Ye, Isabella Qing ORCID: 0000-0002-4835-0881 (2024) Towards reflexive post-humanism in critical pedagogy: Inclusion of non-human voices in tourism education. In: SHIFT Conference 2024, 10th - 11th Jan 2024, London, University of Greenwich and online.

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Abstract

Underpinned by the current neoliberal ideologies and market-driven values, tourism education often struggles to sufficiently or meaningfully engage the subaltern (minority groups, the environment and non-human beings) in teaching social justice-related topics. Engaging students in social justice debates has become an increasingly important aspect in developing students’ critical thinking and fostering ethical and responsible citizens of the future. Subscribing to a multi-species livelihood, post-humanism argues for the rights, welfare and agency of ‘Other’ beings in more-than-human relations (Copeland, 2021). As Gula (2021) aptly pointed out, tourism (sector) is an inherent issue of justice, in which non-human entities (flora and fauna) are either ‘conserved’ for a human-centred cosmology or are abused for human consumption or pleasure (Thomsen et al., 2023). This study takes a reflexive post-humanism angle to re-articulate inclusive curriculum through surfacing the often invisible and/or marginalised non-human voices in teaching justice issues in the tourism sector, which was long dominated by anthropocentric views. To illustrate, two case studies implemented in tourism modules on level 4 and level 7 (‘Trophy hunting debate’ and ‘A tale of the hostile urban bench’) were used to exemplify how the inclusion of non-human entities and narratives in teaching social justice can empower strong ecological empathy and stimulate reflexive discussions and critical debates amongst students. It was noted that such unconventional pedagogical practices can disrupt the deep-seated perceptual bias of human-centric views and allow students to cultivate a moral imagination of being and becoming with the often-neglected backdrops of travel, through the lens of the lions and a park bench.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	post-humanism; tourism education; critical pedagogy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) L Education > L Education (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business
Last Modified:	15 Jan 2024 11:14
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/45330

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