Welcome to Dialectical Praxis! I'm Derron Borders and this is my professional academic website where I share about my academic and scholarly pursuits.
Hailing from Ohio, I am a higher education professional who is passionate about collective liberation. I believe in the power of commmunity building across difference through interpersonal connections rooted in authenticity, trust, and grace.
As a doctoral student in Kansas State University's Adult Learning and Leadership program, I am interested in radical philosophies of education, focusing on social epistemology, liberatory praxis, media literacy, and adult learning in a settler colonial and neoliberal context.
When not working, studying, or doing research, one can find me volunteering and organizing, working at my garden plot at the Manhattan Community Garden, reading epic fantasy fiction, crafting, playing cozy video games, and studying and discussing linguistics and language.
My philosophical framework of education is rooted in dialectical liberatory praxis—the symbiotic interplay of critical reflection and transformative action—as a means to dismantle oppressive systems and cultivate collective freedom. Grounded in the works of Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, bell hooks, Frantz Fanon, and other critical theorists, this framework rejects neutrality in education, insisting instead that teaching and learning must be acts of resistance, healing, and reclamation. Below, I outline the core pillars of my approach, weaving together feminist, decolonial, Marxist, and critical race theories to advance a pedagogy of radical hope and embodied justice.
My research sits at the intersection of social epistemology and adult learning, with a particular focus on how people break free from hegemonic frames—the deeply embedded worldviews shaped by ideology, power, and social belonging. I study how adults in so-called "post-truth" societies navigate—and sometimes transcend—epistemic bubbles, echo chambers, and neoliberal discourses that shape public understanding of political issues.
My activism is grounded in the belief that transformative change emerges from collective action rooted in solidarity, mutual aid, and sustained community organizing. I engage in work that centers the voices and leadership of those most impacted by systemic oppression, building coalitions across movements for racial justice, economic equity, housing rights, and climate justice.
Whether through direct action, political education, or grassroots organizing, I strive to create spaces where people can develop critical consciousness, practice democratic participation, and exercise power together. My organizing philosophy draws from abolitionist frameworks, Indigenous sovereignty movements, and traditions of radical organizing by the Global South.
Learn more about my research interests and projects.
Simply put, my research interests are in how people learn to think for themselves when surrounded by misinformation, bias, and pressure to believe what everyone else believes. I study how trusted relationships, honest conversations, and lived experiences can help adults see the world in new ways and make better decisions for themselves and their communities.
My research sits at the intersection of social epistemology and adult learning, with a particular focus on how people break free from hegemonic frames—the deeply embedded worldviews shaped by ideology, power, and social belonging. I study how adults in so-called “post-truth” societies navigate—and sometimes transcend—epistemic bubbles, echo chambers, and neoliberal discourses that shape public understanding of political issues.
At the heart of my work are questions about how adults learn in conditions of polarization and disinformation:
Under what circumstances do people move beyond entrenched beliefs?
How do trusted relationships and dialogue open space for transformative learning?
In what ways do social media practices both reflect and reshape critical consciousness?
To answer these questions, I draw on transformative learning theory, critical pedagogy, and social epistemology, using narrative inquiry, digital ethnography, and mixed methods. My case study work explores how adults shift their stance on Palestine—from a pro-Western imperialist frame to an anti-colonial lens—as an example of how ideological transformation unfolds in practice.
More broadly, I investigate how adults:
Reconcile moral intuitions with the demands of epistemic responsibility.
Negotiate identity within knowledge communities, balancing belonging and autonomy.
Cultivate reflective judgment and intellectual humility in evaluating sources, claims, and lived experiences.
My research emphasizes the role of liberatory praxis in building not only individual intellectual growth, but also collective epistemic well-being. I aim to contribute actionable insights for educators, organizers, and policymakers designing interventions that empower adults to critically engage with complex information landscapes.
Ultimately, my goal is to illuminate pathways out of epistemic entrenchment and to advance a vision of lifelong learning as both a personal and collective project—where knowledge is not merely acquired, but ethically lived.
Philosophy
My philosophical framework for approaching adult learning resarch and practice.
