Education for Total Liberation: Critical Animal Pedagogy and Teaching against Speciesism (original) (raw)

2019, Educational Studies

Education for Total Liberation: Critical Animal Pedagogy and Teaching against Speciesism is a collection of articles showing how critical animal studies scholars have addressed animal liberation and interconnecting issues of oppression with a diverse range of tactics. The book is a welcome addition to the field of education research, which despite a growing interest in human-animal relations, animal rights, environmental sustainability and social justice, has yet to sufficiently bridge the gap between theory and practice, and has often failed to address speciesism and interconnecting issues of oppression (see e.g. Spannring, 2017; Pedersen, 2010; Martusewicz, Edmundson, & Lupinacci, 2015). This is where critical animal studies (CAS) can offer an "important starting point for organizing around social justice, since it includes speciesism within its intersectional understanding" (p. 5). The diverse collection of articles fall under the praxis of critical animal pedagogies, which aims to demonstrate "what education can be if humans are not the center of focus and understood as superior" (p. 6). Given the time we are living in, transforming education into a space where critical voices are heard and new perspectives are welcome is a necessary feat. The book aims to serve as "a springboard for how to develop further ideas on intersectional organizing or more practically engaged education" (p. 10) to advance liberation, critically address anthropocentrism and attack "the oppression that solidifies itself through a form of liberal humanism" (p. 6). Central to CAS is that theory be tied to action and the premise of the book is to offer examples of CAP in practice. The articles demonstrate how speciesism and animal exploitation are often normalized and overlooked in educational contexts and how the authors have tackled the shortcomings found in their respective educational contexts. The