Editorial 

Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, Claudia Mitchell

and Daisy Pillay

This special edition of the Journal of Education draws on a contemporary
concern with memory and pedagogy in South Africa – as we see, for example,
in a themed issue of Perspectives in Education that examines how different
“post-conflict societies”, including South Africa, engage with “the past as a
pedagogical problem” (Jansen and Weldon, 2009, pp.107–108). At the same
time, this edition builds on recent international work done in an invitational
workshop on Productive Memory & Social Action held in 2008 (see
http://iirc.mcgill.ca/workshop/) and in an edited book titled Memory and
Pedagogy (Mitchell, Strong-Wilson, Pithouse and Allnutt, 2011b), to consider
how working with memory – as phenomenon and method – might contribute
to pedagogic practice and research in the South African context. 

Memory-work has its roots in a process of collaborative inquiry on female
sexualisation undertaken by a group of feminist women in Germany (see
Haug, 1987) and then further developed and elaborated by researchers such as
Crawford, Kippax, Onyx, Gault, and Benton (1992), Onyx and Small (2001),
and Lapadat, Black, Clark, Gremm, Karanja, Mieke and Quinlan (2010).
Memory-work is underpinned by the premise that memories play a
fundamental role in current individual and collective patterns of thought and
action and that we can consciously work with memory to become aware of
and intervene creatively in these patterns (Pithouse, 2007). In particular,
memory-work is aimed at revealing and gaining insight into the social
meanings of and influences on memory. As Crawford et al. (1992, p.49),
explain:

What is of interest is not why person X’ s father did such and such but why fathers do such
things. The aim is to uncover the social meanings embodied by the [memories] and to
uncover the processes whereby the meanings – both then and now – are arrived at.

Hence, the fundamental purpose of memory-work is to facilitate a heightened
consciousness of how social forces and practices, such as gender, race and
class, affect human experiences and understandings and of how individuals

http://iirc.mcgill.ca/workshop/


        Journal of Education, No. 54, 20122

and groups can take action in response to these social forces and practices in
ways that can make a qualitative difference to the present and the future.

Memory-work has been taken up in relation to pedagogy by Mitchell and
Weber (1998,1999), who conducted pioneering research on the role of
memory-work in teacher development in the 1990s. They worked with
Canadian schoolteachers to examine how their memories of childhood and
schooling had influenced their own teaching and how they might engage
critically and creatively with these memories as “[tools] for change”
(Mitchell, Strong-Wilson, Pithouse and Allnutt, 2011a, p.2). Subsequently,
Samaras, Hicks, and Berger (2004) drew on a range of largely North
American studies to explore how schoolteachers’ and teacher educators’
memory-work – conceptualised as ‘personal history self-study’ – could
facilitate personal and professional development. And, in Australia, Austin
and Hickey’s (2007) use of autoethnographic memory-work with student
teachers and practising teachers highlighted its potential “for the development
of critically reflexive and genuinely emancipatory professional practice,
particularly, in Education” (p.377). 

Memory-work is also emerging as a significant pedagogic and research
method in the South African Education field. Shortly after the first democratic
elections in South Africa, Mitchell (2004) conducted a series of workshops
with beginning teachers, in which drawings produced by school children in
response to the prompt ‘let every child learn’ invoked the teachers’ memories
of schooling. And Samuel (2003) conducted participatory autobiographical
research with pre-service English teachers to explore the how their memories
of the learning and teaching of English might influence their future
development as English teachers. Then, Pithouse’s doctoral study (2007,
2011) demonstrated how memory-work with practising teachers in Honours
and Masters courses facilitated their intellectual and emotional engagement
with the learning process. Moving beyond the domain of teacher education,
De Beer (2009), a lecturer in the arts and design field, explored how her own
autoethnographic memory-work had transformed her pedagogic practice with
students. 