My philosophical framework is rooted in dialectical liberatory praxis—the symbiotic interplay of critical reflection and transformative action—as a means to dismantle oppressive systems and cultivate collective freedom. Grounded in the works of Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, bell hooks, Frantz Fanon, and other critical theorists, this framework rejects neutrality in education, insisting instead that teaching and learning must be acts of resistance, healing, and reclamation. Below, I outline the core pillars of my approach, weaving together feminist, decolonial, Marxist, and critical race theories to advance a pedagogy of radical hope and embodied justice.
Praxis as Revolutionary Dialogue
“Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or becomes the practice of freedom.” —Paulo Freire
Liberatory praxis begins with dialogue that bridges theory and lived experience. Drawing on Freire’s conscientização (critical consciousness), I frame education as a collaborative process where adult learners interrogate the sociopolitical conditions shaping their epistemologies. This dialogue is inherently feminist (hooks, Lorde) and decolonial (Mignolo, Quijano), centering marginalized voices as sites of knowledge production. By engaging learners in problem-posing rather than banking education, we co-create narratives that expose power structures—capitalism, settler colonialism, white supremacy—and imagine alternatives.
Intersectionality as Epistemic Resistance
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” —Audre Lorde
My work prioritizes intersectionality (Crenshaw, Lorde) to confront the multiplicative violence of systemic oppression. Following Angela Davis and Toni Morrison, I analyze how race, gender, class, and coloniality coalesce to regulate access to knowledge and dignity. For adult learners in post-truth societies, this means:
Critiquing epistemicide: Challenging the erasure of Indigenous, Black, and queer knowledges (Mignolo, Lugones).
Embodied inquiry: Recognizing how marginalized bodies carry histories of resistance (Fanon, Morrison).
Solidarity across difference: Building coalitions that honor pluralistic truths without relativizing oppression (Lugones’s world-travelling).
Decolonizing Knowledge and Being
“Decolonization is not a metaphor.” —Tuck & Yang
Informed by Indigenous and decolonial theories (Quijano, Mignolo, Tuck & Yang), my framework rejects the Eurocentric, neoliberal logics that fragment knowledge and commodify learning. Instead, I advocate for:
Relational epistemologies: Learning practices rooted in reciprocity, land-based wisdom, and communal accountability.
Unsettling coloniality: Exposing how modernity/coloniality constructs hierarchies of humanity (Quijano’s coloniality of power) and perpetuates epistemic bubbles.
Reclamation as praxis: Supporting learners in recovering subjugated histories and languages, fostering what María Lugones calls “decolonial love.”
Radical Imagination as Collective Liberation
“Without new visions, we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down.” —Robin D.G. Kelley
Liberatory education demands radical imagination—a Marxist-feminist commitment to envisioning worlds beyond capitalist exploitation and carceral logics (Davis, Marx). This involves:
Critical hope: bell hooks’s insistence on education as “the practice of freedom” amid despair.
Prefigurative politics: Creating microcosms of justice within classrooms (e.g., democratic decision-making, resource sharing).
Joy as resistance: Following Toni Morrison, centering joy and creativity as acts of defiance against dehumanization.
Methodological Commitments
My praxis is embodied through:
Participatory action research: Collaborating with communities to design curricula that address localized oppressions.
Testimonio: Amplifying first-person narratives as pedagogical tools (a la Latina feminist epistemology).
I strive to create educational ecosystems where adult learners are not merely “critical” but creators of liberatory futures. By intertwining Marxist critiques of capital, feminist ethics of care, and decolonial demands for land/body sovereignty, my work seeks to rupture epistemic bubbles and equip learners to re-member—to piece together fragmented selves and societies.
Organization
My approach to organizing my academic program.
My Research and Manuscript Workflow
I use a combination of Zotero, GitHub, VSCode, and LaTeX to organize and prepare research and manuscripts. This integrated approach allows me to maintain version control, track project progress systematically, and produce publication-ready documents with professional typesetting. Below I explain how I integrate these various programs, websites, code, and formatting languages to achieve this comprehensive workflow.
Core Tools Integration
LaTeX for Professional Typesetting
LaTeX serves as the foundation of my document preparation system. Unlike traditional word processors, LaTeX separates content from formatting, allowing me to focus on writing while ensuring consistent, publication-quality output. I primarily use the apa7 document class for APA-compliant manuscripts, which automatically handles:
Proper margins and spacing
Citation formatting
Reference list generation
Section heading styles
Title page formatting
The beauty of LaTeX lies in its ability to handle complex academic documents with mathematical expressions, cross-references, and extensive bibliographies without the formatting inconsistencies common in traditional word processors.
