Artefact Reflection: Sustained Dissent
The artefact I devised and delivered was a workshop (See Appendices 1-3) intended to embed Inclusive Learning ideas in the teaching of my discipline, Illustration, specifically Narrative. It was successful in meeting my original aims, regarding the inclusion of student experience, creation of a dialogue, promotion of meta-cultural sensitivity and challenge of prejudice and hierarchies. (See Appendix 4) However, it also raised issues relating to student vulnerability, provocation and relational dynamics that needed further refinement and consideration. (See Appendix 5) I translated them into key questions which I then developed through a series of feedback discussions and reading. In doing this, I have not only been working out how to manifest, in bell hooks words, a shared belief that ‘welcomes dissent’ (p.33) but a pedagogy that – sustains dissent.
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How can I better create a space for students to be vulnerable?
My first critical moment happened during a conversation with Duna. (See Appendix 10) We were talking about student disclosure and she questioned whether students were actually in a position to make the decision to share. This made me realise I need to ensure students are clear about the nature of the space they are in so that they can make an informed decision. I need not only to care for them but to help them care for themselves. The first idea that I need to clarify for students is that safe spaces are not ‘filters’, ‘walls’ or ‘objects’ to block out, avoid and censor (Clark-Parsons, 2019, p.3). They instead ‘provide the means to ENGAGE with difficult subjects (Clark-Parsons, 2019, p.4) This is why some have re-branded these spaces as ‘brave’ (Arao and Clemens, 2013 in Clark Parsons, 2019, p.4) The second idea is that this this bravery is achieved through a commitment to social justice. The third is the idea of imperfection, as ‘no space will ever be completely safe for all participants at all times’ and ‘treating safe space as a living, breathing practice means striving for safer spaces.’ (Clark Parsons, 2019, p.9) In session, I need to make these things clear when initially asking students to contribute, remind them of it during group discussion and lead reflection on them at the end so that good practice can be kept and anything negative changed.
Another critical moment with Duna was our discussion of the importance of students not feeling a pressure to share. This reminded me of some of the potential dangers of reflection. Macfarlane and Gourlay talk about ‘the reflection game’ and ‘a simulacrum of authenticity…unconcerned with individual or context’ where ‘the ‘journey’ has to reach the ‘right’ destination.’ (2009, p.458) I need to make sure that the sharing of personal information is never mandatory, consider every task where it might be a by-product and ask myself if it’s necessary and ensure I evenly value people who personally share and people who don’t so that an inadvertent confession culture isn’t established. This last point is key for me to monitor because I can get really excited when people bring their lives to learning. It’s something I so much wanted from my experience as a student and yet wasn’t able to fully articulate and realise.
A cluster of critical moments happened with Rachel, Terry and the GSAs, (See Appendices 11, 7, 6) They helped me clarify that although the space I need is emotional, it is created by practical means. The course I work on has become a large one and I think I have not revised my teaching methods radically enough to create a particular emotional rather than learning experience. With Rachel, I discussed the way small groups are necessary to vulnerability. So, I will need to do sessions multiple times and make full use of asynchronous learning time to sustain this. With Terry, I discussed the way pre and post tasks not only facilitate learning but prepare students emotionally for what is coming. These will need to play a bigger part in my teaching. With the GSA’s I discussed how students seemed more tired out by sessions. This made me think that this type of discussion is more intense than process-based teaching so sessions need to be shorter and broken up more extensively. In terms of breaks, shorter ones seem to break the momentum and intimacy of this type of session. So, I need to make them longer and use them as significant separators between sections.
How do I handle conflict positively?
The main critical moment regarding this came from a discussion with Terry. We talked about how essential it was to prepare for conflict and address it immediately, returning to it in a follow-up discussion if needed. This helped me think in more depth about the different necessary stages of management: Preparing, Responding and Discussing.
In terms of preparation, an agreement or guidance for behaviour could be helpful. I think the Shades of Noir Netiquette (Richards et al, 2021) is effective and I’d like to use it as a basis for developing one for my course and context. It gives a blueprint for themes that need to be covered: physical and practical care, qualities for promotion such as respect and compassion, a clarifier that the learning space is a ‘professional space’ and a no tolerance statement on discrimination. Initially I would like to adapt it to our student context, by making the discrimination statement more specific. A common issue we have with student incidents is that people do not see themselves and their own behaviour as discrimination because it disagrees with their sense of self. I would like to incorporate something like Adrienne Shaw’s statement ‘everyone in this class is expected to avoid language that is pejorative or perpetuates stereotypes’ of any personal characteristic (2016 in Clark-Parsons 2019, p.7)
Regarding response, when faced with ‘eruptions’ (Janks, 2010 in West 2021, p.2) it is important to stay calm and show no anger or upset. I have found this to be essential myself when handling situations. Showing anger can trigger the ‘defensive anger’ of the source, calling on their ‘personal narrative of victimhood’ and it can be dismissed itself as ‘defensive anger’ (West, 2021, p.9). Both situations prevent reflection and growth. As an academic of colour, I need to be prepared to be sanctioned myself for my emotions and approach. This is due to the public and socially constructed nature of emotions (Bekerman and Zembylas in West, p.4). In light of this, I could be seen and reacted to as an ‘’affect alien’ who is the antithesis of joy of joy because she does not share in conventional emotional responses of the dominant group’ (Ahmed, p.39 in West, p.5) This is vital to remember, as I find I am ready to and have defended students but find problematic behaviour directed toward me harder to handle. I have perhaps been resistant to dwelling on it connected to myself as it can make it harder to go into classrooms and staffrooms thinking people are not on your side.
