Literacy in the post-truth era: The significance of affect and the ethical encounter

Education has a responsibility to respond to the threat of deteriorating democracies. The post-truth era is marked by an erosion of trust in public institutions and extreme polarisation. This paper begins with an examination of the ways by which current literacy and media literacy education is not s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEducational philosophy and theory Vol. 53; no. 6; pp. 613 - 623
Main Author Parker, Lana
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 10.08.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Affect
Affective Behavior
Deception
Disruption
Educational Philosophy
Ethics
Fear
Individualism
Intention
Intersubjectivity
Levinas
Literacy
Literacy Education
Media Literacy
Neoliberalism
Psychological Patterns
Rationality
Teaching Methods
Trust (Psychology)
Truth
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Summary:Education has a responsibility to respond to the threat of deteriorating democracies. The post-truth era is marked by an erosion of trust in public institutions and extreme polarisation. This paper begins with an examination of the ways by which current literacy and media literacy education is not simply outmoded, but also limited by a grounding in neoliberal conceptions of rationality and individualism. Offering a counterpoint to the status quo, and foregrounding the significance of affect, I work with Levinas's conception of ethics ( 1979 , 1989 ) to illustrate the tensions between affective reactionism and non-intentional affectivity, enjoyment and its disruption as a premise for intersubjectivity, and contrasting manifestations of anger. I conclude the paper with a proposal for literacy education that comprises intentional focus on relationality, responsibility, and affect.
ISSN:0013-1857
1469-5812
DOI:10.1080/00131857.2020.1803834