Researching Social Justice in Pedagogical Spaces Professor Penny Jane Burke Co-Director Paulo Freire Institute-UK, Roehampton University Global Innovation.

Researching Social Justice in Pedagogical Spaces

Professor Penny Jane BurkeCo-Director Paulo Freire Institute-UK,

Roehampton University Global Innovation Chair of Equity University of Newcastle, Australia

overview

• To consider theoretical and methodological perspectives of social justice in higher education

• To draw on research that has explored social justice in HE to illuminate theoretical and methodological issues

• To consider the significance of methodology in shaping our knowledge and understanding of inequalities in higher education

Understanding methodological questions

• Methodologies shape the ways researchers collect and analyse data,

• the formulation of questions or problems, • the ways ethical issues are handled and

made sense of as well • the ways that knowledge is constructed

and re/presented.

Understanding social justice

• Contested meanings and contested practices – overcoming/struggling against unequal power relations, oppressive forces, domination, inequalities, etc

• power is central to understanding social justice • Social justice relates to questions of social

inequalities – how might we develop understanding about the complexity of inequalities?

Autobiography of the question…

• Jane Miller’s autobiography of the question…• My own autobiography of the questions I ask

as a researcher/teacher/practitioner….

Conceptualising Social Justice

• I argue that we need to draw on critical theories and concepts to understand the complex relations of inequality at play in HE

• The ways we theorise key concepts has significant implications for those groups being targeted/researched

• Example: how might we conceptualise ‘inclusion’ -- a central discourse in contemporary educational policy associated with SJ concerns

Policy discourse of inclusion

• Hegemonic view of inclusion expressed in educational policy aims to:

• include those who are excluded into the dominant framework/state of being, rather than challenging existing inequalities within the mainstream system, or encouraging alternative ways of being

• (Archer, 2003: 23).

Theorising ‘inclusion’

• critical perspectives theorise inclusion in relation to concepts of power, inequality and difference.– E.g. how does ‘inclusion’ regulate & misrecognise those

seen as outside the boundaries of what counts as being ‘included’?

• Inclusion implies exclusion - tied in with ‘polarising discourses’ (Williams, 1997); being ‘included’ implies the opposite, being ‘excluded’. – implications for identity formation; the ways that the

person or group of people are seen and positioned by others and for institutional categorisations,

Institutionalised categorisations

• research that draws on statistics to measure patterns of educational attainment of different social groups is important

• However: poststructural perspectives have problematised some of the assumptions that have emerged from social science categorisations

• institutionalized categorizations of difference are re/constructed; ways of dividing and classifying groups of people; marking out groups of people as ‘included’ or ‘advantaged’ and marking out other groups as ‘excluded’ or ‘disadvantaged’.

Technologies of classification

• A question shaped by poststructural perspectives might be raised: – What are the implications of such

technologies of classification? – For example, in what ways do such

classifications homogenize groups of people?

Class/ifications

• constructions of social groups through SS research & evaluation; ‘Black and minority ethnic’, ‘working-class’, ‘disabled’, ‘mature’, part-time’, ‘lower socio-economic’.

• These classifications are useful – To uncover patters of inequality across different social

groups – To provide tools for redistribution of resources (i.e.

targeting) – To have a language to speak of structural inequality

Power relations

• however – classifications simultaneously problematic in the constructions that they produce &reproduce.

• frame & constrain how we think about questions of social justice in education

• such classifications always enmeshed in power, reconstructing power relations and social differences that make a difference.

• Often ignore the ways differences intersect in complex formations (e.g. gender as classed and racialised)

Social justice

We need theories that addresses both:• Material/structural inequality – calling for policies

and practices that treat individuals/groups equally – theories of redistribution

• Cultural mis/recognition – calls for policies and practices that treat individuals/social groups differently – theories of fluidity, change, struggle over meaning and power, identities are multiple, fragmented, in process – (Nancy Fraser)

processes of mis/recognition• Misrecognition - difficult to capture • works at level of everyday, taken for granted practices• take place within and across different institutional

contexts, as well as within particular disciplinary fields• Gaining access to HE depends on demonstrating

particular attributes and dispositions — these are embedded in an esoteric framework, requiring that the student decodes legitimated forms of disciplinary practice.

processes of mis/recognition• We are all socially situated — make sense of ourselves &

others through the discourses, power relations and practices that name and make us; processes of ‘recognition’ and ‘misrecognition’.

