After a tutorial with Emily, and writing the last few blogposts, I’ve become more clear that empowering students through working towards a non-hierarchical environment is really my focus as a teacher.
I also had a discussion with my colleague Prof. Andrea Zimmerman, whose approach really highlights this also, I feel. We were having a discussion about how to teach the students about strikes, when Andrea said ‘I just asked the students what they wanted to learn and went from there’. This is actually something that another teacher had brought up in the first tutorial I had with my cohort.
I decided to try this approach with my Performance as Protest class, where I wasn’t feeling so confident that the students were really engaged in the class. I don’t know if this was a true representation, or due to us having to have two online classes in a row, in which I find it more difficult to gauge reaction. So in the last session I asked the students ‘What would you like to learn from this project?’ I chose this moment to do this, as it was also the first time students were bringing their own work so far to share with the group (the class have been running for 2 weeks).
The responses were:
- I like it when we read things before the class and then discuss them in the class. I like to engage with theory and be introduced to new texts. I also like it when I have an idea about what the next class will be about, I’m not just turning up with no idea.
- I enjoy discussing artworks by others in the class
- I want to do practical collaboration in small groups in the class.
- We want to know how to take an idea from concept/ research and materialise it.
- I like working in groups to try and realise an idea – that helps me.
After/ during a group tutorial where we discussed students group work they had been working on for a few weeks, I made suggestions for themes we could address and texts we could read and discuss for the next weeks. These were:
- something about violence and protest. I’m thinking perhaps something by Malcom X. Also ‘Uses of Anger’ by Audre Lorde.
- something about comedy and satire as a political tool. This could be good to do next week and combine with the pop song writing workshop I’d already loosely planned. Could send them a text to read in advannce, discuss for 45 mins in class, and then have 1 hr 45 mins to do the practical pop song exercise.
- something material – perhaps we could look at textile banners – is there a museum I can take them for this? perhaps they have something at the V&A. Or is this something to talk to the costume technician about?
- I also think something about using archives and also on feminism , might be useful, based on some other students’ interests. e.g. Saidiya Hartman’s ‘Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments’. But I will need to check with the students.
I had previously been scared about trying this as I was worried I might not be able to deliver on everything the students said. However, actually this conversation allowed for me to get some feedback on the project so far – which I realise is something I’d been missing and had caused me to assume that things were going wrong which weren’t. e.g. the students actually really enjoyed discussing texts/ videos. It also allowed me to listen to the students and make suggestions for where we go next based on their personal & collective interests. This is really a question of tailoring to their needs rather than redesigning the whole project. I think making them feel actively involved in the design of the project will make them feel heard and empowered, and potentially increase attendance and engagement.
I have had very good feedback for the Writing as Performance project. In these sessions, each session has a mixture of practical work and theoretical discussion. Having spoken to the Protest students, this approach might also help them with their own work.
I worry that maybe there’s not enough time to do everything they want (we are 6 weeks into the project), but I think I can give it a good go. I’ve already learned so much from this one project and there’s always next time to adjust it.