VSCode as the Central Hub
Visual Studio Code serves as my primary writing environment, enhanced with the LaTeX Workshop extension. This setup provides:
Syntax highlighting for LaTeX commands
Live PDF preview with automatic compilation
Error detection and debugging assistance
Integrated terminal for Git commands
Extensions ecosystem including grammar checking with LTeX+
The integrated terminal is particularly valuable as it allows me to manage Git operations without leaving my writing environment, maintaining focus and workflow efficiency.
Zotero with Better BibTeX for Reference Management
Zotero manages all my research sources, enhanced by the Better BibTeX plugin for seamless LaTeX integration. My reference workflow includes:
Collection Organization: Sources are organized into project-specific collections
Automatic Export: Better BibTeX maintains synchronized .bib files that update automatically as I add new sources
PDF Management: Full-text PDFs are stored and searchable within Zotero
This integration means I can add sources to Zotero throughout my research process, and they immediately become available for citation in my LaTeX documents without manual export steps.
GitHub Project Management Workflow
Academic Coursework Tracking
Beyond manuscript preparation, I use GitHub Projects to manage my entire doctoral program coursework and deadlines. Each semester and course is organized systematically:
Program-Level Organization:
Semesters as Milestones: Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Summer 2025, etc.
Courses as Major Issues: Each course (EDACE 780, EDACE 830, etc.) becomes a tracked issue
Assignments as Sub-Issues: Individual assignments, papers, and deliverables within each course
Course Progress Tracking:
Labels by Course Type: "Core Course", "Research Methods", "Electives"
Priority Levels: High (current semester), Medium (next semester), Low (future planning)
Progress Indicators: "Not Started", "In Progress", "Submitted", "Graded"
Due Date Management: All assignment deadlines tracked in GitHub Issues with calendar integration
Practical Example - Current Coursework:
Summer 2025 Milestone:
├── Issue: EDACE 790 - Characteristics of Adult Learners
│ ├── Sub-issue: Literature Review Paper (Due: June 15)
│ ├── Sub-issue: Reflection Essay (Due: June 25)
│ └── Sub-issue: Final Project (Due: June 27)
└── Issue: EDACE 785 - Curriculum Design
├── Sub-issue: Curriculum Outline (Due: July 15)
├── Sub-issue: Unit Development (Due: July 30)
└── Sub-issue: Final Curriculum (Due: August 8)
This approach transforms my Gantt chart planning into an actionable, digital project management system where every course component is tracked, deadlines are visible, and progress is measurable.
Repository Structure and Branching Strategy
Each research project or manuscript is organized as a GitHub repository with a clear structure:
Assignment Issues: "Design learning objectives for Unit 2"
Reading Issues: "Complete assigned readings for Week 3"
Project Issues: "Final curriculum design project submission"
Each issue includes:
Clear acceptance criteria and deliverables
Due dates aligned with syllabus and project timelines
Labels for type (coursework, research, writing, revision)
Priority levels based on deadlines and importance
Progress updates and reflection notes
Links to relevant course materials and resources
Project Boards for Visual Management
I organize issues using GitHub Project boards with columns representing workflow stages for both research and coursework:
Research Workflow Columns:
Backlog: All planned tasks and sections
In Progress: Currently active work (limited to 2-3 items)
Review: Completed sections awaiting self-review or feedback
Revision Needed: Items requiring changes based on feedback
Done: Completed and approved sections
Coursework Workflow Columns:
This Week: Current assignments and readings
Next Week: Upcoming deadlines and preparations
In Progress: Ongoing projects and papers
Submitted: Awaiting grading or feedback
Completed: Finished coursework with grades received
Integrated Academic Dashboard:
I maintain a master project board that combines both research and coursework, using color-coded labels to distinguish between different types of work. This provides a comprehensive view of all academic obligations and helps balance research productivity with coursework demands.
This Kanban-style approach provides clear visibility into project status across all academic activities and prevents work overload by limiting work-in-progress items.
