ways of seeing, learning, and photography
DESCRIPTION
This paper explores how principles of critical pedagogy and transformational learning operated in a series of photography workshops that I ran with multicultural youth, evaluates the expression of these principles, and sketches out potentials for further transformation.TRANSCRIPT
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Ways of seeing, learning and photography: a critique of a learning
environment
"True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our
kinship with all beings." ~ Pema Chödron
Introduction
This paper explores how principles of critical pedagogy and transformational
learning operated in a series of photography workshops that I ran with
multicultural youth, evaluates the expression of these principles, and sketches
out potentials for further transformation.
This is achieved in four parts. Part one presents a theoretical
background in relevant concepts from transformative learning and critical
pedagogy. Part two introduces the project itself – its context, participants, and
how it was run. Part three explores the project’s explicit and implicit learning
agendas, critically examining the assumptions, issues, and transformative
potential around firstly reading photographs, then secondarily making
photographs. Part four analyses how power operates in the workshop context
and ramifications for democratic education.
Part I - Theoretical background
This paper draws its theoretical background in critical pedagogy and
transformational learning from the ideas of Paulo Freire and Jack Mezirow
who have contributed foundational insights in the two related fields. I briefly
sketch out here ideas relevant for the subsequent analysis.
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Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy developed as a response to the
systematic exclusion of the poor from education in Brazil where he worked in
the early 1960s. His theory of liberation education recognized that the
marginalized could not escape oppression within the standard education
tradition – what he called the ‘banking’ approach, where active teachers
deposit knowledge in ‘empty’ and passive students. He writes, “The more
students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop
the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the
world as transformers of that world”1. This critical consciousness - or
‘concretisation’ - is needed to reveal the social, political, and economic
contradictions that form the oppressive matrix that anchors them in an
underprivileged position. It is the vital step that paves the way for them to take
action in the world against this oppression.
Coming from a very different context almost a decade later, Jack
Mezirow began to similarly explore the types of learning experiences that are
able to fundamentally change the way people see both themselves and their
world. Based on his pioneering research with adult learners, and drawing
from Habermas’ theory of communicative action, Mezirow outlined a theory of
transformative learning. This theory has evolved considerable over the last
20 years in light of numerous critiques2, but essentially locates the act of
critical reflection on one’s lived experiences as the basis for transformative
learning. Through this critical reflection, a learner can perceive and
subsequently transform her habits of mind – the complex meaning structures
that continually filter an individual’s way of seeing the world.
While critical reflection is crucial for both theories, they differ in the context in
which this occurs: Like Mezirow, Freire sees critical reflection as central to transformation in context to
problem-posing and dialogue with other learners. However, in contrast, Freire sees its
purpose based on a rediscovery of power such that the more critically aware learners
become the more they are able to transform society and subsequently their own
reality.3
1 Freire (1970, p. 60) 2 Kitchenham (2008) 3 Taylor, cited in Brown (2004, p. 86)
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In this way according to Freire a reflection is only truly critical when it leads to
transformative social action, in the outside world.4 For Mezirow social action
is a natural and desirable consequence of the process of transformative
learning – however it is not intrinsically necessary to the process.
Photography for both is a powerful medium that can effect
transformative change. Freire has himself on occasion used participatory
photography to draw attention to conditions of oppression.5 In Freirean critical
pedagogy, photographs taken by learners themselves have the potential to
play a key role in helping them to critically reflect on their own lived
experiences, in clarifying and articulating how they face injustices, and in
framing their ideas for action. Freirean inspired photography projects have
tended to focus on the to literal and rational reflection of the socio-political
context of the learner.6
For Mezirow’s early work, rationality was also paramount, as
expressed through dialogue and critical reflection. His later writing gave more
recognition to emotional or intuitive experiences – such as image-based
reflection - having the potential of leading to transformative learning.7
Lightfoot-Lawrence and Davis note that “…making and finding meaning
through art is a transformative experience. Once we have encountered seeing
and thinking in the aesthetic realm, our ability to think and see more generally
is altered”.8
Having sketched out the basics of the theoretical background, we turn
to the project in question.
