Enabling Social Justice from Within: Reflections on the Student Voice, Pedagogy of Consciousness and the Idea of the University in Democracy

The incidences of suicides by students from marginalized communities at Indian public universities indicate that the structural reforms have been insufficient in bringing social justice at universities and the situation demands a change in cognitive structures and processes that can mobilize shift towards just relations at the universities. This article aims to reflect upon pedagogy of consciousness developed by Paulo Freire and argue for its adoption by teachers to develop student voice that has the potential to bring social justice from within the universities. Following the interpretivist paradigm, the idea of the university given by Kant is explored to locate student voice and social justice within the framework of universities. The idea though places voice at core of university teaching learning process, limits its democratic potential by assuming apolitical role of the universities. Therefore, the author elaborates upon pedagogy of consciousness by Paulo Freire, to bring out its relevance in developing voice for social justice and rethinking the idea of the university. Through the analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with teachers and students at University of Delhi, the voices of students citing incidences of structural as well as epistemic injustice in the University are highlighted to develop the link between theory and practice. These voices point towards lack of spaces for expression of dissenting voices and understanding of these voices by teachers and students from privileged backgrounds. The article concludes with illustrating, how pedagogy of consciousness can develop this consciousness enabling praxis of transformation that brings political dissenting voices to the core of the idea of the university in democracy.