I found it hard to bring these different sources together into one, so I’ve recorded my thoughts about each. They were really illuminating reads and I need to look at them again, particularly the first two. Sorry it’s a bit long…

Hahn Tapper (2013) ‘A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality’, Pp. 411-417

I found this excerpt from Hahn Tapper really fascinating, partly because it succinctly brought together several interconnected theories and discussed both uses and pitfalls, and partly because I feel this discussion of power dynamics is really lacking in education. I come from an English language teaching background where within a lesson you might have 9 or 10 different nationalities. There were certainly power dynamics at play, not least with me as their white, middle class teacher.

I realise now that the positive results we were aiming for there were based on interpersonal interaction (the Contact Hypothesis), and the hope that this would somehow break down barriers. To some extent this happened but there was always a reversion to group (usually, but not always, based on nationalities), outside the classroom.

I noticed it last week too, that in a session we did with students at CSM, there were dominant groups and it was tricky to know how to handle it, particularly as we had only one session with these students. Although the session was fine, and we received positive feedback from the individuals, I came out with the feeling that the dynamics of the group were rather dysfunctional and unsatisfying. I guess if they were my class, I would try and break down these barriers and encourage greater mixing of the social groups as well as sharing work (Social Identity Theory). I think this would be more effective with some kind of overt acknowledgement of power dynamics, and group dynamics in the room, but doing this would require a lot of skill as the stakes are high. I wonder if it’s something you could more effectively address after you’ve earned the students’ trust, as a tutor, and after you’ve established a student centred approach to your classroom. Or perhaps this would be too late, I’m not sure.

In any case, I agreed with Hahn Tapper about the need to create the space to take account of multiple group identities, and also interpersonal interactions.  

‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards 2016

This article was just what I was looking for. Being relatively new to Art and Design education, and to UAL, I’ve been struck by the amount of talk there is about inclusivity, social justice and race equality but also by how often this doesn’t appear to be the experience of individual, or groups of students (and even staff). I’ve looked at the data dashboards and seen the awarding gaps and also seen the work that goes on to try and address this. However, there seem to be very obvious gaping holes in this work and huge power imbalances. I found this quote fascinating:

Finnigan and Richards 2016, p. 3 cite Hatton (2015): Art education has generally been conservative, repetitive and exclusive. Art education theorists have even described art education as Eurocentric, racist and imperialist and have called for curriculum reform and social change.

Also the discussion of deliberate vagueness and ambiguity was useful to me, as well as the comments about aesthetic preferences. I work in an area where we are mostly trying to pin down information and communicate it to students. These discussions helped me to see why this is so difficult and also (as far as I’m concerned) vindicates my point of view that it’s necessary. I would have found it useful to have more discussion of this report on the unit.

‘Witness unconscious bias’ TED Talk – Josephine Kwhali

I couldn’t agree more with Josephine Kwhali’s views on unconscious bias in the HE sector – that’s willful ignorance. It’s interesting to hear what she says about white middle class women, that there have been changes made, notwithstanding the ongoing unconscious bias against white, middle class women. It hasn’t prevented change. Why not for black women or working class women?

Shades of Noir

I haven’t looked at all the SoN journals in one place before now, but I can see there are a lot of compelling topics. I’m really interested in Discourse: The power of language and communication. I read one article about someone who is deaf and gay and how this intersectionality impacted on their experiences and expectations and how they see this now. In addition, I’m really interested in the language teacher talking about the ‘language of power’ and how this is an enormous cultural barrier. She talks about the experience of international students and how their use of language is viewed. I’m familiar with this as I regularly hear course staff say about students, ‘they can’t really speak English’ which somehow has an implicit meaning which is more than ‘this student could improve their language skills’ and certainly isn’t ‘how can I help them’.

From the Shades of Noir publication ‘Whiteness, I see you’, I read a few different articles which represented a range of thoughts and feelings I am familiar with, although of course still interesting. The one that stood out to me though was ‘Shedding whiteness – Forming the shell’ by Jon Straker, about a Korean child adopted by a white family and their relationship with their own skin, appearance and identity. It is shown through a series of artworks, including one showing their white self devouring their yellow self. He says, ‘At times, my existence felt like a yellow stain on a white shirt’. I found this a very powerful piece about identity in a social context.

References:

Tapper H. (2013) A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality, Pp. 411-417

Kwhali, J. TED Talk (2016) Witness unconscious bias. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XDUGPoaFw (Accessed: June 2023)

Richards, A. and Finnigan T. (2016) Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum: An Art and Design Practitioner’s Guide. The Higher Education Academy

Shades of Noir (2018) Peekaboo, we see you: Whiteness. Available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/peekaboo_we_see_you_whiteness (Accessed: June 2023)