4 See Brown (2004, p. 86) for further elaboration of this analysis. 5 One example dates from 1973, when Freire was conducting a literacy project in a barrio of Lima, Peru. He asked people the question "What is exploitation?", and requested the answers in photographs. The ensuring images spurred widespread discussions in the Peruvian barrio about forms of institutionalized exploitation and ways to overcome them. See Singhai (2004). 6 Singhai (2004) 7 Mezirow (2000). The mytho-poetic view of transformative learning subsequently developed by Dirkx expanded on these intuitive ways of knowing. 8 Lightfoot-Lawrence and Davis, cited in Morton (2007, p. 268)
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Part II - Project, Audience and Context
Project Overview Before engaging with the project analysis itself, it is useful to get an overview
of the photography workshops and the context in which they sit. The project
was run through a youth led advocacy group, the Western Young Person’s
Independent Network (WYPIN), based in Footscray, Melbourne, which works
to empower and connect young people of multicultural origin, and advocate
more generally on tolerance and multiculturalism. The project consisted of a
series of 8 x 3.5 hour photography workshops with multicultural group of
young people, that culminated in a public exhibition of the participants’
photographs in a local youth centre.
Context This project is located within a broader field that is generally known as
‘participatory photography’; such projects use imaging technology
(photography and video) for empowerment and advocacy in marginalized
groups. Project participants are encouraged to document and co-share their
own reality and views though their photographs – the latter which may
generate stories that may have been previously rejected or overlooked. The
images themselves can then become participatory sites for wider storytelling
and engagement by the community, encouraging a reflection on local issues,
while the photographic skills learnt by the participants may build their own
vocational opportunities.9
With such a wide range of possible goals, it is critical that participatory
photography projects are clear about their specific aims, else they can risk
becoming tokenistic or at worst tacitly exploitative of their already
marginalized participants.10 For this particular project, the explicit outcomes
9 See Singhal (2004) for a more extensive summary, and Godden (2009) for a thorough critique of the field. 10 Godden (2009) includes some relevant discussion relating to project aims, “As for advice to those running a similar project, I would recommend that they reflect upon the ultimate goal. If the goal is to bring the world of photography to children as an art form for creativity, then their approach may be very different than someone who wants to teach photography as a life skill. The approach would be determined by the desired outcome.”
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were to increase the photography and advocacy skills of participants,
documenting the West in the eyes of young people, celebrating cultural
diversity and building awareness through its public exhibition.
Participants The workshop participants - young people from Cambodian, Sudanese,
Afghani, and Thai backgrounds – face marginalisation on multiple levels:
economic, cultural, and linguistic. Additionally they are exposed to a media
environment that persuasively affirms the centrality of the Anglo-centric
subject; with different ethnic groups being constructed visually and through
narrative as exotic and Other, as objects rather than subjects.11 As Kincheloe
writes, “In such a context, critical consciousness is elusive because the
oppressed are blinded to the myths of dominant power the ones that oppress
them and keep them in their place”.12 The imagery – and the critical
discussion that accompanies it - that the outsider produces herself thus can
become a bridge towards critical consciousness.
However, we must be mindful of the complexity and potential
appropriation of the marginal group even in this seemingly emancipatory
context. For instance, though images generated from the detachment of a
minority position have a great potential to reflect critically on mainstream
society, the perspectives of the participants in this project are not necessarily
representative, and like members of any other group, they may be susceptible
to bias and stereotyping. We consider the images produced by the
participants in more detail below.
11Bloom (1999) 12 Kincheloe (2008, p. 73)
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Part III - Curriculum and Learning Agendas
Photography teaching spans a range of different pedagogical spectra - with
individual projects held in various tensions; the balance between technical
and creative, between analysis and capturing, and between theory and
practice. Within the participatory photography sub-genre, curriculum is
frequently weighted towards the poles of creative, capturing, and practical,
and the course in questions is indicative of this constellation of learning
values. However there is always a technical component that must be taught –
the photographic syntax that allows visual creativity to emerge – we which will
also examine.
