PhD Presentation at Mont Fleur, Stellenbosch by Veronica Mitchell, University of Cape Town

1. Understanding
a socially just
pedagogy
Veronica Mitchell
PhD candidate + Facilitator
UWC + UCT
Blog http://tinyurl.com/VeronicaPhDblog

2. A thorny issue

3. Socially just pedagogy
?
Social justice pedagogy

4. Feedback
from our guests
LGBTI workshop
October 2014
with Year 5
undergraduate medical
students @ UCT

5. Socially just pedagogy
“a call to ensure that all
youth have equitable opportunities to learn”
Social justice pedagogy
“provide opportunities
to question, challenge, and reconstruct knowledge”
Moje, E. 2007:4
Developing Socially Just Subject-Matter Instruction A Review of the Literature on Disciplinary Literacy Teaching Review of Research in Education. 31:1–44.

6. Social justice
is
“the ability to particpate
as equals
and full partners
in social interactions”
Bozalek, V & Carolissen, R. 2012:13
The potential of critical feminist citizenship frameworks for citizenship and social justice in higher education. Perspectives in Education. 30:4:9-18.

7. Social justice
“strongly contested”
“has become
both debated and diluted”
Chubbuck,S.& Zembylas, M. 2008:274
The emotional ambivalence of socially-just teaching
American Educational Research Journal. 45:274-318
Francis, B. & Mills, M. 2012:579
What would a socially just education system look like?, Journal of Education Policy, 27:5, 577-585

8. Sociological studies
whilst sociological work in education
had been extremely effective in
identifying social injustice in education,
and in analysing the ways
in which education systems
reproduce inequality,
it has been less good at
proposing alternative models”
Francis, B & Mills, M. 2012:587
“

9. Alternative approaches….
Human rights education
Inclusive education
Multicultural education
Citizenship education
Culturally responsive pedagogy
Transformative pedagogy
Civil discourse
Socially just outcomes
care, compassion, empathy

10. the time is ripe
for experimenting
with socially just pedagogies
towards
hope, possibilities and becomings”
Goodley, D. 2007:329
Towards socially just pedagogies: Deleuzoguattarian critical disability studies, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 11:3. 317-334.
“

11. to….
Difficult knowledge
Critical emotional practice: Michalinos Zembylas
Difficult dialogues: Libby Roderick & UFS
Talking taboos: Kelly Moult, UCT
?

12. opening up
to consider pedagogy in its
broadest social sense… to
embrace uncertainty”
Goodley, D. 2007:318
“

13. opening up
pedagogies as ‘becoming’
rather than ‘being’
- opening up resistant spaces
- and potential territories of social justice
- - all of them uncertain”
Goodley, D. 2007:317
“

14. Socially just / Social justice
Education
Moving away from
the reproduction of inequality
Collaborations are
critical & essential for transformation
Teaching
Creative, expansive, uncertain, ambivalent
Pedagogy
“A place of hope” Goodley, D. 2007:327

15. Trees Rhizomes Weeds
Goodley, D. 2007:307

16. Hierarchy
Linearity
Stratification
to be …

17. Spaces of
resistance

18. Beyond binaries

19. “pedagogical sites that are not places of
recitation and stratification,
but safe spaces
to grapple with ideas and experiences,
where the focus
is moved
from the individual subject
to networks of interdependency”
Slater, J. 2012:
Self-advocacy and socially just pedagogy. Disability Studies Quarterly. 32 :1-17.

20. A map or cartography
of inderdependence / interconnections
Baidotti, R. 2005:7
“the margins are the motor of the
active processes of becoming”
A critical cartography of feminist post-postmodernism. Australian Feminist Studies. 20:47-62.

21. A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Trans. B. Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press
striated spaces
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. 1987.
the pedagogical space “as we plan and organize activities”
Lenz Taguchi, H. 2010:77
Going beyond the theory/practice divide in early childhood education: Introducing an intra-active pedagogy. London/New York: Routledge.

