Dialogic pedagogies for softening digital and epistemic divides in morally heightened times


Elliot Fonarev, University of Toronto

Since October 2023, diasporic politics around Israeli and Palestinian nationalisms (Shafir, 1996) have been reinvigorated over social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok. Digital media is a key site of collective construction of diasporic identity through online discourses and knowledge sharing about identity, peoplehood, and ‘homeland’ politics (Féron and Voytiv, 2021; Shams, 2020). Moreover, media on exogenous geopolitical events can siphon attention to other places and reshape migrant identity formations in connection to ‘homeland’ constructs and ‘present-place’ experiences of belonging (Shams, 2020). As part of a broader research project on Jewish boundary-making practices, I explore how knowledge construction around Jewish identity and experience is being encoded in the digital domain, examining the works of Jewish-identified cultural interlocutors who promote either ‘pro-Israel’ or ‘pro-Palestine’ positions through social media content and their claims and rebukes in competing boundary constructions around identity, belonging, and “sense of place” (Bourdieu 1977). Prior sociological research has documented the growing complexity of diasporic allegiances between young Jewish North Americans and Israel (Cohen and Kelman, 2010; Sasson, 2010; Schneider, 2020; Waxman, 2017). These scholars examines changing diaspora-homeland relationships and debate whether recent trends suggesting that younger generations have more critical stances towards the policies of Israel indicate alienation or deeper connection to Jewish identity. This highlights how transnational translations of knowledge and politics over digital media influences diasporic understandings of peoplehood and identity and how such claims-making may be used to build moments of ontological stability in a time of affective distress. In this presentation, I draw on critical and trauma-informed pedagogical approaches, professional mentoring practice, and community workshop facilitation experiences to identify strategies to sustain critical thinking practices and inclusive classroom climates that support diverse students around issues that engage identity across differences in power and culture. Drawing on dialogic approaches to tough conversations, I consider how educators can play a role in fostering inclusive classrooms and care to de-escalate fears and tensions around contentious politics.

This paper will be presented at the following session: