In the face of the uncertainties facing the world right now, higher education needs a theoretical and methodological framework that enables it to remain socially inclusive, technologically innovative and responsive to the diverse needs of today’s society.
Here, I’ll explore how rhizomatic learning and critical digital pedagogy can create learning environments that respond to the needs of the post-digital era. Both approaches challenge traditional power structures, foster active participation across the educational community and promote the co-construction of knowledge. Learning contexts become flexible and adaptable, empowering both teachers and students in their pursuit of critical and reflective learning.
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Rhizomatic learning draws on the concept of the rhizome, as introduced by the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The rhizome, a botanical term, refers to a root structure that expands and connects in multiple directions, creating a decentralised, horizontal structure. Applying the rhizome in higher education allows students to navigate their learning based on the cognitive conflicts they encounter. Unlike traditional educational models, rhizomatic learning encourages students to acquire knowledge through the interconnectedness of curricular content, prompting them to explore diverse perspectives and methods. This process leads to a critical, reflective learning experience that cultivates global knowledge and competence.
Following the principles of rhizomatic learning, digital critical pedagogy offers a new dimension to the relationship between learning situations and the digitisation of learning processes. Critical digital pedagogy, based on the critical pedagogy popularised by Paulo Freire, challenges traditional power structures in education, promotes critical consciousness, empowers learners towards emancipation and invites diversity of perspectives and inclusive approaches. In the post-digital era, critical digital pedagogy emerges as the practical application of critical pedagogy in the use of digital technology. It promotes active participation and critical awareness in networking and digitisation processes. By cultivating digital literacy and consciousness, learners are better equipped to navigate and influence the information society responsibly and inclusively.
Based on the principles of rhizomatic learning and digital critical pedagogy, here are some practical ideas that aim to create learning situations that foster autonomy, critical thinking and emancipation. These experiences can be adapted to any university degree as they adapt to the individual needs of the students and evolve in response to the social and technological contexts of the degree itself. In my case, these experiences have been carried out within the primary education degree and the social work degree. These are lines of flight, with the expectation that future publications will expand on the methodology of each of these experiences.
- Digital autobiographical storytelling: Students create reflective narratives throughout the course to gain awareness of their professional practices. Once they are aware of this, they must deconstruct it through new social, artistic and conceptual inputs and stimuli. This practice of narrative and artistic creation allows them to explore social contexts, everyday situations, concepts and other stimuli that become an explicit part of their training process. They investigate their professional identity as a dynamic, social phenomenon that is constantly changing by using a non-linear, always-connected method.
- Podcasting: In this experience, students form groups and select a conceptual block, such as gender perspective, social exclusion, education and environment. Once selected, they analyse the block and create a podcast integrating the principles of digital critical pedagogy. The podcast they create becomes a tool to share knowledge with their classmates. In this way, students become creators of curricular content and collaboratively share knowledge through digital platforms. This strategy not only promotes the critical use of technology but also active involvement. It emphasises how knowledge is a continuous process enhanced by the interconnectedness of concepts and a range of viewpoints.
- Artistic research projects: The goal of this research project is to apply an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the city’s cultural legacy. Using primary and secondary sources, students conduct research within historical, social and cultural contexts to investigate different cognitive conflicts that arise in their learning. Once they have completed the research process, the students must design an artistic transfer to the community, in order to pass on their learning. The aim is for the research project to become a dynamic and accessible pedagogical tool for the whole social community.
The assemblage of rhizomatic learning and critical digital pedagogy has the potential to enable students and teachers to acquire critical thinking, multimodal communication skills, digital literacy and profound social and cultural awareness. In turn, these approaches encourage teachers to question established practices and to adopt a more inclusive, connected and responsive view of the world around us. Higher education creates enriching educational experiences for its students that, in turn, benefit society as a whole.
Daniel Gutiérrez-Ujaque is a lecturer in critical pedagogy in the department of education sciences at the University of Lleida.
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