A Synthesis of Critical Education with Critical Realism to Address the Possibility of Human Flourishing

Critiques of neoliberal capitalism must be centred on ontology. Ontology is about the reality of humans creating systems, education being one, that consequently create injustice – planetary as well as social. Unfortunately, and at our peril, ontology is often absent from debates about planetary and social problems. Ontology is either absented in toto, or conflated into epistemology. This means that reality exists only in ideas, theories, and knowledge. The problem is that explanations that seek the roots of our problems are never unearthed (for example of centrality of labour power for capitalism). It means that university classroom dialogue is not apprehended in reality. Ultimately it means that we cannot begin the momentum to transgress neoliberalism and hope is impotent. In this presentation, I will highlight some basics of critical realism and its use for explaining the status quo. This explanation will be articulated with the practical method of critical education, which can be used as a learning and teaching instrument for a transformative purpose.