Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and adult education : rearranging desires at both ends of the spectrum

Abstract

As Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak identifies deeply with her role both as an educator and a teacher, she writes and talks extensively about her teaching at Columbia University and her teaching activities with adults in the rural areas of India and some African countries. I discuss in this article some of her valuable thoughts, observations, and insights gained over a number of years, which can be inspiring for adult education. After a short introduction to Spivak’s working context and her approach to education, some of her most important concepts will be presented in a concise overview: ‘The importance of aesthetic education’; ‘the necessity to teach at two ends of the spectrum’; and ‘the task to rearrange desires and to change epistemologies’. The article ends with a short insight into the current contexts and discourses of adult education, including an example of how some of these concepts can be applied in research projects in the context of ‘adult education and migration’.