• e.g.: being identified as ‘lacking potential’ profoundly shapes our self-understanding, feelings of worthiness and aspirations.

• to be recognised as ‘having potential’, a person must first decode the practices that will allow them recognition as an appropriate, legitimate or authentic student.

• For those from under-represented backgrounds, it might take time to develop an understanding of the ways that ‘potential’ is constructed and recognised within particular disciplinary fields.

Embodied identities

• ‘Embodied identity helps to think through the ways different bodies take up and use the different higher education spaces available, and the ways that higher education spaces and practices are constructed and re/shaped in relation to the different bodies that move through and are positioned within them’ (Burke, 2012)

SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE

*Bourdieu’s concept of ‘symbolic violence’ illuminates how the undermining, marginalisation and exclusion of some social groups, perceived as normal, natural and legitimate, is a form of ‘symbolic violence’. *Forms of misrecognition present ‘unequal access to cultural capital as something natural when it is in fact a social construction underpinned by differential access to economic capital’ (Raphael Reed et al, 2007).

Research Methodology & Methods

• Qualitative study focusing on detail of everyday practices

• An information review• In-depth interviews with admissions tutors about their

perspectives of the admissions system and process• Observations of actual selection interviews with

candidates• Nine of the eleven NALN art and design college were

approached, and five agreed to participate. – 2 in large metropolitan areas– 1 in a cathedral town, one in a rural area – 1 in a large town. – 3/5 ‘selecting’ rather than ‘recruiting’ institutions

• 10 admissions tutors were interviewed• 70 selection interviews were observed

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Interview questions• Who is your favourite artist/designer? Who are your design

heroes? Who or what influences your work?• What galleries do you visit? What is your favourite gallery?

What exhibitions have you been to lately? If you could exhibit your work in a gallery where would that be?

• What is your favourite film? What films have you seen recently? What is your favourite advert? Who is your favourite director?

• What books do you read? What are you reading at the moment?• What is your favourite shop? Where do you like to shop?

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Influences

• Nina, a Black working class young woman from a poor inner city area, applying for a Fashion Design BA, was asked at the beginning of her interview about the influences on her work:

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Influenced by Hip-Hop

• Interviewer: What influences your work?• Nina: I’m influenced by Hip-Hop?• Interviewer: Hip-Hop or the history of Hip-Hop• Nina: The History of Hip-Hop

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Rejection

• Body language of interviewers changed – suggested they disengaged from Nina

• They asked her what she would like to design and she answered that she was interested in designing sports tops.

• After Nina left, the interviewers immediately decided to reject her.

• Discussion of how to record this on their form:

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Unfashionable, immature, lacking confidence

• Before the interview, Nina’s portfolio had not deemed it as weak.

• Nina’s clothes were noted as not fashionable • Interviewers said she lacked confidence• They were dissatisfied with Nina’s intentions to

live at home whilst studying – sign of immaturity.

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All part of the experience

• The white middle-class male candidate interviewed immediately after Nina, was from an affluent spa town, expensively dressed and cited famous artists and designers amongst his influences.

• In the interview discussion, he confirmed that he would ‘definitely be leaving home because it is all part of the experience.’

• The young man was offered a place in spite of having considerably poorer qualifications than Nina, including having failed GCSE Art.

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Embodied misrecognised subjectivities

• Nina not recognized as a legitimate subject of art and design studies because she cited a form of fashion seen as invalid in the higher education context.

• Nina embodied Black racialised ways of being, which were seen as signs of immaturity and lack of fashion flair.

• Her intentions not to leave home were read as signifying her inappropriate subject position.

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Processes of Recognition

• The male, middle-class, white-English candidate knew how to cite the discourses that would enable him recognition as a legitimate student subject.