22. open smooth spaces
less structuring
for students to create maps as they perform and create
new knowledge

23. dynamic flow
Open interpretation for the teachers and learners
Spaces are dependent & can be intertwined
Deleuze, G & Guattari, F. 1987
A thousand Plateaus; capitalism and schizophrenia. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press.

24. To fuse
Moje, E. 2007:1
the intellectual with the moral
“teaching with and for social justice”
subject-matter pedagogy

25. What is
a socially just pedagogy
?

26. Socially just teaching
a teacher’s effort to transform policies
and enact pedagogies
that improve the learning and life opportunities
of typically underserved students
while equipping and empowering them
to work for a more socially just society themselves”
Chubbuck, S. & Zembylas, M. 2008:274
“
Equity

27. Equitable opportunities
Privilege vs Disadvantage
Access
Subject matter

28. Socially just pedagogy
possibilities for transformation”
for learners & context
Questioning
Constructing knowledge
“
Moje, E. 2007:4

29. Subject Subject
Subject Object
Socio-material relationships

30. Pedagogical Spaces

31. Physical space
Space-users
“spaces exert an influence on how people
interact and relate within them,
including how spaces configure positions in
the pedagogical and social hierarchy”
Moje 2007: 200

32. from
inter-personal
between people
to
intra-actions
between different
organizms, artefacts and matter
Lenz Taguchi, H.. 2010. Going Beyond the theory practice divide in early childhood education. New York. Routledge.

33. Limitations
& challenges

34. “the emotional intensity
of engaging in
socially just teaching
is not entirely safe
but is
full of ambivalence”
Chubbuck, S. & Zembylas, M. 2008:310

35. Extreme stratification
Lineality
Deficit thinking
Hierarchies

36. Problematizing
my context & research

37. PhD research
Teaching towards socially responsive
healthcare practitioners:
A design-based research project
@ UCT under supervision of
Dr Michael Rowe and Prof Vivienne Bozalek
University of the Western Cape
Veronica Mitchell
B Sc Physio , M Phil (HES)

38. UCT
&
Birthing facilities
in the
Western Cape

39. What about relational harm?
“seldom openly
acknowledged or
discussed in
medical ethics”
Martinsen, E. 2014:122
Caring in Medicine: From a gentleman’s care to ‘a more sophisticated sense of human interdependence’ in G. Olthuis, H. Kohlen & J. Heier, J.(eds.)
Moral boundaries redrawn:The significance of Joan Tronto's argument for political theory, professional ethics and care as a practice. Leuven: Peeters.

40. education through the lens of social
justice ought to confront
the real-life issues of societal injustice
rather than be designed
to provide
“medical students with uncontroversial
and politically neutral clinical skills”
Coria, A., Mc Kelvey, G., Charlton, P., Woodworth, M., & Lahey, T. 2013.
The design of medical school social justice curriculum. Academic Medicine, 88:10.

41. Video clip: http://youtu.be/kwBDT1JElWY
Hierarchy & Vulnerability
Prof Lynette Denny
HOD Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Cape Town

42. Othering / Misrecognition
devaluing of another
Val Plumwood: Dualisms
Plumwood, V. 1993. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London/New York: Routledge

43. marginalized are illegitimated by being
regarded as ‘them’ (objects) rather than
‘us’ (subjects)”
Bozalek, V. 2014:59
Dualisms
1. Inferiorization – medical hierarchy
2. Interiorization – uncritical acceptance
3. Othering – “the way in which
'Privileged irresponsibility', in G. Olthuis, H. Kohlen & J. Heier, J.(eds.) Moral boundaries redrawn:
The significance of Joan Tronto's argument for political theory, professional ethics and care as a practice. Leuven: Peeters

44. Aim
To construct meaning about student learning
from the discursive practices in Obstetrics
exploring the interdependencies
inter-relations, inter-connections and interferences
& waves of diffraction”
blurred entanglements beyond the binaries of
theory/practice & discourse/material
Lenz Taguchi, H. 2010. Going Beyond the Theory/Practice Divide in Early Childhood
Education: Introducing an Intra-active Pedagogy. London: Routledge

