Do We Belong Here?

Workshop at the Philosophical Education Society of Great Britain with Vikki Hill.

The purpose and substance of the workshop:  
In his 1968 thesis Difference and Repetition Gilles Deleuze argues that, ‘…it is so difficult to say how someone learns: there is an innate or acquired practical familiarity with signs, which means that there is something amorous - but also something fatal - about all education (Deleuze 1994: 23). One of Deleuze’s ideas of how to teach is that, ‘We learn nothing from those who say: ‘Do as I do’. Our only teachers are those who tell us to ‘do with me’ and are able to emit signs to be developed in heterogeneity rather than propose gestures for us to reproduce.’ (Deleuze: Ibid). Pedagogy is according to Deleuze (1994) amongst others, is not something that is “done to one” or “is done by one to others,” but is something that one participates in, it should be a mode of co-construction, where teaching and learning become fused, one is opened up to the future, and one is better able to question knowledge construction as such (Cole 2016).

The purpose of the workshop is to examine how to challenge stereotype threat, combined with Deleuzoguattarian concepts of nomadic pedagogies can be assembled to create belonging within the liminal learning spaces of our academies (Ingham, 2018). Informed by practice-based research from the University of the Arts London’s Creative Mindsets project (2017-2019) and the co-constructed Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zines (2018 & 2019) The workshop will be structured to include a ‘walkshop’ (Kim & Greenfield 2011) activity where the participants, in small groups, will be asked to consider a question or fictional scenario dealing with stereotype threat and belonging, whilst they wander through the public and informal educational spaces of New College, finding places to belong and linger. 

Stereotype threat is the risk of conforming to a stereotype about a social group to which you belong, and the impact has been particularly documented in academic performance (Osborne, 2007; Steele, 1997). In her book Nomadic Pedagogies (2008) Inna Semetsky understands, ‘The metaphor of nomad, used often by Deleuze, is potent as indicating a dynamic and evolving character of philosophical concepts versus their having forever-fixed and eternal meanings independent of context, time, place, subject, or culture (Semetsky 2008: vii). We will take this idea that thinking is not fixed and can be used to challenge stereotypes and stereotype threat. 

UAL Creative Mindsets is a research intervention that has been delivered at the University of the Arts London (UAL) from 2017 – present that aims to eradicate the Awarding Gap (Hill & Singh, 2018b) between home white students and home students of colour who gain a good degree (an upper second and first classification). UAL Creative Mindsets was developed from the OfS Catalyst-funded Changing Mindsets research intervention that aimed to narrow retention, progression, attainment, employability differentials for BAME and socioeconomically disadvantaged students and to reduce stereotypes and bias habits to create equitable learning environments. Avoiding a student deficit model, the project opened a space for students and staff to interrogate concepts of talent, meritocracy, identity, bias, stereotype threat and to apply de-biasing techniques (Devine, 1998) to pedagogy and creative practice and consider how we can co-construct meanings. Findings demonstrate that those who hold a self-belief in an incremental theory of intelligence (a growth mindset) are less likely to hold stereotypical beliefs and more likely to want to overcome bias and create inclusive environments (Changing Mindsets, 2018).

Our work/walkshop will take this philosophical idea of education being a co-construction so we can develop a greater understanding of the structures and experiences of stereotype threat. We will set out to challenge ideas of common-sense beliefs (Deleuze 1994; Singh 2017a) about stereotypes and how these can be used to create learning environments we all can inhabit with a sense of belonging (Strayhorn 2012).

Structure of and engagement strategies for the workshop:
The Walkshop: This work/walkshop is structured around the idea that it ‘...is a new kind of learning experience that’s equal parts urban walking tour, group discussion, and spontaneous exploration’ (Kim & Greenfield 2011). This will help bring to the fore ideas of nomadic pedagogy and how we can learn in liminal and informal spaces. We will be walking around the accessible areas of New College in small groups and possibly, if time, out into the streets of Oxford.    