• The admissions tutors’ judgments shaped by implicit, institutionalized, disciplinary and racialised perspectives of what counts as legitimate forms of experience and knowledge.

• Classed, gendered and racialised formations of subjectivity (embodied and performative) profoundly shape selection-processes.

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reflexivity

• Admissions practices in Art & Design – recognition of potential deeply contextualized and tied to embodied subjectivities

• Admissions systems are designed to be ‘fair’ & ‘transparent’, but lack of attention to the disciplinary & discursive practices reproduce exclusion and misrecognition

• A shift from individual practices & students to reflexive attention to the contextual, subjective nature of selection and judgment is required

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Formations of Gender and Higher Education Pedagogies

About GaP• GaP funded by the HEA’s National Teaching Fellowship Scheme• Team includes:

– Professor Penny Jane Burke, NTF, (PI), – Professor Gill Crozier, – Professor Becky Francis, – Dr Barbara Read– Julie Hall, – Jo Peat, – Professor Louise Archer, – Carolyn Gallop, Administrator

• The research team reflects the methodological framework in that we aim to explicitly bring together theory and practice and so we have members from a learning and teaching unit as well as academic researchers

What is the project about?

This research project:• Explores the relationship between HE pedagogies

and identity formations of gender, class and race• Contributes to WP policy by paying close attention

to pedagogical issues beyond entry to HE• Provides a qualitative account of gendered

experiences of HE practices and relations• Gives attention to complex formations of

masculinities and femininities in pedagogical relations and practices.

Theoretical Framework • Broadening engagement with teaching and learning in HE – pedagogies as

a concept to contest mainstream discourses • Pedagogies are shaped by identity formations but are also gendered,

classed and racialised practices • Gender intersects with other social identities and inequalities – tied to

complex power relations and to changing pedagogical contexts • Draws attention to important interconnections between formations of

masculinity, femininity and other social, generational and cultural differences, which profoundly shape student dispositions to and experiences of learning & teaching

Innovative research design

• Aims to engage HE students and teachers in considerations about pedagogical practices, experiences and relations

• Creates dialogic spaces for reflexivity about taken for granted practices & assumptions

• Participatory approaches to get HE teachers and students involved with discussions about the development of inclusive pedagogies to challenge inequalities & exclusions

Methods• Two year qualitative study (Sept 2010 – July 2012)• multi-method, case study approach ‘Riverside University’• collect in-depth data about pedagogical practices, experiences and

relations and complex formations of identity – 64 students across six subject areas were individually interviewed

• (History/Classics, Business Studies/ Computing, Creative Writing, Sports Science, Dance, Philosophy)

– HE teachers across six subject areas have participated in focus group discussions of their pedagogical practices

– 20 observations undertaken of pedagogical practices and relations

Participatory methods • Methods aiming to create spaces of reflexivity & dialogue with the

research participants, include – Identifying group of Executive Student Consultants participating

intensively across a range of methods and project activities – Student forums and workshops– National student-led seminar– student film clips – Written reflections – Informal discussions with programme teams & individual lecturers, – Kings College London workshops with new group of HE students and

teachers to interrogate data

internalising processes of misrecognition

Discussions can make me feel anxious. I am scared of being stupid like and then no one says something and I am thinking it and the lecturer points it out. Then I think I should have said it to show how clever I was but I didn’t and no one else did. But I am just too scared to put my hand up or just say it. Sometimes I even feel nauseous –like I want to be sick just to say a sentence. And I’m not a shy person but I’m just very nervous (female student).

‘shame’ is a social emotion

• [Shame] exists with reference to how we anticipate others may see and reject us’ – but it is experienced as internalized disappointment with self i.e. it exists with reference to how we judge our own shortcomings, feelings of failure or inadequacy (Raphael Reed et al, 2007: 19).

