The paper points out some obvious points about secularism in higher education and in the west and inherent contradictions. What jumped out to me was the discussion on freedom of speech and prejudices against certain faith groups within the heading Public Sphere. In my teaching context in BA Fine Art, topics of gender and sexuality are often discussed and contextualized within art practices. Some of these concepts are in direct contradiction to beliefs of a person of faith. As was discussed in one of the seminar sessions, problems can arise when one party tries to prove the other wrong and tries to convince the other side to accept their ideology. The recent incident of a chaplain being sacked from a Church of England School and was reported to Prevent for views on marriage and human sexuality that are based on the CoE’s cannon law, was a case in point. In a truly inclusive society, as was discussed in Modood’s paper in the section on multiculturalism, one’s values should be respected without expectation of being assimilated. How can an university be inclusive when the society at large is not?
Coming back to my teaching context, although no incident as extreme as the incident described in Calhoun’s paper of students wearing t-shirts ridiculing Jesue and the prophet Mohammed has occurred in my teaching college, there is indeed underlying pressure to conform especially when many of the theorists and theory texts discussed within the curriculum are French or continental theorists who are either secular and explicitly anti-religion. I have only encountered one student whose art practice is inspired by her faith. During our tutorials, she has expressed anxiety over “offending” others with her views in a secular university. Even though the views in question were mild and sometimes common sense in nature, I am saddened to hear that such fear permeates in the first place.
It is very telling when I read the case study of Aaliyah from the Little Book of Big Case Studies on Faith, when she found herself under attack by her fellow classmates on the drawing of hijab. This explains my student’s anxiety. Currently at college, there is very little understanding of religious faiths in general and unfortunately, a larger still misunderstanding and ignorance on the muslim faith, on the wearing of the hijab or other outer symbols of faith. One thing that stood out to me was how she had hoped the tutor could create a safe space for discussion.
The need to create space for discussion and learning as a tutor is also a big learning for me. I delivered a lecture this year where some of the content contradicted my own personal beliefs. It was a success and students came up to me and said how they really enjoyed that section of the lecture. I felt a sense of discomfort and unease after it. After speaking to a peer of mine who is also an art lecturer, she reminded me that as an art tutor, a huge part of my role is there to make space for different opinions. It’s not about me and who I am and what I believe in but how I can facilitate conversations and therefore learning and growth in the students regardless of difference and opinions. This is such an important point, reflecting on Freire’s approach to pedagogy, us tutors are facilitators rather than leading them down a path we think are “correct”. By extension, for an inclusive curriculum, one must not leave out content just because one is not familiar with or in total agreement with if it Is relevant and have significance for students’ journey.
I think your blog entry is brilliantly honest and open about this responsibility that we have as tutors to create a space and inclusive safe, and I particularly liked your opening question. How can a university be inclusive when the society at large is not?
It reflects this expectation that tutors have the solution to a complex and institutional racist problem which not all educators are equipped to answer to at the same time pastoral care and academic deliveries.
This idea to learn through practice take risks, and also be uncomfortable could be perhaps admitting that we do not have all the answers but that we are here to, as you write, “a huge part of my role is there to make space for different opinions. It’s not about me and who I am and what I believe in but how I can facilitate conversations and therefore learning and growth in the students regardless of difference and opinions.”
This position of learners is perhaps destabilisation, knowing that commonly, tutors are expected to have miracle answers/solutions and reassure of our ability to solve problems, where we are here to raise questions and more problems and spike conversations.
I am currently reading a book called “In Defense of the School: A Public Issue.” by Jan Masschelein & Maarten Simons , which echoes your thoughts of facilitation and advocates for the tutor as an amateur who would meet their students at their levels and make school a place slow learning:
“that the school provides ‘free time’ and transforms knowledge and skills into ‘common goods’, and therefore has the potential to give everyone, regardless of background, natural talent or aptitude, the time and space to leave their known environment, rise above themselves and renew (and thus change in unpredictable ways) the world.”
Thank you Alix for your comment and suggestions! The quote by Masschelein and Simons reinforced the Freieran idea of students and tutors being co-producers of knowledge. As tutors we often forget that we are helping them grow rather than getting it “right”. However, the assessment and grading system that students are used to from the get-go is ingrained in their minds. Young learners since school have been subjected to classification tests and exams. Such is the victorian model of education geared towards the preparation for model workers in our post-industrial capitalist age. The book you quoted seems visionary compared to that!
Your feelings of sadness as students (all of us), struggle with confidence about what we express and how, is pervasive. And this course has been telling us remaining silent isn’t an option. We’re all on a delicate journey of avoiding offence but addressing sentiments. Moreover, as staff we have a role of encouraging and strengthening student voice. It makes me think of Sperling et al.’s (2012) article. It’s short and it’s a review of socio cultural views of expression, and moving away from one dominant/academic voice. They write:
‘Voice is as complicated as the self it is assumed to evoke and is as socially situated and culturally embedded as the self is understood to be’ (Sperling et al., 2012).
Reference
Sperling, M., Appleman, D., Gilyard, K and Freedman, S. (2012) Voice in the Context of Literacy Studies Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 1 (January/February/March 2011), pp. 70-84Published by: International Reading Association. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/41038746
Thank you Denise for your comment and your reference. Voice is such an under-spoken term on our course. Thank you for brining this forward. For fine art students, they find their voices through aesthetic representations. Often the borrow tropes from whatever paradigm they gravitates towards. It is us the tutors’ role to be open to all paradigms and ask the right questions for the students rather than closing them in to focus on our areas of interests, which sometimes occurs at a BA level.