45. Curriculum played out in birthing facilities
students / midwives / women in labour
Val Plumwood / Joan Tronto
1. Backgrounding / Privileged irresponsibility
Making use of the other - ignoring their value
UCT curriculum depending on midwives in birthing faciities
Plumwood, V. 1993

46. Obstetrics practical rotation
15 deliveries = competence
Year 4
students
Curriculum

47. Protection
- hierarchy Production
- Economic
reasoning
Othering
&
Silence
Private
concern
Privileged irresponsibility
Tronto’s
Passes
“to ignore the needs of those
who are doing the hands-on
care-giving work for them”
Bozalek, V. 2014 'Privileged irresponsibility', in G. Olthuis, H. Kohlen & J. Heier, J.(eds.) Moral boundaries redrawn: The significance of Joan Tronto's argument for
political theory, professional ethics and care as a practice. Leuven: Peeters.

48. To construct meaning from the
discursive practices in Obstetrics
Privilege
“the privileged practices
are regarded by all
as being self-evident and ‘normal’ and
therefore exempt from scrutiny”.
Bozalek, V. (in press)
Privilege and responsibility in the South African context. Renewing care: Critical international perspectives on the ethics of care.
In Barnes, M., Barnes, T.Ward, L. & Ward, N. (Eds). Bristol. Policy Press.

49. 2. Radical exclusion / Hyperseparation
not engaging with commonalities
Inferiority / not identifying any relationship with the other
“
We can sometimes be blinded or
even desensitized to these situations when we follow
our seniors
Students perceived as ‘spies’
Plumwood, V. 1993

50. Val Plumwood
4. Incorporation
Lack of the other, recognized in terms of the master’s needs
I was told to suck-up to the mid-wife’s
so as to make life easier for myself
Plumwood, V. 1993

51. 5. Instrumentalism
T
he other is objectified as a resource / instrument
This wasn’t as easy an experience as I thought it
would be. We are witnesses to all this scenarios &
situations but are often at the mercy of our superiors &
often left with no option but to remain silent.
That’s frustrating.
Plumwood, V. 1993

52. 6. Homogenisation
Stereotyping and grouping of the other without acknowledging
individual qualities of the other
Abuse is very prevalent in the health care system
(especially in obstetrics) students are disempowered.
Nurses victimize students while they can. The cycle
perpetuates because doctors are victimizing nurses.
Hence the vicious cycle
Plumwood, V. 1993

53. What transformative
curriculum practices can be
developed to promote
socially just pedagogies in
medical education?
Research Question

54. How is abuse, neglect and disrespect in the
Obstetrics units influencing undergraduate medical
students’ learning?
What are students’ emotional responses during their
first Obstetrics rotation?
What are the educators and health team members’
perceptions about students’ learning experiences in
their clinical exposure to Obstetrics?
What social, political and cultural factors in the
contexts of the Health Sciences Faculty and health
care facilities enable and constrain students’
emotional responses?
?
Sub-Questions

56. Patient-centred maternity care code

57. Students’ EMOTIONS
Year 4
students
Vivian, L., Naidu, C., Keikelame, J., & Irlam, J. (2011). Medical Students’ Experiences of Professional Lapses and Patient Rights
Abuses in a South African Health Sciences Faculty. Academic Medicine, 86(10), 1282-1287.

58. To examining a problem in the maternal health care services
To seek a solution
To theorize educational principles to offer
a pragmatic approach that foregrounds the affective turn
involves the power to act and to be affected by experiences
To advance social justice.
Objectives

59. The Solution
What teaching intervention/s
can assist students
to enhance their affective capabilities
towards collaboratively engaging
in promoting
social justice in maternal units?

60. The Product
What pedagogical
artefact, principles and theory
can promote socially just pedagogies
in medical education?

62. Using Google forms & WhatsApp

63. Challenges anticipated
1. Sensitivity of the research topic – opening up
wounds
1. Accountability and governance tensions
between university & government structures
1. Defensive hierarchical structures
1. Private concerns rather than public
1. Limited engagement time with students
1. Multiple stakeholders in a fragmented &
struggling health system

64. Thank you