The preamble: We will first assemble for short introductions and to give out instructions. We will give out one question per group for them to ponder, discuss, digest and contest whilst they walk.  (Possibly starting in a place like the Refectory - 5 mins) 

Sample questions:
‘Share a situation when you experienced stereotype threat (or witnessed this happen to someone else). How are positions of advantage and disadvantage embodied in these interactions?’

‘On our walk, identify objects, artefacts or spaces that could provoke stereotype threat. In what ways can we respond to these phenomena to consider belonging and co-construction of meaning?’

‘What can the concept of the nomad bring to our understanding of identity and stereotype threat? Can we find an object or space on our walk to help visualise our thinking?’

The amble: The group will then disassemble to walk about in groups - to question the questions and to come up with three sentences that they all have agreed on as a reaction to the question. (Around the Quads and any buildings we are allowed into - 15 mins) 

The postamble: We will then ask the groups to reassemble to gather the thoughts and verbally the three sentences from each group.  (Possibly somewhere like The Bell Tower - 10 minutes)

Reference list:
Cole, R. (2016) Unmaking the Work of Pedagogy Through Deleuze and Guattari. In Peters, M. (Ed) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Singapore. Springer.

Arts SU/ UAL Teaching, Learning and Employability Exchange (2018) Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine 1. https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk/zine1/ (accessed 08.12.2019) 

Arts SU/ UAL Teaching, Learning and Employability Exchange (2019) Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine 2. https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk/ (accessed 08.12.2019)

Changing Mindsets Consortium (2018) Changing Mindsets: Mid-Project Report, June 2018
https://ualcreativemindsets.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2018/08/Changing-Mindsets-Mid-project-report-1.pdf (accessed 07.12.2019) 

Deleuze, G. (1994) Difference and Repetition. New York. Columbia University Press.

Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1980) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
Minneapolis & London. Minneapolis University Press. https://bit.ly/2NRRcw8 (accessed 15.11.2019).

Dixson, A. & Rousseau, C. (2018) Where Are We? Critical Race Theory in Education 20 Years Later. Peabody Journal of Education, v93 n1 p121-131  

Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology Press. 

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House Incorporated

Hill, V. & Singh, G. (2017a) From Implicit Bias to Unconscious Non-Bias. https://bit.ly/2KmQ0z2 (accessed 15.11.2019) 

Hill, V. & Singh, G. (2017b) From Attainment Gap to Awarding Gap
https://youtu.be/FxUS55LhHcM (accessed 07.12.2019) 

Ingham, M. (2019) ‘Assembling Agency – Learning in Liminal Spaces’ in Campbell, L. (ed) Leap Into Action: Critical Performative Pedagogies in Art & Design Education. New York. Peter Lang. 

Kim, N. & Greenfield, A. (2011) Systems/Layers. Diffusion. https://bit.ly/2DoOJ6D (accessed 29.11.2019) 

Mountford-Zimdars, A., Sabri, D., Moore, J., Sanders, J., Jones, S., & Higham, L. (2015). Causes of differences in student outcomes, HEFCE

Osborne, J.W. (2007) Linking Stereotype Threat and Anxiety, Educational Psychology, 27:1, 135-154, DOI: 10.1080/01443410601069929 

Semetsky, I. (2008) Nomadic Education: Variations on a Theme by Deleuze and Guattari. Rotterdam. Sense Publishers. 

Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of personality and social psychology, 69(5), 797.

Strayhorn, T. (2012) College Students' Sense of Belonging: A Key to Educational Success for All Students, Routledge: New York. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203118924 (accessed 08.12.2019) 

Tally, R.T. (2010) Nomadography: The ‘Early’ Deleuze and the History of Philosophy. Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry, Winter 2010, Vol. 5, No. 11 15 https://bit.ly/2XW6weR (accessed 29.11.2019) 
 
Universities UK (UUK) and the National Union of Students (NUS) (2019) Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment at UK Universities, #CLOSINGTHEGAP
https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2019/bame-student-attainment-uk-universities-closing-the-gap.pdf (accessed 07.12.2019) 

Yosso, T. (2005) Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth, Race Ethnicity and Education, 8:1, 69-91, DOI: 10.1080/1361332052000341006