mandela constantly relates his learning to the struggle for liberation and democracy in South Africa and to his role as a leader of and within that struggle. I argue that Nelson Mandela exemplifies dialogic lifelong