‘feminisation’ of teaching and learning

Part of me thinks it’s not my job to look after them. I have a husband and 2 children at home that I have to look after, I have to get these students through, I’m not their mother, I have no intention of being their mother … and sometimes I get really cross that there is an expectation from the university, from my PC and from society, that I am going to mind these students. (Female lecturer)

I feel because of retention rates and all these systems which are in place when you first … I am expected to be caring, more caring than I actually want to be. (Male lecturer)

Fear…and emotion as a tool It’s perhaps fear of taking initiative … is it fear …

have we created that perhaps a bit? (Male lecturer).

There’s something about some courses that’s feeding into that passivity, this kind of ‘I’ll just stand at the front and talk and you’ll just listen. (Female Lecturer)

Emotions as ‘tools that can be used by subjects in the project of life and career enhancement’ (Goleman, 1995 in Ahmed, 2004)

problem of differentiation & proximity

Female Student: And here [university] seems like heaven in this respect, no matter if you are a girl or a boy if you talk you are listened to, you are heard. So it’s so much different [than school]. We have two girls in our class, they are so loud, they are so…they don’t pay attention, seriously they couldn’t care less about what we are talking [about], and they continue to interrupt and stuff. There are guys that don’t give anything to the course, but still it’s not because they are guys or girls, because they are people like that, they don’t care (Female student).

marking out difference I would say, it sounds so bad, I would say like maybe eighty percent,

this is just me, this is a guestimate, eighty percent of people who come from a lower class, whose parents didn’t go to university, might not address learning in general with as quite a passion as those who maybe came from middleclass, or those who had their parents who went to university. Like going back to what I said when I came here I saw university as the way to finish it, because college wasn’t. I went to a secondary school which although it was state it was quite top end, we had the PM’s children there, and from there you always had high expectations bred into that sort of way of thinking. You moved into that way of thinking, that that is the way forward, and that is a normal thing to do, whereas people who went to other schools might not see it like that, like some say oh, I can get a job without a degree, they don’t really…or they say I only need three GCSEs, they don’t aim for high enough because they don’t know any higher (Male Student)).

Diversity & Gender

• diversity – seen sometimes as a form of contamination of HE culture -- challenge to traditional forms of (White, middle class) patriarchal authority reinforced in university spaces

• the ‘ideal’ student might be seen as the quiet and disciplined subject of the authoritative male professor, privileging feminine subjectivities

• (women might be seen as easier to control, more obedient and docile and thus less likely to pose a threat to the authority of the lecturer)

Pedagogies & the perpetuation of a politics of misrecognition

• But it’s impossible to educate, you know, in the sense that we don’t have time to sit down and navel gaze about how we can engage these people better in order to do this, that and the other or do we look right back at our admissions criteria and say, ‘ok, we only choose the ones who are like us.’? (Female lecturer)

Some reflections from GaP… Intersections of gender with other, (often pathologized) identities

inflame problematic anxieties about ‘lowering of standards’ & the neoliberal imperative for HE to produce disciplined subjects or ‘docile bodies’ (Foucault, 1977)

Gender always embodied - only certain bodies can be positioned as legitimate/valuable/authoritative in relation to hegemonic patriarchal discourses

poses a challenge for the inclusion of men from ‘Other’ kinds of social backgrounds, e.g. often derisive constructions of working-class and Black masculinities

HE pedagogies require reformation to address such complex issues in ways that reject the highly problematic claim that masculinity is in crisis due to the “feminisation of higher education”.

Teaching Inclusively: Changing Pedagogical Spaces

• A key concept is ‘praxis’ and this emphasises the dialogic relationship between critical reflection and action. …in order to create inclusive teaching practices, conceptual resources are essential for reshaping both understanding and action and this is an iterative and cyclical process – reflection-action and action-reflection.

Teaching Inclusively

• https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/projects/Teaching%20Inclusively%20Resource%20Pack%20Final%20Version_opt.pdf

Some final reflections

• The ways we theorise particular key concepts – such as ‘inclusion’, ‘potential’ and ‘confidence’ significantly shapes knowledge about inequalities in HE

• The methodologies that frame our research profoundly shape meaning-making through the research process

• We need to draw on critical reflexivity and approaches in order to get beneath the taken-for-granted assumptions and practices that often (unwittingly) perpetuate deeply entrenched inequalities