What this growing body of scholarship in educational memory-work points to
are significant interconnections between memory-work and educators’
reflexive study of their own pedagogic selves and practices. Mitchell and
Weber have conceptualised this as “a pedagogy of reinvention” – “a process
of going back over something in different ways and with new perspectives, of



Editorial         3

studying one’s own experience with insight and awareness of the present for
purposed of acting on the future” (1999, p.8). This work also speaks to the
idea of what they term “beyond nostalgia”, and they call for ways to work
with memory that go beyond what bell hooks refers to as “useless longing”
(cited in Mitchell and Weber, 1999, p.5), turning practices of working with
memory into what might be described as “future oriented remembering”
(Mitchell and Reid-Walsh, 2002, p.54).

In this themed issue, we see a range of ways that scholars are currently taking
up a ‘pedagogy of reinvention’ in diverse South African contexts. In so doing,
they respond to what Hampl writes about memory in relation to the self:

There may be no more pressing intellectual need in our culture than for people to become
sophisticated about the function of memory. The political implications of the loss of
memory are obvious. The authority of memory is a personal confirmation of self-hood. 
(Hampl, 1996, p.211)

The articles in the issue call attention to both the educational significance and
challenges of working with memory and self in relation to pedagogy in South
Africa. They also illustrate a variety of innovative and creative approaches to
educational memory-work. 

Pattman’s article describes and examines an experience of involving
postgraduate Sociology students in a process of collective memory-work
through choosing, writing and telling a story in class relating to their youth or
childhoods. Hemson’s article problematises a process of young student
leaders ‘speaking’ their early memories of violence in a group context.
Hobden, a Mathematics teacher educator, explores the pedagogic value of
asking future teachers to remember their experiences with Mathematics.
Maistry, working in the field of Business Studies teacher education, focuses
not only on the pedagogic significance of triggering his students’ memories,
but also on the pedagogic value of bringing his own memories into play. This
move towards the remembered self of the author/researcher/educator takes us
to Singh’s article, where she uses the method of a self-interview to explore the
evolution of her own identity and practice as a Drama Education lecturer.
Tobias, a schoolteacher, also employs memory-work to inquire into his past
learning experiences, with the aim of deepening his understanding of his
current teaching and of potential for future change. Finally, Masinga offers an
account of the methodological possibilities and challenges of using memory-



        Journal of Education, No. 54, 20124

work in a participatory study of teachers as sexuality educators – in which she
is both researcher and participant. 

The articles in this issue offer a sense of ‘future oriented remembering’ in
relation to how memory can be used productively in diverse educational
contexts in South Africa, and, as such, these articles contribute to raising new
questions about memory-work and self-reflexive study of pedagogic practice.
How, for example, might ‘a pedagogy of reinvention’ be integrated across
disciplines in Higher Education institutions in South Africa? Transformative
Education/al Studies (TES) – an NRF-funded inter-institutional, trans-
disciplinary project involving researchers from the Durban University of
Technology, Walter Sisulu University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal –
is currently addressing some of the complexities of carrying out this work (see
Pithouse-Morgan, Rawlinson, Pillay, Chisanga and Timm, 2012). Taken as a
whole, what the articles in this special issue draw attention to is the pedagogic
significance of bringing forward the past, as painful as it might be. This is
aptly expressed by a South African teacher, reflecting on his experience of
memory-work (in Pithouse, 2007, p.118):

There is a saying that a nation without history is a lost nation. So, as much as there may be
certain things that we might not want to remember, those things could be important to
remedy the situation we are in at the present moment and to lead us to the future. 

References

Austin, J. and Hickey, A. 2007. Autoethnography and teacher development.
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 2(2):
pp.369–378.

Crawford, J., Kippax, S., Onyx, J., Gault, U. and Benton, P. 1992. Emotion
and gender: constructing meaning from memory. London, Newbury Park:
SAGE Publications.

De Beer, M. 2009. Memory-based expressions of the self: demonstration/
expression of memory through the art of making. In Pithouse, K., Mitchell, C.
and Moletsane, R. (Eds), Making connections: self-study and social action.
New York: Peter Lang, pp.77–96.



