Hauntology and Affective Encounters with Whiteness in Artful Educational Practices in Denmark

Art pedagogical spaces in Denmark continue to be haunted by the spectre(s) of whiteness, even as scholars agree that the denial of race as a category and the processes pertaining to its existence are problematic. These oversights have the potential to reinforce racism and facilitate the suppression of discussions surrounding race and racialisation. This article examines how whiteness emerges as ghostly matters in artful teaching and learning. The study unfolds through material produced during fieldwork at a University College in Denmark as part of the author’s PhD research centring on the use of artful pedagogical practices as interlinked with play and learning1 in the professional education of social educators. The empirical material consists of observations, reflections on video recordings, and autoethnographic accounts of the phenomenon. The author invokes a hauntological interpretation of the affective event space of a performative pedagogical encounter that is embodied and affective to reveal how whiteness continues to haunt and impact artful pedagogical spaces. This article emphasises the urgent need for active engagement within the Nordic context with the spectre of an occluded but thoroughly entangled history that calls toward a justice-to-come.