The WYPIN photography workshop curriculum had two main foci, or
learning agendas: reading images, which include photographic topics of
analysis such as ‘composition’, ‘emotion’, constructed images’; and creating
images, which addresses the ‘how’ in capturing the image. This includes both
technical skills – ‘focus’, ‘lighting’, ‘aperture’ – as well as developing the
participants’ ‘ways of seeing’. Each class covered a different combination of
these foci, including revision.13
We will explore each in term and evaluate their transformative potential
with respect to Mezirow’s and Freire’s pedagogies.
Reading images – photographic analysis The basic aim of this learning agenda is to expand the students’ ways of
seeing the world, implemented through introducing students to different
approaches to ‘reading’ photographs. A key model was ‘See, Feel, Think’.
See referred to the basics of composition – what elements in an image (lines,
contrast, shape) give rise to certain principles or meta-concepts (harmony,
dynamism). Feel referred to the emotional content of the images, what
emotional feeling arose from the latter principles and other image content.
Think referred to the ideas implicit or explicit in the image, how they arose
from the principles, as well as what concepts the photographer was trying to
get across in the image.
13 See full class schedule in Appendix A.
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Habits of Mind From the perspective of transformative learning theory, what is crucial is the
process of “…examining, questioning, validating, and revising our
perspectives”14. These perspectives form a largely invisible filter to our
experiences, determining what we evaluate, judge and believe subsequently
based on them the experiences. Mezirow identifies habits of mind as a key
part of these perspectives, and describes six are interlinked and
interconnected types; epistemic, sociolinguistic, aesthetic, philosophical,
moral-ethical and psychological. Transformational learning occurs when these
implicit habits of mind are self-reflectively called into question.
Two are specifically relevant in the photography class context –
aesthetic and sociolinguistic. Aesthetic habits of mind describe how we think
about beauty and aesthetics - including our values, attitudes, tastes,
judgments, and standards. They are largely influenced by the social norms of
our culture, and as such overlap with sociolinguistic habits of mind – those
based on social norms, cultural expectations, and language conventions. By
inviting students to view photographs critically, to peel back layers of
conventional understanding and viewing, it invites critical reflection on
aesthetic and sociolinguistic frames of mind.
Examples One example of reflecting on sociolinguistic habits of mind was during
Workshop 4, where the class explored representations of cultural diversity. I
presented images that showed how particular photographs had had black
people digitally added to make them appear more culturally diverse, and
discussion centred around the difference between this practice and erasure of
culture diversity in earlier photographs (Photograph 1).
14 Cranton (2006, p. 23)
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Photograph 1
In this way the visual concept of ‘cultural diversity’ becomes the site of
questioning, with personal relevance to the participants’ own lives - being
largely from multicultural backgrounds and living around Melbourne’s west,
they were regularly exposed to both positive and negative constructions of
multiculturalism. In a similar fashion Photograph 2 and 3 were presented and
prompted discussion around ideals of beauty, critically reflecting on aesthetic
habits of mind.
Photograph 3
Photograph 2
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These examples prompt the question – is it enough to merely discuss?
It is difficult to assess whether critical reflection has occurred simply as a
result of discussion. Feedback sheets collected after classes consistently
indicated that ‘talking about photographs’ or ‘looking at photographs’ was of
significant interest.15 But is it enough? Mezirow’s early formulation specified
an abrupt, ‘disorientating dilemma’ to effect critical reflection; these
discussions certainly did not constitute this. Later however, Mezirow theorized
that a more gradual, incremental shift occurring in the learner could also be
transformative;16 it is this type of change that is more of a possibility in the
photography classes. However the short duration (3.5 hours) of the classes is
an obvious impediment to sustained, incremental transformation. As Sleeter
writes, “…seemingly transformational learning experiences that occur in a
classroom setting are consistent and lasting as long as the learner is in the
classroom, but that learners often revert to previous ways of thinking and
acting when they return to their work context.”17 Further post-workshop
evaluation may be able to shed light on whether this is the case.
