Consciousness breathing resistance in higher education: not separate but equal

Abstract

This paper attempts to take the ocean of experiences, feelings and thoughts in relation to online teaching as a reaction to the restrictions on face-to-face teaching brought about by the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 that have passed through my mind, having been influenced by the efforts and ruminations of others, and fit it into a teacup. The purpose of this exercise, in grappling with the visceral tensions experienced in this moment despite the similarities evoked of the ‘separate but equal’ treatment of persons under apartheid; and in keeping with Robinson-Morris’ ‘(re)thinking as (non-)method’, is to explore how challenging the Eurocentric conception of the unitary-self challenges the duality implicit in ‘Double Consciousness’ and proves a grappling with ‘Multiple Consciousness’ as a way of being-becoming and inter-being towards seeking liberation of the mind (framed through Black Consciousness and African Feminist Theory) through recourse to Ubuntu and Buddhist Philosophies.