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Developing critical professionals to deal with difference: From working with students to working with educators

Vivienne Bozalek Brenda Leibowitz Ronelle Carolissen

2023-04-10

How to change a course from one provided for students to one for higher educators?

The Community, Self and Identity Project;An Inter-institutional, inter-disciplinary

teaching & research collaboration between:

• Vivienne Bozalek (Social Work Dept, UWC)• Ronelle Carolissen (Psychology Dept, Stellenbosch University)• Poul Rohleder (Psychology Dept, Anglia Ruskin University• Lindsey Nicholls (Occupational therapy Dept, Brunel University)• Leslie Swartz (Psychology Dept, Stellenbosch University)• Brenda Leibowitz (Centre for Teaching and Learning, Stellenbosch

University)

And Linda Biersteker (ELRU), elearning team UWC and facilitators UWC and Stellenbosch

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As a group of higher educators, we were concerned about the history of minimal inter-professional and inter-institutional contact between students from psychology, social work and

occupational therapy, particularly across historically advantaged and disadvantaged institutions in South Africa.

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The Community, Self and Identity Course

Community mapping

Step 1Draw a picture/map of your home and neighbourhood

including the resources that are there.Step 2Identify and label three things that you would like to

change in relation to your experiences (could be physical or relate to attitudes, social issues). Put these in order by choosing to give the one you feel is most important the most tokens.

Step 3 Share in your group, explaining your picture/map and

the reasons for wanting things to change.

6

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Engaging with participatory learning and action (PLA) techniques

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Critical Texts

Anthias & Yuval-Davis Lugones Dominelli

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Different Views of Higher Education

Taylor & Fransman (2004:6)

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What/who informed our practice?

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The pedagogy of discomfort

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Davidson’s (2004) decentring the academic self

• ‘Decentring’ refers to an academic who interrogates the assumptions of his or her own discipline through engagement with perspectives of other disciplines.

• we would add institution and social identities to this (Bozalek et al., 2010)

• Importance of interrogating our own assumptions (Leibowitz et al.,2010, 2011)

• Decision to focus on higher educators

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Running courses through CHEC

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First iteration of the course

• Looked at the module in PGDHE • Collaboratively refined it• Thought focus on publication/writing would appeal• Little engagement with theory• Little effort to write• Sensitivity about own experiences of teaching• We took part in the exercises• Used learnings and feedback to plan second course

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Map used in Higher Educators course

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First iteration of CSID course

PLA workshop UWC 2010

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Second iteration of course

• More focused on theory• Responses to each other’s PLA – general • Read pedagogies of discomfort • Blog postings• Guest lecturers – McKinnon and Carrim facilitating

dialogue in classroom• Performance poetry• Presentation of own practice digitalised as well• Reflective essay

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Community map 2011

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http://blogs.sun.ac.za/hopefulpedagogiessu/

Here is Michalinos’ contribution:Pedagogy of discomfort has been first used and theorized by Megan Boler in her landmark book Feeling Power (1999). Then, Megan and I have made an attempt to further build on her earlier analysis by emphasizing the role that discomfort plays in teaching and learning about ‘difficult’ issues such as racism, oppression and social injustice. For me, pedagogy of discomfort still remains a powerful pedagogical tool able to produce action, because teachers and students can utilize their discomfort to construct new emotional understandings into ways of living with others—the ultimate vision of this pedagogy, in my view.(Michalinos Zembylas)

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Megan Boler’s contribution to the blog

Because of power differences between educator and student, a student may witness racism in the actions or words of a fellow student, or in those of her teacher, but be unable to challenge the teacher to undertake his own pedagogy of discomfort. Here is where co-teaching and creating allies that work together as educators in a classroom offers opportunities to model, for the students, how people can challenge one another constructively to address internalized beliefs and values that need to be brought to light.

Guest lectures: Remix Theatre Company

TELL ME YOUR RACE THEN I WILL GIVE YOU OUR IDENTITY

Guest lectures: local artist: Bernie Searle

Performing poetry

Gabeba Baderoon Diana Ferrus

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Reflective essays• We need to ask many questions in developing course for staff professional

development. “Are educators in Higher Education able to deal with whatever repercussions result from disrupting the ‘sameness’ (Boler and Zembylas, 2003) or ‘rainbow nation’ myths by using pedagogies such as the ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ to force or encourage students and educators to question these seemingly safe myths ? It is much easier to talk about celebrating difference and drawing on difference to enrich understanding of each other, to create an environment of citizenship, inclusion and difference in this manner, than to seriously explore the power relations between students and educators, and between different student groups and communities.