Editorial         5

Hampl, P. 1996. Memory and imagination. In McConkey, J. (Ed.), The
anatomy of memory: an anthology. New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp.201–11.

Haug, F. 1987. Female sexualization: a collective work of memory. (Carter, E.
Trans.). London: Verso.

Jansen, J.D. and Weldon, G. 2009. The pedagogical transaction in post-
conflict societies. Perspectives in Education, 27(2): pp.107–108.

Lapadat, J.C., Black, N.E., Clark, P.G., Gremm, R.M., Karanja, L.W., Mieke,
M. and Quinlan, L. 2010. Life challenge memory-work: using collaborative
autobiography to understand ourselves. International Journal of Qualitative
Methods, 9(1): pp.77–104.
 
Mitchell, C. 2004. Just who do we think we are? Memory-work and self study
with beginning teachers. In Balfour, R., Buthelezi, T. and Mitchell, C. (Eds),
Teacher development at the centre of change. Durban: KZN DoE, pp.45–54).

Mitchell, C. and Weber, S. 1998. The usable past: teachers (re)playing school.
Changing English, 5(1): pp.45–56.

Mitchell, C. and Weber, S. 1999. Reinventing ourselves as teachers: beyond
nostalgia. London: Philadelphia, PA: Falmer Press.

Mitchell, C. and Reid-Walsh, J. 2002. Researching children’s popular
culture: the cultural spaces of childhood. London: Routledge Taylor Francis.

Mitchell, C., Strong-Wilson, T., Pithouse, K. and Allnutt, S. 2011a.
Introducing Memory and pedagogy. In Mitchell, C., Strong-Wilson, T.,
Pithouse, K. and Allnutt, S. (Eds), Memory and pedagogy. New York:
Routledge, pp.1–13.

Mitchell, C., Strong-Wilson, T., Pithouse, K. and Allnutt, S. (Eds). 2011b.
Memory and pedagogy. New York: Routledge.

Onyx, J. and Small, J. 2001. Memory-work: the method. Qualitative Inquiry,
7(6): pp.773–786.

Pithouse, K. 2007. Learning through teaching: a narrative self-study of a
novice teacher educator. PhD thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.



        Journal of Education, No. 54, 20126

Pithouse, K. 2011. ‘The future of our young children lies in our hands’: re-
envisaging teacher authority through narrative self-study. In Mitchell C.,
Strong-Wilson, T., Pithouse, K. and Allnutt, S. (Eds), Memory and pedagogy.
New York: Routledge, pp.177–190.

Pithouse-Morgan, K., Rawlinson, W., Pillay, D., Chisanga, T. and Timm, D.
2012. ‘Starting with ourselves’: perspectives from the Transformative
Education/al Studies project. Symposium presented at American Educational
Research Association 2012 Annual Meeting, April 14, Vancouver, Canada.

Samaras, A.P., Hicks, M.A. and Berger, J.G. 2004. Self-study through
personal history. In Loughran, J.J., Hamilton, M.L., LaBoskey, V. K. and
Russell, T. (Eds), International handbook of self-study of teaching and
teacher education practices. Dordrecht; Boston; London: Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Vol. 2, pp.905–942.

Samuel, M. 2003. Autobiographical research in teacher education: memories
as method and model. In Lewin, K., Samuel, M. and Sayed, Y. (Eds),
Changing patterns of teacher education in South Africa: policy, practice and
prospects. Sandown: Heinemann, pp.253–272.

Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan
School of Education
University of KwaZulu-Natal

Claudia Mitchell
James McGill Professor of Visual Arts-based Methodologies, HIV&AIDS   
and Social Change
McGill University

Daisy Pillay
School of Education
University of KwaZulu-Natal

pithousemorgan@ukzn.ac.za
profclaudiamitchell@gmail.com
pillaygv@ukzn.ac.za

mailto:pithousemorgan@ukzn.ac.za
mailto:profclaudiamitchell@gmail.com
mailto:pillaygv@ukzn.ac.za