The discussion that follows needs to be a ‘learning conversation’(Stone, Patton and Heen, 1999, p.17) and when managing that I would like to use the stages highlighted by Stone, Patton and Heen (1999) around ‘taking the lead’ (p.201). I need to begin with addressing and reframing what is being said, ‘taking the essence of what the other person says and “translating it” into concepts that are more helpful’ (p.202). Throughout, I need to listen intensely and carefully so I can direct the conversation (p.207) and help the other person feel heard and seen (p.206). If things are going downhill, I can ‘name the dynamic,’ discussing what I see happening in the conversation itself (p.209). Then finally, I will look to problem solve and find a way forward even if that means leaving a core disagreement (p.211).
How can I take a more intersectional approach to relational dynamics?
Here the main critical moment happened during the discussion with my peers (See Appendix 8), when we talked about the way that I gave over choices and control at particular points in the session. This was positive in terms of working against the ‘Banking Concept of Education’, particularly points such as ‘the teacher chooses the program content – and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it.’ (Friere, 1970, p. 46) However, it can also perpetuate unjust power dynamics without more careful management. I need a more intersectional view of classroom dynamics ‘focusing on intergroup and intragroup dynamics, structures of oppression, and collective social identities’ (Hahn Tapper, 2013, p.424). So, applying this to the session, when doing a group analysis of a narrative, I got students to share what stories they’d been engaging with lately then whatever got the most mentions became the focus. However, what I should have done was get students to share stories during a pre-task so that it wasn’t automatically the majority voice and taste that won out. Then, I should have selected a range, lifting up less dominant cultural voices, for students to choose from. I think that this lack of consideration might have arisen because for the majority of my educational and professional life I have been a person of colour in predominantly white spaces. I have had to believe that I can establish relationships on an individual basis that can override group prejudice and I have had to fight for recognition of my individual identity in the face of people’s preconceived ideas of blackness as a monolith.
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When thinking about the artefact, this reflection and the unit overall I am guided by a question from a conversation with Jheni – ‘How do you know if you’ve really been inclusive? (See Appendix 9). As a teacher, this will look like no-one being silent, absent or powerless. As a university, this will be reflected in data and look like equal student success across recruitment, progression and attainment.
Appendix
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Appendix 7
Appendix 8
Appendix 9
Appendix 10
Appendix 11
Bibliography
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hooks, b. (1994) Teaching To Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Abingdon: Routledge.
Friere, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Random House.
Stone, D., Patton, B. and Heen, S. (1999) Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most. London: Portfolio Penguin.
Bhagat, D. (ed.), O’Neill, P. (ed.) (2011) Inclusive Practice, Inclusive Pedagogies: Learning from Widening Participation Research in Art and Design Higher Education. Croydon: CPI Group Ltd.
Article
Vaughan et al. (2008) ‘Mind the Gap: expectations, ambiguity and pedagogy within art and design higher education.’ In Drew, Linda. (ed) The Student Experience in Art and design Higher Education: Drivers for Change. Cambridge: Jill Rogers Associates Limited.
Electronic Articles
West, G. B. (2021) ‘”Is this a Safe Space?”: Examining an Emotionally Charge Eruption in Critical Language Pedagogy’, Education Sciences, 11 (186). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/edusci11040186 . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
Clark-Parsons, R. (2019) ‘The Work of Classroom Safe Spaces’, Teaching Media Quarterly, Vol.7, No.1. Available at: https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/tmq . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
Hahn Tapper, A. J. (2013) ‘A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, intersectionality and Empowerment’, Conflict Resolution Quarterly, vol. 30, no.4, pp. 411-445. doi: 10.1002/crq.21072
Macfarlane, B. et al (2009) ‘The Reflection Game: Enacting the Penitent Self’, Teaching in Higher Education, 14 (4), pp. 455-459. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562510903050244 . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
Web Pages
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Creating safe spaces for students in the classroom (2020) Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/publications/2020/apr/creating-safe-spaces-students-classroom . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
Strano, B. (2021) Untitled Poem. Available at: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/untitled-poem-beth-strano . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
Alexander Jr, S. (2021) Black People Are Not a Monolith: A different way of viewing culture in black communities. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/opening-the-door/202101/black-people-are-not-monolith . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
Richards et al. (2021) ‘Session1presentation’. FU009035Y1A20/21: Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, UAL. Available at: https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=48738 (Accessed: 15 April 2021)
Videos
TED (2009) The Danger of a Single Story: Chinamanda Ngozi Adichie. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
TEDxMileHigh (2020) When the world is burning, is art a waste of time?. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/r_alan_brooks_when_the_world_is_burning_is_art_a_waste_of_time_feb_2021 . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)
National Association of Independent Schools (2018) Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDtnfQ9FHc . (Accessed at: 10 April 2021)