• This course has at least given me some different theoretical frameworks and concepts to present to other educators in our Faculty to discuss and hopefully use for teaching about democracy, social inclusion and difference. This terms in themselves need to be discussed as an alternative or complement to talking about diversity. I have no illusion that this will be easy, but it is a necessary step to take and already there is some enthusiasm for looking at new ways of teaching about these sensitive subjects.

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Reflective essays• While the blogs were engaging, they were in essence a cognitive

and intellectual exercise in theoretical debate and logical argument. What was missing for me was an intimate space to translate our readings into face to face exchanges which put into play affective features that have tremendous potential for transformation.

• There was not enough space to share emotion or to evoke what Grossberg (1997) coined as the ‘economy of affect’ (cited in Zembylas, 2007). Anger, for example was not expressed yet should have been an important aspect of acknowledging disadvantage. Aristotle’s moral anger (Boler, 1999) is an important catalyst for opposing injustice in a society where individuals are taught to tame this emotion

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Conclusions

• Educators have nuanced view of difference, engage with theory in sophisticated ways and are themselves experts in the field

• Less visceral experience of difference than students – more intellectual

• What worked with students will also work with lecturers – need indepth engagement across differences with theory to analyse

• Difficulties of being positioned as lecturers and students while all higher educators

• Performance and guest lecturers highly valued• Have learnt valuable lessons in each iteration

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Publications from the project• Carolissen, R., Bozalek, V., Nicholls, L., Leibowitz,B. Swartz,L. & Rohleder, P. (2011) bell hooks and the enactment of emotion in teaching and learning across

boundaries: a pedagogy of hope? South African Journal of Higher Education,21(5):157-167. • Bozalek, V., Carolissen, R., Nicolls, L., Leibowitz, B., Swartz, L. & Rohleder, P. (2010) Engaging with Difference in Higher Education Through Collaborative Inter-

Institutional Pedagogical Practices. South African Journal of Higher Education 24(6): 1023-1037.• • Carolissen, R., Rohleder, P., Swartz, L., Leibowitz, B., Bozalek, V. (2010). “Community psychology is for poor, black people”: Challenges in teaching community

psychology in South Africa. Equity and Excellence in Education, ,43(4):595-510.• • Bozalek, V. & Biersteker, L. (2010) ‘Exploring Power and Privilege with using Participatory Learning and Action Techniques’ Social Work Education, 29(5):551-572.• • Leibowitz, B., Bozalek, V., Rohleder, P., Carolissen, R., & Swartz, L. (2010). “Whiteys Love to Talk About Themselves”: Discomfort as a pedagogy for change. Race,

Ethnicity and Education, 13(1):83-100.• • Leibowitz, B., Bozalek, V., Carolissen, R., Nicholls, L., Rohleder, P. & Swartz, L. (2010) Bringing the Social into Pedagogy; Unsafe learning in an uncertain world. Teaching

in Higher Education, 15(2):123-133.• • Swartz, L., Rohleder, P., Bozalek, V., Carolissen, R., Leibowitz, B., & Nicholls, L. (2009). “Your mind is the battlefield”: South African trainee health workers engage with

the past. Social Work Education, 28(5):488-501.• • Rohleder, P., Bozalek, V., Carolissen, R., Leibowitz, B., & Swartz, L. (2008). Students’ evaluations of e-learning as a tool in a collaborative project between two South

African universities. Higher Education, 56(1), 95-107. • • Rohleder, P., Swartz, L., Bozalek, V., Carolissen, R., & Leibowitz, B. (2008). Community, self and identity: Participation action research and the creation of a virtual

community across two South African universities. Teaching in Higher Education, 13 (2), 131-143. • • Rohleder, P., Swartz, L., Carolissen, R., Bozalek, V., & Leibowitz, B. (2008). “Communities isn’t just about trees and shops”: Students from two South African universities

engage in dialogue about ‘community’ and ‘community work’. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 18 (3), 253-267. • • Bozalek, V., Rohleder, P., Carolissen, R., Leibowitz, B., Nicholls, L., & Swartz, L. (2007). Students learning across differences in a multi-disciplinary virtual learning

community. South African Journal of Higher Education, 21(7):812-825.• • Leibowitz, B., Rohleder, P., Bozalek, V., Carolissen, R., & Swartz, L. (2007). “It doesn’t matter who or what we are, we are still just people”: Strategies used by university

students to negotiate difference. South African Journal of Psychology, 37(4), 702-719.• • Rohleder, P., Fish, W., Ismail, A., Padfield, L. & Platen, D. (2007). Dealing with diversity in a virtual learning community across two South African universities. South African Journal of

Higher Education. 21(7):893-918.