In this paper, I explore how a praxis of attentiveness in combination with Freirean “problemposing” education might enable other animals to be teachers, leaders, and visionaries of their own liberation in the challenging context of Western, formal education where other animals as complex and subjective beings are typically excluded. I see this embodied, liberatory praxis as necessary in a context where the AIC systematically transforms other animals into commodities. I also see this praxis as an alternative to liberatory frameworks that center human actors while denying the active participation of other animals in their own liberation. I draw from ethics-based-epistemology, critical animal studies, and critical disability studies as my primary lenses of analysis. I also thread themes of playfulness and difference throughout. Through a mix of reflective vignettes, traditionally academic prose, and fictional musings, I explore how an attentive praxis enables nonverbal dialogue between different beings, opening up opportunities for limited understanding. I also explore Paulo Freire’s problem-posing model of education, arguing that its anthropocentrism, speciesism, and ableism exclude other animals from liberatory dialogue. I address this concern by connecting a praxis of attentiveness with problem-posing education in order to simultaneously politicize embodied attentiveness while also making liberatory dialogue inclusive of other animals