Pull Request Process for Quality Control
When completing a section or major revision, I create pull requests to merge feature branches into main:
Self-Review: Review all changes, check for LaTeX errors, verify citations
Descriptive PR: Include summary of changes, link to resolved issues
Documentation: Update README with any workflow changes
Merge: After approval, merge and delete feature branch
This process creates a clear audit trail of document evolution and ensures nothing enters the main branch without review.
Practical Workflow Example
Starting a New Research Project or Course
Repository Setup: Create GitHub repository with issue templates and project board
Initial Structure: Set up LaTeX document structure and Zotero collection
Planning: Create issues for all major deliverables and organize on project board
Course Integration: Add course-specific issues with syllabus deadlines
Semester Overview: Link coursework issues to research timeline for balanced planning
Daily Academic Workflow
Morning Planning: Review project board to prioritize research vs. coursework tasks
Branch Management: Switch to appropriate feature branch or create new one
git checkout -b feature/theoretical-framework
# or
git checkout -b coursework/edace785-unit2-design
Work Session: Draft content in VSCode with live LaTeX preview
Reference Integration: Add sources to Zotero as discovered; they automatically sync to .bib file
Progress Tracking: Update issue comments with progress notes, challenges, and insights
Version Control: Regular commits with descriptive messages
git add sections/theoretical-framework.tex
git commit -m "Add social learning theory framework discussion"
# or
git add coursework/curriculum-outline.tex
git commit -m "Complete learning objectives for adult learning unit"
git push origin feature/branch-name
Issue Management: Move completed items between board columns and update course progress
Completing Major Sections
Self-Review: Use LaTeX error checking and grammar extensions
Pull Request: Create PR with detailed description of changes
Issue Management: Link PR to relevant issues for automatic closure
Board Update: Move completed items to "Done" column
Handling Revisions
Issue Creation: Create specific issues for each reviewer comment or revision need
Branch Strategy: Use revision/ branches for substantial changes
Track Changes: Use Git's diff capabilities to document all modifications
Version Tags: Tag major versions (initial submission, revision 1, etc.)
Benefits of This Integrated Approach
For Writing Quality
Focus on Content: LaTeX handles formatting automatically
Consistency: Automated citation and reference formatting
Professional Output: Publication-ready documents without manual formatting
For Project Management
Comprehensive Academic Tracking: Visual project boards show exactly what's completed across both research and coursework
Integrated Deadline Management: All academic obligations visible in one system
Balanced Workload: Easy identification of competing priorities between research and course demands
Semester Planning: Long-term view of coursework progression alongside research milestones
Collaboration Ready: Easy sharing and collaboration through GitHub for group projects and research teams
For Version Control
Complete History: Every change tracked with descriptive commit messages
Safe Experimentation: Feature branches allow risk-free exploration of ideas
Recovery Options: Easy rollback to previous versions if needed
For Research Integrity
Source Tracking: Complete audit trail of when sources were added and cited
Change Documentation: Clear record of all revisions and their reasons
Backup Security: Multiple redundant backups through Git's distributed nature
The integration of these tools has transformed my academic writing process from a chaotic juggling of multiple applications into a streamlined, professional workflow that scales from individual course assignments to comprehensive dissertations. The system provides unified management of research manuscripts, coursework deadlines, reference libraries, and collaborative projects within a single, coherent framework.
While the initial learning curve requires investment in multiple technologies, the long-term benefits dramatically outweigh the setup costs through improved efficiency, enhanced document quality, comprehensive project tracking, and professional-grade version control capabilities. This integrated approach positions academic work within modern software development best practices, ensuring scalability and collaboration readiness for contemporary research demands.
What is Dialectical Praxis?
Dialectical praxis is the transformative process by which individuals and groups come to understand and change the world through reflective, critical, and embodied action. It is rooted in Marxist dialectics, enriched by Freirean conscientização, deepened through adult learning, and oriented toward liberation.
Dialectical (adj.) - refers to a way of thinking, reasoning, or engaging with the world that emphasizes contradiction, change, and the dynamic interplay of opposing forces. It is rooted in dialectics, a philosophical method with a long history, but most prominently developed by German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
Praxis (noun) - refers to the process of putting theory into action, especially in a deliberate, reflective, and socially meaningful way. It's not just action, and it's not just thought — praxis is the fusion of both.