Creating images – how to take a photograph The aims of this learning agenda was to equip the students with a basic
knowledge of how to take photos, from both technical (camera operation) and
creative (developing student’s ways of seeing).
Technical operation Teaching the technical aspects of taking a photograph involves dealing with
concepts abstract to the new learner – shutter speed, aperture, ISO, depth of
field and so forth. Not only are the concepts abstract, their relationship is non-
intuitive – for instance the relationship between f-stops and depth of field is an
effect arising from the physics of lenses, remote from the learner's everyday
15 It should be noted that there are various issues around inferences drawn from feedback sheets – such as shyness to comment, wanting to please, language constraints that make it difficult to draw definitive conclusions from them. 16 See Kitchenham (2008, p.105) for a contextual description the ‘disorientating dilemma’. 17 Sleeter, cited in Hoggan (2007, p.193)
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experience. Thus teaching these concepts can be difficult, and it was no
surprise that students struggled the most with these concepts.
One avenue for engaging with this difficult area through a
transformative learning perspective is to look at learner identity. The adult
learner’s prior life experiences and identity are critical for how they relate to
new knowledge. These experiences “…form a strong basis for their personal
beliefs, defining one’s self, and the knowledge base on which new
experiences and knowledge are built”18. Every learning environment
continually - implicitly or explicitly - constructs its learners as particular
identities19, and the nature of this construction can have a great effect on the
learning. For instance, in a study of food safety, it was found the identity of the
learners as ‘cooks’ had the effect of them focusing primarily on the
preparation and cooking, not the post-preparation, which was the critical
factor for food safety.20
For the photography classes, I tried explicitly to treat the students as
photographers – using statements like, ‘As photographers we should
always…’21 I hoped that their emerging identity as ‘a photographer’ would
have a positive impact on their determination to learn the technical content,
for consistency of identity. It was a paradoxical balance however. By
emphasizing the technicality of the medium itself, it may also have worked to
neglect the creative side; just as to construct the students as artists could
have left them vulnerable to socio-cultural preconceived notions of the nature
of personal 'expression', particularly as distinct to technical accomplishment.
Given these difficulties, how much is technical learning needed in a
transformative learning environment? Feedback from the previous WYPIN
photography workshops suggested it might be good to reduce the technical
content of the programme, given that this year’s cohort had younger students
with less command of English. In response, I removed some technical
components, but retained a basic level that I considered essential to give
creative flexibility and power to the students to create images. The results 18 Ellis (2007, p.135) 19 EACCW (2007, p.124) discusses this in the context of privilege. 20 Ellis (2007, p.134) 21 However this was often ad-hoc and not part of a sustained consistent effort to shift their identity.
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were mixed – many of the photographs in the exhibition could have been
taken with a fully automatic camera (that is, no technical creative control);
however it is highly likely that the process of learning the technical skills
honed some of the ways of seeing of the participants. That is, it is likely that
participants’ aesthetic habits of mind were influenced by the – often difficult –
process of evaluating attributes such as depth of field, focus, and movement
in the section of visual field framed by the view-finder. Thus not only does
technical knowledge allow for a greater range and control over visual
representation, it can also have a transformational effect.
Creative operation – ways of seeing If exploring the technical side of photography is delving into the objective –
attempting to answer the question ‘How to take a photograph?’, then pursuing
the creative side attempts to answer the subjective - ‘What to photograph?’
How do you teach students to develop their own ways of seeing? This is a
core purpose of the workshops – to support and develop each student’s own
unique way of seeing the world through photography.
Freire and ways of seeing Turning to Freire, this question in paradoxical within what he describes as the
conventional ‘banking’ approach to education, where students are passive
depositories for the active knowledge of the teacher. Freire writes that in this
oppressive system, “…knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider
themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.
Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others… negates education and
knowledge as processes of inquiry.”22
In contrast, the teacher doesn’t 'own' the student’s way of seeing. She
can advise, suggest, instruct, and even coerce a particular way of seeing onto
the student – in doing the latter becoming part of the ‘dehumanizing social
structures’ that serve to negate an individual’s subjectivity.23 The way of
seeing cannot be conventionally ‘deposited’ as in the banking approach.
22 Freire (1972, p. 72) 23 Freire, cited in McInerney (2009).
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In contrast to the banking style, Freire sees all people as creators of
history and culture – all of them have a right to “name the world.”’24 In this
context, the ‘naming’ equates to owning and asserting their right to show
particularly how they see through the photographs. The oppressed must
“…achieve a deepening awareness both of their social cultural reality that
shapes their lives and their capacity to transform that reality”25. Deepening
that awareness comes from developing how to see the world.
In the classroom: developing ways of seeing
To encourage the development of a learner’s way of seeing without imposing
your way of seeing through the didactic banking mode can be a challenge.
For instance, a very common question at the workshops’ early stages was
‘How can I take a good photograph?’, with ‘good’ alluding to both technical
and aesthetic considerations. The danger is that either the student’s want or
the teacher’s desire to produce uniformly ‘good’ photographs may erode the
learner’s subjectivity. Godden describe this clearly ‘Through presenting ‘what
makes a good photo’, using ‘Western’ examples, focus on one particular style
of photography… the trainer may already be influencing the type of photos the
participants take…’26 To try to address this I taught ‘guidelines’ (e.g. for
composition), stressing that they were not mandatory and could easily be
broken for effect. Photograph 4 below shows one example.
<-Figure running on beach If you don't, here's what can happen! This jogger looks like she's going to run right out of the picture.
2nd view of figure running on beach By placing the subject in the lower-left
position, we've used the rule of thirds and given the jogger plenty of room to run
within the picture. 24 Freire (1972, p. 69) 25 Freire (1972, p. 93) 26 Godden (2009)
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There is always a risk that the authority of the teaching these
‘guidelines’ will have the effect of turning them into ‘rules’ in the student’s
consciousness. This risk in developing a participant’s ways of seeing is part of
a broader one that relates to the teacher’s authority, discussed in the next
section.
Of course, it can easily go the other way, where students do not
engage with potentially transformative subject matter. An example of this was
in Class 7- ‘Photography and social change’, which aimed to build participant
awareness of the various ways photography can create social change. I
grouped these ways into two – photographs which raise awareness of an
issue themselves through their visual impact alone, and photography projects
that have the ability to make marginalized voices heard through images. The
students were interested in both, but not to the extent that I would have liked;
both WYPIN and myself had placed high priority on increased participant
advocacy skills, with myself being personally interested in the topic. Instead,
the students generally followed their own projects, rather than adopting or
experimenting components of this critical attitude.27 I realised that perhaps
my own unconscious desires - to infect the students with social activism and
to have them make overtly political images - could have partially blinded
myself to being properly present to the students’ actual desires at the time. It
is a complex situation, as the participants did not have the political language
to discuss in depth ideas around oppression and hegemony, and the class
was attempting to provide these through visual form.
At the same time, Freire stresses the responsibility of the teacher to go
beyond “…simply meeting the expressed needs of the learner… they need to
take on the responsibility for growth by questioning the learner’s expectations
and beliefs”.28 It is a delicate balance between supporting the participants’
desires and questioning them.
27 The fact that this particular class was towards the end in the workshop program may have effected this, as the students had less time to take onboard new ideas. 28 Brown (2004, p. 87)
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Examples
One example was the popularity of fashion as a theme in the exhibition and
participant’s class photographs (Photograph 5).
