Decolonising Learning Spaces Implications for Ethical Practice
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This document discusses the need to decolonize learning spaces and move away from assumptions of safety. It argues that the concept of a "safe space" is problematic as no space is equally safe for all. Instead, it proposes moving towards the idea of "safe-enough spaces" that embrace uncertainty and vulnerability. The document outlines some of the risks of harm that can occur, such as harassment or isolation, when having difficult conversations about identity in learning environments. It concludes that educators should surrender the idea that they can offer absolute safety and instead focus on co-creating terms of engagement and practical actions that make spaces safe enough for open discussion and intellectual growth.
Decolonising Learning Spaces Implications for Ethical Practice
- 1. Decolonising Learning Spaces Implications for Ethical Practice Pam Sykes, University of the Western Cape Daniela Gachago, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
- 2. Act 1 Exploding the myth of safety
- 3. Snapshot 1: A group of academics is sitting around a conference table in a seminar room. They talk about “desire” and “affect”; “the body” comes up again and again. But the bodies of the people in the room are never acknowledged. Which bodies are comfortable in this space (which contains this table, these chairs, that air conditioner) and which are not? Whose body is awash with anxiety, who is flushed or sweating, who is full of energy, whose back is hurting, who is tired, who is desperate for a toilet break, who is sick, who feels awkward and out of place? These questions are not askable in this space.
- 4. Call for a decolonised pedogagy? “Critical pedagogies of liberation… necessarily embrace experience, confessions and testimony as relevant ways of knowing, as important, vital dimensions of any learning process” – bell hooks 1994: 89
- 5. Institutional grooves and habits are worn deep |
- 6. Assumptionsa“The fact that no one was safe made us all involved in the course appreciate the importance of what we came to call ‘safe houses’..in with high degrees of trust, shared understanding, temporary protection from the legacies of oppression (Minnie Bruce Pratt 1991: 40)) Part of color-blindness is to demand that race dialogue takes place in a ‘safe’ environment.’ (Leonardo & Porter 2010: 139)
- 7. Our gendered, raced, classed subjectivities may will work against our aims as educators
- 8. Two challenges: There is no ideal space that is equally, absolutely safe for all. Safety is not something educators can bestow.
- 10. “Is there a way for all of us to survive together while none of our contradictory claims, interests and passions can be eliminated?”–––—Bruno Latour 2005: 30
- 11. Safe-enough spaces Perhaps an element of the work of facilitating South African conversations resides inside the creative contradiction of making spaces that are safe-enough and uncomfortable-enough. Such conversations have the potential to be full of healing, full of life and full of possibility.” –– Rebecca Freeth
- 12. Comfort | Discomfort Safety | Danger
- 13. Defining the risks of harm Vulnerability to harassment Abusive interactions Post traumatic flashbacks Isolation, marginalisation, exclusion Stunted intellectual growth And ______________?
- 14. On surrendering control | “I have learned that I cannot offer my less privileged students… safety, nor should I try. In fact, it is a function of my own privilege that I ever thought I could. It is only from privileged perspectives that neutral or safe environments are viable and from empowered positions that protecting others is possible.” — Ludlow 2004:45
- 15. Co-creating safe- enough spaces Terms of engagement Focus on practical actions Handling disagreement PROCESS matters as much as content |
- 16. “One must think with the body and the soul or not think at all” -- Hannah Arendt
- 17. References hooks, b., 1994. Teaching to transgress - Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York and London: Routledge. Freeth, R., 2012. On creating uncomfortable, safe spaces for South African conversations. Workshop handout, (August), pp.1–3. Latour, Bruno, 2005. ‘From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik or How to Make Things Public’, in Making Things Public-Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge, Massachussetts: The MIT Press), pp. 4–31 Leonardo, Z. & Porter, R.K., 2010. Pedagogy of Fear: toward a Fanonian theory of “safety” in Race dialogue. Race Ethnicity and Education, 13(2), pp.139–157. Pratt, M.L., 1991. Arts of the Contact Zone. Profession, (1991), pp.33–40. Available at: http://www.jstor.org.gate2.library.lse.ac.uk/stable/25595469.
Editor's Notes
- #4: Snapshot 1: A group of academics is sitting around a conference table in a seminar room. They talk about “desire” and “affect”; “the body” comes up again and again. But the bodies of the people in the room are never acknowledged. Which bodies are comfortable in this space (which contains this table, these chairs, that air conditioner) and which are not? Whose body is awash with anxiety, who is flushed or sweating, who is full of energy, whose back is hurting, who is tired, who is desperate for a toilet break, who is sick, who feels awkward and out of place? These questions are not askable in this space.
- #5: One way to approach the project of decolonising the university is to allow the whole of people’s lived experience into teaching and learning spaces, to affirm this experience as worthy of scholarly attention and to create a dialogue between experience and theory (hooks, 1994).
- #6: However, our experience affirms and reaffirms daily that the academy is not an embodied space. Teaching and learning practices that centre the whole learner are greeted with awkwardness at best and outright suspicion at worst. Working with students’ embodied experience is a risky business that many educators shy away from . If one does allow the whole person into the classroom - body and mind, emotions and all - it is often done behind closed doors. Spaces to share experiences are scarce, and guidelines for ethical practices often focus on spaces outside academia. Our approaches to working with personal narratives are in direct opposition with the traditional discourses in academia, what we call its institutional grooves and habits, such as the primacy of the lecture, the myth of the neutral teacher, and the legacies of authoritarian schooling.
- #7: Creating a safe space for students to share their stories of ‘everyday trauma’ The role of the teacher/lecturer in creating these safe spaces
- #8: Our own gendered, raced, classed subjectivities will work against our aims. As white, female, middle class embodied humans we might - as much as we try not to - misunderstand and re-traumatise our students.
- #9: We are challenging this notion of safety based on two moves: First, we will argue that “safety” is not an all-or-nothing -- there is no ideal space that is absolutely safe for everyone. Secondly, we argue that safety is not something we can bestow on our learners but that something needs to be negotiated and created in community among all involved parties.
- #13: Unpacking safety and danger Harms:- increased vulnerability to harassment Abusive interactions in the classroom Continually explaining and justifying one’s experience of oppression (can we call this marginalisation of one’s experience?) Post traumatic flashbacks Isolation, marginalisation, exclusion Being stunted by an atmosphere in which one cannot take risks
- #14: Harms:- increased vulnerability to harassment Abusive interactions in the classroom Continually explaining and justifying one’s experience of oppression (can we call this marginalisation of one’s experience?) Post traumatic flashbacks
- #16: Learn to FACILITATE not just teach