quiet, yet powerful ‘making’ pedagogies
I attended NSEAD’s (National Society for Education in Art and Design) Autumn meeting recently at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and was particularly pleased to be given time to explore both current temporary exhibitions:
Real Families: Stories of change: “Bringing together more than 120 artworks spanning painting, photography, sculpture and film, Real Families: Stories of Change asks us to consider what makes a family today, and the impact our families have on us, through the eyes of contemporary artists.”
Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance: “This exhibition explores some new stories from history – stories that help us to separate fact from fiction and history from myth. By bringing together collections from across the University of Cambridge’s museums, libraries and colleges with loans from around the world, Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance asks new questions about Cambridge’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and looks at how objects and artworks have influenced history and perspectives.”
I took part in a teacher’s workshop exploring the objects and ideas presented within Black Atlantic, and this blog constitutes my rambling thoughts immediately afterwards, making connections between the exhibition and workshop pedagogies and my current anti-racist practice with ITT students.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I noted that issues of invisibility and misrepresentation and erasure were particularly highlighted within the exhibition, and this interested me. There is also the issue of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’, which links in with this idea of invisibility, and that is a difficult position to support trainees in moving beyond if they are not open to and pro-active in challenging their thinking or exploring issues further.
In the museum workshop, I found that listening to/discussing with those around me who had more knowledge than I do (both the workshop leaders and other participants) was helpful. There can be an absence of different voices and perspectives on ITT courses, especially if both tutors and trainees tend to be a mostly homogeneous group, and I wonder how we can draw on more expertise/different voices on our course?
Whose stories get told? Untold stories from history feature heavily in the exhibition, and I felt there was such power in those personal stories, helping to separate fact from fiction and history from myth. Helping the learner recognise the personal connection, and finding a 'way in' that resonates personally with the individual, can be helpful.
The use of objects to consider big questions about history and perspectives was also key in the approach taken by the exhibition. The beauty of the plates and pottery and artwork was juxtaposed against the stories hidden within them. For example, Jamaican artist Jacqueline Bishop (b.1971) puts on display an 18-plate dinner set. In the plates’ centres are scenes of plantation and colonial violence crowded in beautiful bright flora. Works like these highlight the ways that imperialism is decorated and embellished to obscure, hide or soften the brutality of what is being depicted. Objects have been used throughout history to represent one perspective, and to silence another. I wonder what scope there might be within our course to explore objects through different lenses. We rely heavily on discussion within some of our teaching sessions, and this can be particularly difficult if the topic is sensitive or uncomfortable for some participants. Pedagogies other than 'discuss ....' are valuable and might be more appropriate for some topics.
I was also interested in the specific workshop pedagogies used by the museum educators. Ways of engaging workshop participants were purposefully non-threatening and non-judgemental. Individual reflection was given priority, and although space was given to share within the wider group, there was no expectation to do so. The museum educators did a lot of listening and talked about their own developing understanding and ‘lightbulb’ moments, which was interesting and helpful. There was no sense of being talked 'at'.
The making activity was also very powerful: we were asked to write personal reflections, or key words/thoughts as we wandered the exhibition, onto long strips of paper. We shared some of these afterwards, if we chose to. The workshop leaders shared the etymology of the word twist, thinking about notions of distorting, breaking, dislocating, and from that starting point we twisted our paper lengths into a connected chain of thoughts around and about the content of the exhibition. These were connected to each other and wound up into a ball that the workshop leaders handled with care and they showed, through their actions, that the resultant piece of 'art' was precious and full of important ideas. The power of the activity was in its metaphor, and the things that were left unspoken as the workshop ended. It felt powerful in that it was a 'quiet' pedagogy, inclusive to all, with no deliberate attempts to shock, or judge, or immediately change perceptions or responses, and it felt all the more effective for being within the gallery space, surrounded by the artefacts and paintings from the exhibition. I wonder if there is scope for including quiet, powerful, 'making' pedagogies like these within teacher training course. They might resonate with some students, or offer a 'way in' that is not otherwise provided by our usual approaches. There are all sorts of barriers, but how might we overcome them?