Photograph 5
A critical pedagogical reading of youth fashion steps back to examine the
power relationships at play, as Frymer writes “…youth identity has become a
commodity that is being bought by media conglomerates and sold back to
youth themselves.”29 Lacking power through being denied political or social
agency by repressive social forms, young people frequently negotiate their
identity in expression through self-conscious and socially-mediated
consumptive practices. As one participant writes to describe his photographs,
29 Frymer, cited in McInerney (2009, p. 28)
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“People express their true emotions and character through fashion. What you wear is
what you are”.30
On one hand, these statements are an authentic insight into the lived
experience of this young person; on the other hand, they tend to reflect the
dominant ideology about consumptive identity described above. Greater
exposure to critical reflection may have been able to bring out a more self-
reflective stance.
At the same time, expressing these ideas alongside these photographs -
which mimic fashion photography poses and composition – makes the viewer
think more critically about fashion itself, as models in the photographic genre
tend to be Anglo-Saxon.
Another popular theme with participants was nature (Photograph 6).
30 WYPIN (2010)
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Photograph 6.
Here some of the participants focused on visually attractive aspects of
the natural areas around Footscray.. However, the writings that
accompanying these photographs showed more than just a personal
appreciation of nature for its beauty – the students also had particular views
that they wanted to express:
“…unfortunately, lots of greedy people haven’t understood that nature is heaven.
Therefore they are destroying our beautiful nature”
“Nature is very important. It is relaxing – when you’re tired, you can get out and
breathe in the clear air, see the natural world coloured by wonderful flowering. That
way you can feel wonderful again”31
The specific attitudes expressed here – one about the importance of
protecting nature from humans, the other about the vital need humans have
for nature – complement the photographs and let the viewer read more into
the images. They also show how the camera as a tool has given these young
people increased agency to express their views. “As students become literate
they are empowered to change themselves and to take action in the world.”32
Here this literacy is visual, and the action is putting out these images into the
world.
31 WYPIN (2010) 32 Kincheloe (2008, p.74)
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Photograph 7 shows some participants’ images around the themes of
multiculturalism which similar operate to critically engage the viewer around
the concepts of race, representation, and identity.
Photograph 7
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Part IV - Democratic education – power and control
In this final section, I examine some of the power relationships in the classes
and how they act to engage or limit student participation from a critical
pedagogical position.
Teacher authority For Freire, the learner’s identity is always in a state of becoming, and thus the
potential for transformation and liberation is ever-present. The role of the
teacher is to engage the student in dialogue to expand their self-knowledge.
Thus the authority of the teacher is based on the knowledge and insight she
brings to class – not simply because she is the ‘teacher’, and they are the
‘students’.33 Of course, it is complex situation regarding student-teacher
perception. During the photography workshops the students would treat me
very much as the teacher despite my attempts to equalize the relationship.
Cultural differences existing around respect for the teacher varied widely
amongst cultures: non-Anglo-Saxon participants tended to respect my
authority as positional and hierarchical, while Anglo-Saxons showed less
respect.34
An added complexity for authority in this context was the presence of
peer facilitators – three WYPIN staff and volunteers who assisted me in the
running of the class, predominantly through each facilitating small groups
during class activities. In terms of control, I rarely gave over curriculum
control or lesson planning control - while peer facilitators had input, I was the
final arbiter. While there were practical reasons for this (their lack of
photographic knowledge, time constraints, curriculum consistency), on
reflection I could have made many more opportunities for the facilitators to
take sessions themselves. By giving up some of this control, there may have
been more dynamic opportunities for dialogic interactions arising from the
expanded diversity of facilitation personality types and styles.
33 Kincheloe (2008) 34 See also Southern’s (2005, p. 450) discussion of this phenomena. She makes the observation that for some of her Asian students authority and distance in one realm (classroom), seemed to pave the way for informality and distance in another (the home).
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This giving and retaining of authority and control for transformative
learning is a dynamic, contextual process. Some degree of authority is
required to focus the students (e.g. on learning camera technical functions);
too little authority (e.g. lack of enforcing time constraint) can detract.
