Education against fascism

• Grant number: 17/09464-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2017
• End date: August 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Fundamentals of Education
• Principal Investigator: Sinésio Ferraz Bueno
• Grantee: Sinésio Ferraz Bueno
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the Dialectics of Enlightenment, as in several texts written in the 1950s, Adorno undertook a detailed analysis of psychological vulnerability to the fascist atmosphere, as well as the procedures used by group leaders to systematically reinforce stereotyped images of ethnic, racial, sexual minorities, and immigrants in general. Considering the whole critical analysis of fascism and its articulation with an education aimed at de-barbarization, I propose three closely related themes to reflect on an education against fascism. The first theme is to consider the autonomous individual as a point of support for an education focused on critical self-reflection. Given the importance of individual autonomy in Adorno's reflections on fascism, the research intends to make explicit its potential in the educational field. The second theme refers to the relation of reciprocal mediation between theoretical thought and political practice. Adorno's work contains precise notes on the proximity between political activism disconnected from theoretical reflections and fascism, thus conceiving an anti-authoritarian education requiring understanding of the reciprocal mediation relationship between theory and praxis. The third theme exposes the two antagonistic poles of a "dialectic of difference", aiming to understand the misconceptions that education exposes whenever prejudices of an ethnic or gender nature oppose a mere positive stereotypy. (AU)