Praxis as Revolutionary Dialogue
"Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or becomes the practice of freedom." —Paulo Freire
Liberatory praxis begins with dialogue that bridges theory and lived experience. Drawing on Freire's conscientização (critical consciousness), I frame education as a collaborative process where adult learners interrogate the sociopolitical conditions shaping their epistemologies. This dialogue is inherently feminist (hooks, Lorde) and decolonial (Mignolo, Quijano), centering marginalized voices as sites of knowledge production. By engaging learners in problem-posing rather than banking education, we co-create narratives that expose power structures—capitalism, settler colonialism, white supremacy—and imagine alternatives.
Intersectionality as Epistemic Resistance
"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." —Audre Lorde
My work prioritizes intersectionality (Crenshaw, Lorde) to confront the multiplicative violence of systemic oppression. Following Angela Davis and Toni Morrison, I analyze how race, gender, class, and coloniality coalesce to regulate access to knowledge and dignity. For adult learners in post-truth societies, this means:
Critiquing epistemicide: Challenging the erasure of Indigenous, Black, and queer knowledges (Mignolo, Lugones).
Embodied inquiry: Recognizing how marginalized bodies carry histories of resistance (Fanon, Morrison).
Solidarity across difference: Building coalitions that honor pluralistic truths without relativizing oppression (Lugones's world-travelling).
Decolonizing Knowledge and Being
"Decolonization is not a metaphor." —Tuck & Yang
Informed by Indigenous and decolonial theories (Quijano, Mignolo, Tuck & Yang), my framework rejects the Eurocentric, neoliberal logics that fragment knowledge and commodify learning. Instead, I advocate for:
Relational epistemologies: Learning practices rooted in reciprocity, land-based wisdom, and communal accountability.
Unsettling coloniality: Exposing how modernity/coloniality constructs hierarchies of humanity (Quijano's coloniality of power) and perpetuates epistemic bubbles.
Reclamation as praxis: Supporting learners in recovering subjugated histories and languages, fostering what María Lugones calls "decolonial love."
Radical Imagination as Collective Liberation
"Without new visions, we don't know what to build, only what to knock down." —Robin D.G. Kelley
Liberatory education demands radical imagination—a Marxist-feminist commitment to envisioning worlds beyond capitalist exploitation and carceral logics (Davis, Marx). This involves:
Critical hope: bell hooks's insistence on education as "the practice of freedom" amid despair.
Prefigurative politics: Creating microcosms of justice within classrooms (e.g., democratic decision-making, resource sharing).
Joy as resistance: Following Toni Morrison, centering joy and creativity as acts of defiance against dehumanization.
Methodological Commitments
My praxis is embodied through:
Participatory action research: Collaborating with communities to design curricula that address localized oppressions.
Testimonio: Amplifying first-person narratives as pedagogical tools (a la Latina feminist epistemology).
I strive to create educational ecosystems where adult learners are not merely "critical" but creators of liberatory futures. By intertwining Marxist critiques of capital, feminist ethics of care, and decolonial demands for land/body sovereignty, my work seeks to rupture epistemic bubbles and equip learners to re-member—to piece together fragmented selves and societies.
At the heart of my work are questions about how adults learn in conditions of polarization and disinformation:
Under what circumstances do people move beyond entrenched beliefs?
How do trusted relationships and dialogue open space for transformative learning?
In what ways do social media practices both reflect and reshape critical consciousness?
To answer these questions, I draw on transformative learning theory, critical pedagogy, and social epistemology, using narrative inquiry, digital ethnography, and mixed methods. My case study work explores how adults shift their stance from a pro-Western imperialist frame to an anti-colonial lens as an example of how ideological transformation unfolds in practice.
More broadly, I investigate how adults:
Reconcile moral intuitions with the demands of epistemic responsibility.
Negotiate identity within knowledge communities, balancing belonging and autonomy
Cultivate reflective judgment and intellectual humility in evaluating sources, claims, and lived experiences.
My research emphasizes the role of liberatory praxis in building not only individual intellectual growth, but also collective epistemic well-being. I aim to contribute actionable insights for educators, organizers, and policymakers designing interventions that empower adults to critically engage with complex information landscapes.
Ultimately, my goal is to illuminate pathways out of epistemic entrenchment and to advance a vision of lifelong learning as both a personal and collective project—where knowledge is not merely acquired, but ethically lived.