As Southern reflects on this balance, If I hold my authority over students, how likely will they enter that space of
unknowingness and vulnerability that is necessary for transformative learning? If I don’t
hold my authority in a way that challenges them to question their own assumptions, I
also greatly limit their learning.35
Spatial environment Physical space has critical effects on learning environments; creating or
shutting down the possibilities of physical interactions, inscribing or diluting
specific power relations, and emphasising or de-emphasising particular
knowledges. Communication and interaction between learners is an
embodied, spatial experience, “…learning is seen as a function and emergent
process of bodily subjects within an embodied context, in which a learning
person is embedded passively and in which he or she takes part actively in a
responsive practice”.36 For the photography workshops, two main spaces
were used for learning: inside and outside.
Inside spaces The inside space where the classes occurred was at the Melbourne
Citymission building in Footscray. Space was tight and feedback indicated
that students did not like crowded rooms – after a few attempts we were able
to find a passable yet cramped working arrangement. Most critical in the
physical arrangement was the orientation of the students and teacher – the
teacher was at front by the whiteboard, with the students in a circle. This
arrangement took more space than if the students were in rows – however it
allowed them all to easily see and communicate with each other, an important
way of encouraging inter-student dialogue and discussion. Further, the
35 Southern (2005, p. 448) 36 Kupers (2008, p. 391)
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lessons usually involved a combination of dialogue in a whole-group format
and smaller groups – the latter providing less spaces that were easier for the
more quiet members of the group to talk. This flexibility and safety is critical
for transformative learning, as Dahl writes in his study of youth camps, “…safe
and flexible spaces in which to experiment, debate, and take on increasingly
more responsibility… essentially provide young people with the kind of
thinking spaces they need in order to engage in transformative learning.”37
When in a large group, the default position of the teacher was standing
at the front. This was convenient for knowledge dissemination, but usually
limited interactions to be student-teacher interactions rather than student-
student. I found sitting down during group discussion altered the hierarchy of
my frontal position and seemed to enable greater student-student interactions.
Outside spaces The outside spaces were used for photography excursions – opportunities
where participants could take photographs in the streets of Footscray.
Naturally these spaces were coveted after hours in a cramped office, and
feedback showed that students wanted more of them – however it was a
balance between having excursion and photographing time outside and
discussion and conceptual learning inside. This may have reflected my own
privileging of the content and communicative learning inside over practical,
individual learning outside – however the participants in this year’s classes
also kept the cameras outside of the class and so had many other
opportunities for practical shooting.38 Attempting to produce an optimum
learning environment during the excursions rested on various balance points:
1. The un/decisive moment. The balance between encouraging the
students to pick the ‘right’ moment to take the photograph – when
they could see the what they wanted in the frame39, and on the
other hand encouraging them to take many photographs of
37 Tove (2009, p. 230) 38 This was an important change designed to give more autonomy to the student’s learning – in the previous year’s class the students handed their cameras back in after each lesson for security reasons. 39 This notion of the decisive moment in transformative learning is discussed by Altobello (2007) in the context of contemplative practice.
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anything to improve their framing, composition and practical
learning.
2. Is it good enough? Related to the first, this was the balance
between taking many photographs and not thinking critically about
them, and between taking few photographs and being overly
critical of them.
3. Staying safe. The balance between giving ‘heavy’ safety
warnings to participants about camera use in public space (which
made some participants more reluctant to take photographs), and
between being more relaxed and letting the students engage in
riskier camera use.
4. Staying together. Related to the previous, this was the balance
between the small groups staying close for safety (constraining
the photographs taken and encouraging groupthink) and between
being more relaxed and letting the students explore more
independently (riskier).
There was no specific ‘right answer’ to where to set these balance points –
they were highly contextual. However from a transformative learning
perspective, a safe learning environment is not just limited to physical safety,
it encompasses the space to experiment - according to Schapiro these
environments can be “...a platform from which learners can leap into the
unknown, and a safety net that can catch them if they fall...”40
Exhibition The exhibition was the culmination of the photography workshops. It
showcased what participants’ chose to be their best images, in a theme of
their choice. We have examined above several examples of types of images
students produced. Here we explore the exhibition as a site for democratic
education.
