Epistemic exploitation in education

‘Epistemic exploitation occurs when privileged persons compel marginalised knowers to educate them [and others] about the nature of their oppression’ (Berenstain, 2016 Berenstain, N. (2016). Epistemic exploitation. Ergo: An Open Access Journal Philosophy, 3, 569–590.[Crossref], [Web Science ®] , [Google Scholar], p. 569). This paper scrutinizes some purported wrongs underpinning this practice, so that educators might be better equipped understand and avoid or mitigate harms which may result from such interventions. First, building on work Berenstain Davis (2016), we argue (in context, educators) repeatedly oppressed knowers, not only them, but indeed others, oppression, they risk subjecting further epistemic-moral harms. is due likelihood at least audience will assign less/more credibility than deserve based pre-existing identity-based prejudices. Second, though these requests ‘educate’ ‘learn more’ masquerade as seemingly virtuous innocuous epistemic inquiries, underestimate remain ignorant secondary stem internalized obligations, oppressive double-binds (Hirji, 2021 Hirji, S. (2021). Oppressive double binds. Ethics, 131(4), 643–669. https://doi.org/10.1086/713943[Crossref] Scholar]), attendant emotional burdens carry in relation ever-present possibility ameliorating oppressor mindsets. After surveying each context-specific harm briefly, then turn an applied reading how exploitative practices sometimes culminate something refer ‘ontic burnout’, a form interminable explanatory fatigue brought by repeated what it means oppressed.