The simple fact of having an exhibition at end of the classes forced the
students to think about what kind of theme they wanted to show in their work,
40 Schapiro (2009, p.98)
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moving them beyond thinking on an image-by-image basis to a more complex
expression. Each participant was given a large section of black cardboard as
a space for their photographs; they choose the number, type, and
arrangements of the images. This participant control was essential to give
them the space to develop their way of seeing more fully. As Godden writes,
“There is an over emphasis on who takes the picture… but photography is a
longer process, involving editing and presentation to an audience…What is
important is that participants are involved in whole photographic process.”41
We should remain critical though is the context in which this occurred – in
practical terms there was only one class where students looked specifically at
a photographic series in a structured way rather than dealing with single
images – limiting their ability to fully explore this structure before the
exhibition.
Aside from the specific arrangements, how the photographs were
generally presented at the exhibition was also important in the public
construction of the participants. There is a definite risk of paternalism in
participatory photography, where notion of charity can construct the
participants as passive subjects – essentially we see but do not really hear
their voice. To make sure they are heard, the participants write their own
biography statements and artist statements about their work which were
displayed alongside their images – ‘naming the world’, in the Freirean sense.
41 Godden (2009)
24
Discussion and Conclusions Photography is an ideal medium for transformational learning – it offers rich
possibilities for critical reflection on the learning subject’s lived reality, as it
can directly present sections of this world to the viewer. However, learning to
create images cannot be separated from learning how to read them; both
processes inform each other and generate the potential for transformative
experience. By learning how to critically read images, the participants were
given an opportunity to engage with and challenge their unconscious habits of
mind. As these habits are strongly linked with how we see the world, this
critical reflection gave space to develop their ways of seeing, providing critical
influence in photographs that they take.
While Mezirow’s transformative learning theory emphasises these
personal transformations, Freire’s critical pedagogy continually focuses on
their relevance to social change and overcoming structured oppression in the
world. In this regard the public exhibition was the clearest expression of
social influence – however, as a one off event, its impact was limited. Freire
would judge whether the photography participants stayed in touch and
expanded their critical conversations into other parts of their lives and world
after the workshops, as testimony to wider-scale influence.
Of course, these processes were far from perfect – one recurring
aspect was the shortfall of time in both session length and series duration that
can severely limit the transformation potential of the processes. One way to
achieve this would be to reduce the course content covered, giving more
space and time to creating further opportunities for critical reflection. The
photography workshops are still in their infancy, with so many more ways to
develop.
We are surrounded by images, most of which urge us to consume.
The images created by the young people show something very different – not
a broad critique of capitalism or oppression, but rather the sharing of local
stories, identities, and perspectives that would have otherwise remained
silent. As viewers, these images invite us to explore other worlds that we so
often neglect, and ultimately help us to see the common hopes and fears
inherent in our shared humanity.
25
"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time… But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
~ Lila Watson, Aboriginal educator and activist
26
Appendix A - Photography Class Schedule Class General Theme Photographic Ideas Technical Date
1 Intro to Photography Reading photographs Camera basics Tues 29th
June
2 Past - where have you/we come from?
Composition Focus Thurs 1st July
3
Present - What's going on now?
Emotion Shutter/Aperture/ISO Tues 6th July
4 Future - where are you/we heading?
Constructed photos and series
Thurs 8st July
5 Our Footscray - what is our community?
Representing diversity Lighting Sat 17th July
5a
Optional workshop (limited numbers)
Digital photography/technical extensions
TBC
6
Advocacy/Action - Another World is Possible
Photography and social change
Sat 24th July
6a
Optional workshop (limited numbers)
Digital photography/technical extensions
TBC
7 Other Worlds Macro, abstraction Sat 31th
July
7a
Optional workshop (limited numbers)
Digital photography/technical extensions
TBC
8
Where to from here? Exhibiting your photos, continuing as a photographer
Sat 7th August
Final exhibition Preparation
Sat 14th August
Exhibition Launch! Fri 20th
August
Exhibition Packdown and Class Dinner
TBC
27
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